Huong Tra Restaurant — Restaurant in Richmond

I had high hopes for this place, especially since they made their prices super reasonable. But, it was all pretty bland unfortunately.

I got the spring rolls with peanut sauce. Bland, & the only think I could reccomend to them to make it not so bland, maybe a bit more salt/msg in the peanut sauce, maybe toast the peanuts? Idk I'm not a Vietnamese chef, but flavor is Def lacking.. which is sad because these were priced at $6 for 2 pieces cut in half so, 4 halves. They made up for the fact it's cheap by making them rather small in size. But I won't complain about the size, if I want more I'd order more @ $6/order.

Next was the fried spring rolls that came with a sweet chili sauce. The spring rolls also $6, and also rather tiny in size but, $6 is cheap for an order of spring rolls so again, I see why they'd did this, I have no issues with it. The spring rolls theirselves, also kind of bland, but not as bland as the fresh spring rolls with peanut sauce. The sweet chili sauce is super run of the mill prob right out a bottle, I wish they used that sweet vinegar sauce most Vietnamese restaurants give with their fried spring rolls.

Lastly I got the chow fun, $13, and more than ample portion. But again, lacking in flavor... it looked like there's ton of sauce and color, I'm not sure why it lacks so much flavor.... as in, all I really tasted was the vegetables.

The staff was nice, there's plenty of seating in the restaurant. But I don't think I'd come back here for the food, unfortunately.

The 4 star rating is because if you wanted just to be filled for a reasonable price and you don't care about big flavor, this would be a just fine place for that. Ie; most born and raised Americans would think this place was top tier because they are terrified of real authentic big...

Don't like to be negative but the only positive info I can give after my visit was it's inexpensive...the taro smoothie we ordered only came at the end of our meal after I got up and had to walk to the register to find my waiter talking story with another employee...we also had to ask twice for a pot of tea...this is budget food with budget service.. when my wife went to pay our check I stayed at our table and asked for a container for our remaining food.. a new waitress threw the container on a table near the register where my wife was while our food and I were at the other end of the restaurant.. I guess my wife was supposed to wait on us? The food is still the most important aspect of any restaurant visit..Incompetent, rude or non-existent service can still be forgiven by great food. I had the combination pha.. it combined the worst aspects of poorly made broth salty and weak ...other than salt not much to taste. I could find only two small pieces of tendons even though I asked to substitute more tendon for the meatballs I didn't want .. I was charged for the substitution but didn't get extra tendon.. yes I'd only go back if it was late and I couldn't make it somewhere else and I was desparate to eat at the end of a long work day. Well maybe I wouldn't go there even then...sorry I...

The San Francisco Bay Area is loaded with low-priced neighborhood restaurants for the various far eastern cuisines. They vary in details and quality, but one can usually order any of the regular classic dishes and anticipate pretty well the dish that will be served.

But Huong Tra is special! It isn't fancy, has no particular signature dishes -- just the regular Vietnamese fare -- and as other reviewers have noted, quality of service can be unreliable. (They're always busy.) And every dish I've tried has been true to what I ordered and what I expected.

But every dish at Huong Tra has been the best example of that dish. Everything one orders is just a little bit better example of that dish than one would expect, and sometime a lot better example. Every dish is exciting and more flavorful than one expects. And it isn't just added pepper -- every dish tastes like it should, just a little bit better than it should. One can always get a fine culinary experience at a high-end area restaurants like Chez Panisse or Oliveto -- and these establishments have their place -- but a low price restaurant with reliably exciting food is a treasure. An...