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Simply delicious Vietnamese food that just happens to be vegetarian.
It is a small restaurant with very simple decor, run by a married Vietnamese couple. It's in a run-down strip mall across the street from a temple. It's a hole-in-the-wall find but not grungy or dirty by any means - It's truly a hidden gem.
Now I do confess to being a meat-eater...it would be really difficult for me to give that up BUT Thuyen Vien makes me crave vegetarian food. Most of their food is vegan but some are simply vegetarian. They have traditional Vietnamese food but also have unique & creative dishes too.
In terms of food texture, you can tell it's not meat. It's usually a bit spongier and lacks the exact taste but you really can't blame that on the restaurant - that's just how meat substitutes are. It's the flavor of the food that makes it great...the sauces, marinades and seasonings taste just like their meat counterparts. It also feels like I'm eating great tasting food w/o all the stomach woes meat can bring.
My family has eaten the hot pot fish ("ca" kho to), sour vegetable soup (canh chua), garlic chicken and stir fried chow mein noodles (mi xau). Everything was really good...even my brother who is really picky about food and doesn't really like anything veggie thought it tasted good.
I definitely love this place...the owners are incredibly nice and helpful with the menu - you can tell who the regulars are because they will sit and talk with you. I'm very happy with the food here & am returning this weekend to eat again! =)
I recommend Thuyen Vien to all my friends; whether they live in LA or Orange County, if they're vegan or meat-lovers.
My boyfriend and I have made Thuyen Vien our go-to restaurant; it's hassle-free (there are always tables available) and the quality and taste is always consistent.
This is vietnamese vegan food at its best (if one opened in LA there would surely be a line out the door). Thuyen Vien is a hidden gem and I'm thankful my boyfriend brought me here a year ago or I would've never known about it. It's worth the hunt!
Recommended dishes (coming from someone who's tried almost everything on the menu and who orders enough food to feed a family of five):
Banana Flower Taco to start
Fish Clay Pot w/ brown rice
Garlic "Chicken" (not on menu)
Grilled Fish spring roll (you wrap the rolls yourself, my favorite)
Vegan Tamales (only served during lunchtime)
Soy Avocado shake
"Cheese"cake
I recommend asking Si, the owner, if he's added any new items to the menu. The new dishes always end up being some kind of tasty, quirky dish. I don't remember the name of the dish but it was an amalgamation of rice, broth, tons of raw vegetables, banana flower, and 10 other ingredients. It's DELICOUS!
I love how much time and thought Si and his wife put into every dish. Thuyen Vien is such a treat.
What a great restaurant to dine at. It lies in a quiet deserted plaza where the pavement desperately requires some attention. I bet the rent is cheap and it helps costs down because Thuyen Vien isn't the cheapest place to eat but the prices are very reasonable.
It's a true mom and pop's place where they treat you like family. The service is excellent and the menu has many great vegetarian dishes that will fool your taste buds. The owners seem to take pride and care very much about the the ingredients they put in.
I would recommend the fish clay pot. It's nicely presented and tastes very similar to real oyster sauce marinated fish. The Vietnamese Sour soup is good too if you are in the mood hot/warm liquids to combat the cold weather.
Great Vegetarian Vietnamese food. I highly recommend the Pumpkin Curry, Vegan Sushi or the Garlic Chicken.
During the winter, their Pho is outstanding. The Pumpkin Curry is to DIE FOR.
Si, the owner, will make great recommendations if it's first time there!
This was a good experience. In fact, I am struggling to think of an aspect in which the experience was anything less than spectacular. The food was good. The staff was extremely courteous and friendly... and i didn't go broke paying for it. I would highly recommend it.
Not Vegan!!!
I went here yesterday for lunch. When I asked the owner if all the food was vegan he said that it was 95% vegan and 5% not vegan. When I went to use the bathroom which was located in the back of the kitchen, I quickly glanced around and saw that there were containers with mono-diglicerides, milk (casein) as well as honey powder. I didn't know what to make of all this because he had said that 5% of their food items were not vegan.
