Thien An Sandwiches — Restaurant in Houston

Check the prices carefully during checkout! First let's get the regular stuff out of the way. The food is decent, not great and not terrible. Like many Vietnamese places in Houston that have a large variety, they are good for some things and not good for others. The bun cha hanoi is disappointing. The meat is decent but where they fall short is that true bun cha has the meat served in a bath of special sauce that is not the same as the normal fish sauce, while here the meat is placed with the bun with no sauce while they give you the regular fish sauce you eat with other plates like banh cuon. Aside from the food, it's the other things that bring this place down. The service is lacking for sure. i have been here twice and the service was bad both times. Both times, we did not get the necessary sauce or condiments that comes with the dish. We had to wait and wait to tell them while the food is getting cold. But by far the most alarming thing happens at checkout which you do when you go up tot he counter (typical of many Vietnamese places). I had asked them to charge me 3 of the sesame balls at the counter (they were about $1 each). Instead they charged me 3 of the plates I had ordered while sitting down while I only ordered 1 of them. I waited to see if they noticed the error but they didn't. I told them I only ordered 1 of them so they quickly changed it to the correct price. Then i saw on the screen instead of charging me 3 sesame balls, they charged me 3 smoothies (about $5 each instead of $1 each). I told them this and they did change this to the correct price. If I didn't look and tell them this I would have been mischarged by quite a lot. I am hoping this was an honest mistake (hence 3 stars instead fo 1 star), but I am not so sure. They neither asked me if I wanted a receipt nor printed 1 for me. There was no option on the screen to to print one out or email it either. This is the first place in Houston that neither gave me a receipt nor asked me if I wanted a receipt. Come to think of it, this happened the first time I was there as well and makes me wonder if i was cheated on that occasion as well. With no receipt, your only chance of catching them is looking at the screen carefully. ...

Was craving Viet while passing thru midtown today and decided on a spot Saigon House that my buddy has been raving about and I have yet to try. Pulled up only to find out they were closed on Mondays :( . Decided instead of one of my usual’s, I would try something in the area new to me and searched/decided by highest rating/distance.

0.2 miles away, 4.3 stars on google you would think it’s a good bet ! ?

Walked in at 2pm and about 5 out of the 15-20 tables are filled. Stood at the little kiosk that stated “wait here” for 5 mins while servers walked back and forth in front of me and didn’t even acknowledge my presence. Thought about leaving, but didn’t feel like searching another spot so I walked up to counter to wait another 5 mins before order was taken.

Order received in about 5 mins, not a bad wait time after order taken! Walked out and at my vehicle I noticed I did not get the sriracha I requested. Returned for some…back to the vehicle and sampled my Viet Coffee before leaving the parking lot and it was off to a great start!

While driving, took a bite of the shrimp spring rolls and another plus for the new spot….fresh, flavorful and thinking I made a great choice! I finished spring rolls before returning to office.

But when I got to the fried eggrolls, this is where everything when downhill. The filling was the consistency of potted meat but with absolutely no flavor . Fish sauce helped a bit but was only was able to stomach two of the four.

Got to the office and busted out the Bahn Mi and immediately thought of Wendy’s old slogan “Where’s the Beef”, only in this case pork. I counted the pieces and literally like 12 small pieces of semi-dry unseasoned grilled pork,  Scraped all the pork to 1/3 of the bread and only ate that portion. Remember the sriracha they forgot…thankfully I went back cause that was the only thing that helped, not saved, but helped with eating this sandwich!

One star for Café Sua Da. One Star for Shrimp Spring Rolls.

I should have left when no one asked if I was dinning in or needed an order to go and visited one of my regular spots Les Givrals or...

I really enjoyed this place a lot. With some of the usual spots now closed down in the area, and others changing ownership which results in different quality and service, this was a nice hidden gem. I read through some of the other reviews citing the bad service, but we had anything but bad service at our table, and we were a party of 7. I remember when this place was a small food kiosk in one of the old shopping centers where old Chinatown was in downtown, they had some of the best banh mi sandwiches in the area. I'm glad someone pointed their new location out to me and they've definitely expanded beyond the sandwiches. I ordered the grilled chicken banh mi with an order of the tofu spring rolls, and my friends ordered the Banh Mi Bo Luc Lac & Hot Ga Dia (Beef Tips w/Egg) dish. The sandwiches were as good as they always were and the spring rolls were good and fresh. I do wish the peanut sauce for the spring rolls were of a thicker consistency, and this one was slightly runny, but still good. The beef tips were very tender and flavorful, and I think I'll have to order that for myself next time. You can order it with the bread or with the rice. The other thing i'm looking forward to ordering is the Banh Xeo which is a type of Vietnamese Crepe with pork, shrimp, onions, and been sprouts. We saw a couple order it and it was HUGE! Definitely a sharing dish.

The restaurant itself is VERY spacious and there is a HUGE parking lot (which is pretty rare in this area). There's no need to worry about not having anywhere to park and sit during lunch time. During our visit, the staff was very friendly and kept comping back to check on drink refills. It's one of those sit down and order places then you go up to the counter to pay. They didn't even blink an eye when we asked to split our checks, they were totally cool with it.

I've already got a few things in mind to order for next time, so I'm definitely...