Lemon Pepper — Restaurant in Oakland

TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE

$21.85 for a small soup not a stir fry.

Came here because my wife's coworkers told her about one of their specials that can only be ordered in the weekend. Unfortunately they ran out by the time we got there. Since we were there and seated already my wife decided to just order something to go. We decided to go with the Goat Stir Fry (Dê Xào Lăn). We got our order, paid $21.85, and left. When we got to the car my wife looked inside the bag and was shocked. She pulls out and showed me the so called "stir fry". It was mostly soup! $21.85 for soup? They must have given us the wrong order, right? So my wife goes back inside hoping to see if they might have made a mistake in order. She comes back clearly upset. She explained to me that the man told her "that's how it's supposed to be". She was unhappy and was being nice and was just okay that we have something to eat. So we drove away but came back because I was unhappy with everything. I went in myself and brought everything back. I told him that I didn't want it and that it wasn't what we expected. He explained to me that it's supposed to be like that. That people are supposed to dip their bread in the soup with their meal(they did not give any bread) or have it with vermicelli noodles. The noodles were in the soup already and from my experience with every vietnamese food was that the noodles stay dry until eaten. Noodles are not to be stuffed at the bottom of the soup to get soggy. He further tried to explain that if we put it on a plate that all the meat would be on top like the picture(dry stir fry) and all the soup would be under. I showed him the cup FULL of soup and asked him where the meat was. He took the cup back gingerly and told me everything is okay now and would give me back what we paid for. I'm pretty sure he understood that the cup was lacking meat and that the kitchen put more soup as a guise. $21.85 for soup, soggy noodles, no bread, and all that for a poor excuse to call something a "stir fry".

My only regret other than wasting our time is that we forgot to take a picture of the disgusting looking soup they tried to pass off...

First time here based on recommendation from a friend.

Hu Tieu Kho was delicious! Reminds me of the savory dry wonton noodles except that there’s no wonton but there are quail eggs, fried pork skin, slices of pork, shrimp and pork giblets. Together with the beef soup, it hit the spot on a cold day.

Cha Gio was crispy, and the filling was tasty. Some places have fried spring rolls that are on the mushy end and that tends to be very oily. But not here.

Com Tam (broken rice) plate was yummy. The pork chop was tender and flavorful. The steam pork egg was excellent - many places serve this too but they tend to be dry. But it was juicy, tender and full of flavor here.

Only thing that we didn’t like here was their slice steak pho. It may be personal preference as the soup had a strong taste of a spice or herb that we are not used to and so it threw us off from the usual pho.

Will be back for more Hu Tieu Kho, Cha Gio and Com Tam.

Parking is tight and it’s the party Oakland where you have...

Update: We recently came back again and it's still just as amazing as before. After trying a few more pho spots in the Bay Area the past 3 years, I can confidently say that the broth and quality of the meats is some of the best around! The staff is as friendly as always and the restaurant has great vibes all around. If we lived closer, I would come here all the time!

So glad we found this place. The staff was extremely friendly and made sure we had everything we needed. The pho itself was one of my favorites. The broth was packed with incredible flavor and they were very generous with their portions. I've come here a few times now and each time was just as good as the last! I highly recommend checking this spot out if you're in the...