I came here because II wanted to try out there food and possibly see if I wanted to use the restaurant to cater a party. I sat down and ordered some dishes. The "shrimp and and pork" dish was absolutely disgusting,the fake shrimp and pork tasted like rubber. I had never tasted fake meat like this and just by the looks and feel of it, me and my fiance began to become VERY SUSPICIOUS. It tasted like there might have been eggs or dairy in all of the fake meat. It was absolutely the worst fake meat I ever had, and did not taste vegan at all. The "lemongrass chicken" dish was rubbery and absolutely gross.
For all the vegans out there, I'm warning you to not go to this place. After I left, me, my fiance and my friend had horrible stomach pain and felt sick the rest of the night. This was the worst veggie Vietnamese place I have ever been to and I don't understand why there are so many good reviews about this place. None of the ingredients are fresh, everything is frozen, and I don't trust their fake meats at all, I'm certain that they had dairy in them because we all got sick from the food.
Don't fooled by the pictures that you see, because this is NOT the way the food looks like when you go to the restaurant. The food is NOT fresh. These photos fooled me and that's why I went to this place in the first place.
Even though moving back to Anaheim has been extremely positive in more ways than I can even began to describe, the move did leave a lil sadness in my heart for my Whittier faves and that would include my Viet Veggie fix Golden Triangle. However, with Thuyen Vien I now have found the OC counterpart to the Triangle, Veggie Spring Rolls and all!
We were told to check out this place from our friend that used to live around the corner and then of course based off of the YELP reviews we added it to our list. After a visit down the street from our new vet we stopped in for a late lunch and there was no one in there so we got almost a full explanation of the menu from the owner and he was so friendly and helpful. Although, my other favorite spot has some irresistible dishes I cannot say there service matches that statement.
Food was so good and I wasn't super full after our meal. I ordered the Lemongrass "Chicken", it was sweet and spicy and made a perfect match with the brown rice. Jeff V. got the "fish" and that was sooooo good. I liked it better than my dish and he was kind of enough to share. I would order both dishes again. We got the Vegan cheesecake and flan "to go" and as soon as I finish this review I am going to go indulge right now.
I would also like to mention that the portions are not hefty so you will most likely not have leftovers but everything is made to order and is super fresh.
Thank you yelpers. Again you have not let me down. Thuyen Vien was an awsome choice for lunch today. The staff was friendly and even showed my mom how to roll her soy fish. The food had great flavor and totally satisfied my palate.
I think I understand why people gave this place 5 stars. Is it cause they've never had better vegetarian food that can compete at the level of meaty foods? Probably, but I have had better vegetarian food that might even taste better than meaty foods. That's why I give this place 3 stars.
The owner of the place was really nice and helpful. Like other people on this site, he asked us if this was our first time here and we answered yes. He recommended these Vietnamese style chips with a curry-est dip on top. I thought the food was okay. I didn't really like the chips.
For our main course my friend had a pho which he thought was terrible. He thought the soup was lacking. He let me try the beef and I hated it. It was really chewy and rubbery. I had the kung pao chicken and I wasn't really into it for some reason. The spice was there but there were not a lot of things going for it.
Sadly... today I did not find a vegetarian place that I can put on the top of my favorite list so I can come back. My search for better vegetarian foods continues for food that won't leave me thinking.. something is missing...
All I can say is.. I won't be one of the people they put on their tree.
This place is delicious. The pho (rated #1 by the OC Weekly) is amazing. Also try the vegi spring rolls and any other soup on the menu. All the ingredients are super fresh and everything is well priced. The the only reason for not having 5 stars is the decor. But other then that Thuyen Vien is phoking remarkable
I'm a meat guy, and I liked this place a lot.
Came with three others, and when we walked in, the owner/chef was super nice to us (granted, there was only one other table of customers). He eagerly had a few suggestions on what to try after I asked, and we were not disappointed.
Soy chicken - seriously, this looked and tasted like real chicken, and was battered and fried very nicely with a nice sauce
Eggplant Claypot sensation - always a hit or miss with me, and definitely a hit here. Eggplant wasn't overcooked and mushy like it often is other places
Pumpkin curry wasn't anything special, although I did like the fried potato pieces in it.
