Aota House — Restaurant in San Jose

Today was a very sad day. An old friend of ours had passed away leaving his only brother of three siblings left amongst them. After the funeral a friend and I decided to get lunch. Both to continue hanging out after the funeral had ended, and also because his birthday was this past week and I wanted celebrate with him. He chose this place which was about 4 and 1/2 mi from the funeral home. It is a Vietnamese restaurant that he insisted was a great spot. When we got inside and got our menus, he was gushing over the various options the restaurant offered. And admittedly it was quite diverse and looked really good. Dishes that were what I would consider on the higher end of Vietnamese restaurants relative to your typical noodle house. I ordered the seafood Hu Tieu with the clear noodles and he ordered the version that was dry. That means that mine came in a soup broth, where his came with the broth on the side with a large ted bone in it. One of the things I'll note outright was that their soups were priced lower than pretty much anywhere else. I've gone to eat soup. Bulls were between 14 and $15 were typically I see Vietnamese noodle soups going for 17 to $18 on average. When the food came out I was further impressed by the amount of ingredients they included in the soup. For instance, if there's ever shrimp in a noodle soup, you typically get one to two. This bowl of soup had three. It also had two and a half meatballs, four pieces of squid, and was typically generous all around, including the amount of noodles that was in the bowl. The broth was yummy, and the portion was significant. We also had some Heineken in a bottle, because when you eat out of Vietnamese restaurant, the Vietnamese beer choice has to be Heineken. The venue wasn't very crowded, and the decor was relatively modern. Service was nothing to write home about, but it was prompt and good. Based on how good the soup I had was, I definitely would come back and try other menu items. I'm told that the Bo Luc Lac here is quite good, and given how reasonable their prices are, I want to give it a try at some point. I recommend this place based on the one item I ordered. Maybe order exactly what I had and see if my taste matches yours, or try something else on their menu and let me know what I...

Had a great time here with a few of my friends. We had the quail, clam (both Thai and basil), soy sauce fried chicken, hot pot, hu tieu kho, tea drinks, and clay pot catfish... Everything was perfectly prepared and brought out in the order that we requested. Flavor was on point and sauces/soups were sufficient for our group of 8.

Parking, seating, and restrooms were easy access with little to no effort or excessive waits. Note that the restaurant is right next to a Kumon learning center.

The only potential hesitation or gripe I can think of --especially for my non-Vietnamese brethren -- is that English is not the staff's first language, at least from my own experiences and observations. This was not an issue for me. Their menus have photos, dish names are translated to English, and each line item is coded by letter+number, which is easily understood by your server. If you try to order something custom or off-menu and the staff appears confused, you're on your own.

Overall, it was a fantastic experience and I'd do it again.

I'll be...

I was sad that the previous restaurant at this location went away, but Aota House may be the best Vietnamese restaurant in the area.

Started with fried fish balls which were just ok but really good with the sauce that comes with it. But they’re appetizers so all they do is make you hungrier!

Pork chop rice plate comes with a fried egg. Very tasty dish. Some joins of sweet sauce so you need to enjoy sweet meats.

Shaken beef is delicious! Tender, but doesn’t seem tenderized. And tasty. Again some slight sweetness.

And the pho with white rice noodles was pretty standard, perhaps the noodles a bit on the too soft side.

Pretty big menu selection so you’ll find lots of things to enjoy.

The waitress service was a little rough because she didn’t speak English, but other than being a little slower, it’s all good.

August 2025 update: The $13 pho deal still the best I've seen lately. And I tried their chicken wings this time, too, which were...