Kali Noodles & Tea Bar — Restaurant in San Jose

If you’re like me and you enjoy your soup on the side of your noodles, you’ll like this establishment. I was rather dishearten when a similar restaurant, Saigon Vien Dong, closed down; how was I to fill the dry noodle size whole in my stomach? Luckily I came across this place today and couldn’t be more excited. The menu is relatively straightforward, while the menu looks expansive, it’s merely an expansion of the noodle option with the same soup base. They have a few other options but I recommend the Hu Tieu Nam Vang. They offer 6 different types of noodles comprising of rice, egg, and starch/tapioca variety. I tried the wide egg noodle and wide rice noodle, the latter is my preference, though I implore you to try them all. The bowl comes with 1 shrimp, a heaping portion of thinly slice pork, liver if you so choose (it’s common with this dish) and 3 quail eggs (yums) amongst a bed of greens. There’s a side plate of bean sprouts as well. Of course, this type of dish isn’t complete without a side of hearty broth so that you can enjoy your noodles both dry and as noodle soup. We also opted for the Asian doughnut to dip in the broth. There’s a 10% senior citizen, emergency responders, or student discount to top it off. Did I also mention that they also have...

Came here for a weekend lunch with my family. There was a good amount of people from all backgrounds in the store. I know this is a popular lunch spot for nearby city workers.

The menu is easy to read. I appreciated all the photos. I got my go-to order for hu tieu, which is hu tieu dai nam vang kho (clear noodles with soup on the side). I liked that the server asked you for which meats you'd like and don't like as it cuts down on food waste. I opted out of liver.

There was a lot of everything in the dish. There was always a bite of meat or seafood to go along with the noodles. The flavors were great and the texture of the noodles was on point. The toppings were balanced with the noodles, so I think you get the bang for your buck. I'm not sure how the other foods fare but I don't think you can miss with any hu tieu option here.

The service was excellent. I think I saw the owners eating lunch themselves by the cashier when I went looking for a to-go box. They were very helpful.

My only gripe was the pricing. The drinks were all like $7. Orange juice cost the same as ca phe sua da, which doesn't make sense to me. We got an avocado smoothie that tasted like avocado powder and milk, not real avocado.

Overall I think this place is here to stay in...

This place gave me an awful experience of their customer service, and yesterday will be the last time we came there. We ordered 3 bowls of “Hu Tieu Go” which were served without vegetable. So, we ordered a vegetable plate, and agreed with the server that we would pay for it. Then, I heard the woman in the front yelling at the server for giving us “free” vegetable. Not only that, they called him into the kitchen and continued bitching about the tiny vegetable plate containing some bean sprouts and a small Chinese celery stalk which costs only $2 or $3. This rude behavior shows that they don’t care about politeness or keeping their customers. I felt bad for the boy who served us food and intended to raise my voice about that if they had not stopped. The woman sitting in the front looked very upset the whole time we were there as if we had cheated them for ordering the vegetable. By the way, we also ordered other foods and drinks and paid about...