Green mango salad was also tasty, and it better have been since the chef recommended it!
all in all, tasty food, decent price (all the above plus a few drinks totalled under 50 dollars)
If i ever find my way down in garden grove again, i'll definitely ask the owner about all this golf trophies too...seems like a great place for locals to get a bite
The food is amazing!!!!! I had the curry mushroom appetizer and it was SO good. If only I lived closer. =(
I am a vegetarian and this is by far the best vegetarian food i have tasted.
The fake meats are excellent, everything is very fresh tasting, you get the right amount of food and just about every meal is under $10. i highly recommend for vegetarians and meat-eaters alike.
I take my meat-eating friends here all the time. they love and after the meal some say they'll consider being vegetarian. He painted a huge tree on the wall in one of the corners and puts pictures of regular customers up on it. very cute!
WOW.
I'm definitely ok with not eating meat even though I'm an avid carnivore, but a part of me feels like maybe I would be ok with being a vegetarian if all food was like the food at Thuyen Vien.
The owner was incredibly friendly! He told us they were going to start selling a vegetarian burrito. I definitely have to go back to try that out.
We ordered banana flower tacos, pumpkin curry, and soy "lamb". The lamb was absolutely incredible. I've never tasted fake meat before so I'm going to go ahead and state what my vegetarian friend said, that she usually hates fake meat but she loved it. The soy lamb was so incredible but wasn't that it just tasted like meat, it had the TEXTURE of meat. Seriously. It SHREDDED like meat. Seriously? How did they do that?!?!
My vegetarian friend just found one of her new favorite places to eat.
TRY THE CHEESECAKE! Vegan cheesecake of amazing. *drooool*
It's that time of year again where I stop being a meatarian on Fridays for 7 weeks. I've been meaning to try this place for quite sometime and this place did not disappoint.
The garlic chicken was delicious. Very garlicky and a bit spicy. Their jackfruit salad was also very good, just right amount of tart and extremely light and refreshing. We also tried the bo luc lac (shaken beef) and that's probably my least favorite. They must have ran out of baking soda cuz that ish was hard to me. I saw their fake baked fish and it looked really good, and the people seemed to thoroughly enjoyed their dish. I will definitely try that again and report back.
The owner was very accommodating and nice. How often do you see that at a Vietnamese restaurant? Overall a solid 4 stars, my only gripe is the portion is somewhat small and this place is expensive for Vietnamese food not to mention fake meat food. I thought imitations are supposed to be cheap? Seriously, how else would I be able to afford my Cucci purses and my Montbranc pen?
Yelp pointed me in this direction when some of my NY friends wanted to try Viet food. We arrived around 1:30 PM on Sunday, and there was only one other table of people.
The place looks little divey from the outside, but the food is amazing.
I love meat, but if I could eat here every day, I'd convert right now. We had the "fish" clay pot dish, "beef" pho, a "chicken" dish that was like fried chicken pieces with a sweet and sour sauce.
Overall, they had great flavors, and the mock meats really could pass any carnivore's standards. It was that good. The pumpkin curry was a little too spicy for me. I think the pumpkin could have been a little more tender, but I'll forgive that. Even the brown rice was especially tasty; it was flecked with wild/red rice (?). I'll have to go back and ask what it was. It was cooked perfectly, not hard, as it can be in some places.
The owner gave us perfect recommendations, and spoke lovingly about his food. You can tell that he hopes you enjoy the food as much as he enjoys making it. My friend kept trying to convince him to open a branch in NY, but he politely declined. Sometimes the best food comes from small, mom-and-pop places.
This was one of the best dining experiences I've ever had, across all price ranges. Even my bf, who is one helluva picky eater, said that he'd love to come back.
I am not a vegetartian.....but damn, this place is good! even for a meat eater like myself.
I thought the GARLIC CHICKEN was for real, but my vegetarian friend assured me its not. WOW! I couldnt tell. VERY FLAVORFUL.
The pho was equally enjoyable too.
Service is great. The owner kept coming to our table to make sure we liked his food.
oh, and there was one of those, "PEOPLE LIKE US ON YELP" stickers in the front window.
