Hue Kitchen — Restaurant in Santa Ana

New owner for about 1 year made major improvements for food and services in this small place with about 12 tables. It's nice, clean, bright, pleasant, smelling neutral.

We got in about noon a Sunday. Most tables were already taken. Half hour later about 10 people were waiting outside for seats. So they did something right and the place is popular.

We ordered a Bun Bo Hue Special with extra rare beef $14.95 and a Banh Canh Tom Cua central taste, $14.95, 2 hot teas $1 each.

BBH's broth is a rich, tasty bone stock, nice, clear with the tastiness of fermented shrimp paste without the odor, not too sugar sweet and not overspiced. There was barely a hint of lemon grass. a tub of satay is at the table to customize spiciness to taste. So far this is the most balanced and best BBH's broth I found in So Cal and No Cal.

There was generous meats, extra rare beef, shank, a few small bites of tendon, 2 cubes of blood curl, a large slice of pork butt, a chunk of pork ball and a chunk of short rib. No pork trotter was served, which is my preference. The meats were cooked to my preferred chewiness. I would skip the rare beef and short rib in next orders. I finished the soup and wish the bowl was bigger.

This is by far the closest to the best home-made BBH I had in central Vietnam. In comparison, for the same price, Ngu Binh serves a larger bowl by about 50% with more protein and tastier broth, but the broth is greasy and way over spiced.

Banh Canh Tom Cua has clear crab broth, fresh and tasty but a little too sweet for my taste.

The wait staff is courteous and efficient. They gave us a small cup of soy bean dessert, tasted good.

I wish the owner would add an option for a supersized bowl 50% larger. This place would be my second choice for BBH...

Located off Euclid Street near the corner of Fifth Street in Santa Ana, Hue Kitchen is a cozy Central Vietnamese eatery specializing in beef noodle soup (bun bo hue). We didn't try this delicacy because we wanted to sample their other menu options including appetizers, rice dishes and beverages. Although the staff appeared to speak limited English, they were friendly and more than capable of providing an enjoyable dining experience.

I tried one of the Hue Style Steamed Rice Cakes with Shrimp (Banh Beo Khay Hue) that my family ordered and it was quite the medley of ingredients atop a rice cake. I recommend topping with the included fish sauce and chili sauce for extra flavor. I personally ordered the Rotisserie Chicken Rice w/ House Special Sauce (Com Ga Roti Dac Biet), and I appreciate how crispy the chicken skin was and how fragrant the rice was. They also include cucumbers and pickled cabbage for a more balanced meal. I washed everything down with a refreshing strawberry sugarcane juice. They also include complimentary coconut pudding for...

Average.

My family is extremely familiar with all of the dishes on the menu and each ordered something different. However, nothing seemed to impress us. The broth for everything was pretty basic and the portions were also kind of small.

Bánh Bèo Khay Huế: 6/10 - barely any batter so cakes were super thin Mì Quảng: 8/10 - noodles were more like bún than mì but broth was good Bún Bò Huế + Xương Bò: 7/10 - broth wasn’t rich Bánh Canh Tôm Cua: 7/10 - couldn't taste the crab nor broth

The place itself was small, but somehow fits a decent amount of tables. Everything came out one-by-one at a reasonable time. The workers were really nice and gave us each tofu dessert. Their drinks are also large which we really appreciated.

Stop by and try them...