Phở Thiên Ân — Restaurant in San Antonio

Do your stomach and mood a favor and go here! Vietnamese is probably one of my family's top favorite cuisines, right behind Mexican. We live in Ft. Worth but found ourselves in San Antonio on one particular week. After sampling the abundant Mexican street fare, we decided to pop open Google maps and find a Vietnamese restaurant close by. I mean, one cannot live without crispy pork and lemongrass beef, right?

We read the reviews and decided to try it out....MAN OH MAN!! The reviews did not do it justice. I got the combination rice plate (subbing extra grilled pork instead of the pork skin). It came super hot with my meat sizzling and a beautiful oozy gooey easy over egg right smack on top dripping its molten center all over. I dove straight in drizzling their wonderfully pungent fish sauce all over it and just stuffing it in my mouth...sorry kids you can wait a minute before I plate you!! And then oh what a nice surprise, a nice crisp and cold salad adorning the side of my plate full of lettuce,onion, beautiful cucumber and tomato slices and little gems of golden ripe pineapple chunks.

After eating, my family of 7 went from bickering hyenas in the car to blissful bright eyed angels (maybe if only for 1/2 of the car ride home but still)

If we lived in San Antonio, this would definitely be our pho place, sorry...

My family and I wanted to get Vietnamese food, but we decided to try a different spot instead of our usual Pho Kim Long. The restaurant itself is very “hole in the wall”. There was giant fan instead of AC, and the menus were a bit… “well-read”. The lids of the condiments were also rather crusty. However, if I know anything, it’s that many unsuspecting or even dubious places have immaculate food. Pho Thien A wasn’t exactly immaculate, but it was definitely tasty. My mother and sister’s phos were both decent with plenty of meat. I’d actually say they put more meat in their pho than most other establishments. I had the bun Bo hue. The broth was a bit lacking in flavor, but the meatballs and “ham” were absolutely tasty. My brother git the grilled short ribs. He said they were very delicious, but the amount of food was disappointing. The fresh spring rolls were quite good and had plenty of filling.

The only actually BAD thing was that the Coke Zero cans we received were expired by 3 months… we didn’t notice until after drinking them, and they tasted okay, but that should really be checked by staff more often.

Overall, not a bad spot for decent Vietnamese grub.. maybe just check the dates on your beverage...

Been to quite a few Vietnamese restaurants here in town, and other cities/states (to include CO, CA, AZ, and others), so here's my .02 from my travels:

For foid - By far, their pho is one of the best I've had (out of 2 that are BEST, and both here in SA!), the broth is very meaty and has depth of flavor. And their banh mi is the same, one of 2 that are the best I've had (again, both are here!)! The pho is a little on the pricey side ($14 for a lg) but the bowl is enough for 2-3 peoplw and a lot of meat/noodles in it. The banh mi also is a little pricey ($9), but is almost as big as 2 and has quite a bit of meat and veggies, bonus points as well because I'm not a fan of most pickling but it was quite pleasant, and they make a really good sauce to pour on it. Their Vietnamese fried egg rolls are pretty big and are packed.

Service - assuming that it's family owned and don't have much help, the lady who waited out table was awesome. Very nice, and on top of everything, especially having everyone's table.

Overall, this place is in 1st place with pho, and is almost tied for 1st place for their banh mi.. the other wins on taste vs price point, but this is tied for taste vs...