We wanted to find a good vegetarian place a little closer than Au Lac (http://www.yelp.com/bi...) so we tried this place. This place is ghetto compared to Au Lac :)) but the food is still pretty good. This is a small mom-and-pop restaurant near a temple of some sort, so if you walk in and see a giant table full of very old Vietnamese people, you know where they came from. (Also, there was a sign that said they would be open on Tuesday due to the full moon. We assumed that was a religious thing. Although I prefer religions that insist you take a day off due to random celestial happenings.)
On to the food...
Thai-style Fried Rice - Oh man was that good. The rice was amazing, and believe me, I would know. I love fried rice. This was broken rice stir fried into perfection. And topped with a large dose of pepper. Must have, especially if you love pepper.
Lamb with special sauce - The "lamb" was pretty good. I wouldn't mistake it for the real thing, but I liked the texture and the look of it. However, I didn't like the fruity sauce it came with. Something with cranberries in it I think. I don't like it when dessert invades my entrees, sorry. But if you're a fan of fruity sauces, go ahead and order it.
Cheesecake - Made from tofu, and surprisingly good. I make a mean cheesecake, so I won't say this is the greatest thing in the world, BUT it's very, very good if you're looking for a more healthy (and guilt-free) alternative. Topped with what seemed to be a maraschino loquat.
Wow, what flavor beams out of this little hole in the wall in a strip shopping center.The owner is friendly, helpful, and offers great service. We've eaten Asian vegetarian before but this place is SMOKING good.
Everything was great but the highlights were the soy lamb dish umm good. Then curry pumpkin with chicken, nice and spicy. I can't wait to go back. We are adopting another greyhound,so will be in garden grove often, and my first stop will be Thuyen Vien.
I finally tried it! Could not be happier.
My favorite Viet food is Bun (vermicelli). So naturally I had to try the one of the menu and compare. It was better then most regular Viet places make it. For me it is hard to replace fish sauce with a substitute, but the one they provided totally did the trick, I was amazed.
I tried the spicy curry as well... I melted a little. Wow. All the food seemed to be done extremely well and tasted great from our table. You seriously can't even tell most of the food is vegan, and I'm not even a vegetarian!
Super friendly family owned restaurant! So nice and warm feeling inside, especially coming in from the area around it, not so great. It is on the Garden Grove/Stanton border and is slightly hard to see if you have never been there before. Its in a short little strip of shops within a large parking lot located on the south end of the parking lot. There is plenty of parking.
Don't be afraid of vegan or vegetarian food! Try Thuyen Vien and be surprised! The prices will not discourage you, they are, for the most part, cheaper or about the same as traditional Vietnamese places.
I'm a fairly healthy vegetarian. My boyfriend was raised on and prefers a diet of meat, beans, rice, and cheese.
Our differences aside, we both loved Thuyen Vien! The owner was a very friendly and helpful guy who taught me to correctly pronounce "pho" and was more than happy to explain the differences between the noodle soups. I opted for the pho and the bf picked the ginger chicken. The results?
Delicious! The pho had a very tasty soup base, and my meat-loving boyfrahn loved his ginger "chicken". The portions and the price were also excellent, no complaints there! We also received a frequent eaters card at the end of our meal, and we both agreed to take advantage of that.
After reading the reviews of Thuyen Vien from other Yelpers, I decided to head over for dinner with a friend on Friday evening.
Everything about this place was great. It is a small restaurant with a lot of character. From the outside, you could miss it if you did not have your eye out for it. When my friend and I arrived on Friday evening around 6:00 PM we were the only customers. The owner greeted us and made some recommendations which we accepted.
We ordered the mango salad, garlic "chicken", and pumpkin curry. I am not a vegetarian, but the soy chicken was excellent! It looked and taste just like the real thing. The mango salad was extremely fresh with a hint of just picked mint leaves. The final dish, the pumpkin curry, was outstanding. I am a huge curry fan and have sampled fare from both Thailand and India, but this was fantastic. Very complex mixture of flavors and spices with chunks of tofu and vegetables mixed in.
The owner was very gracious and really seemed to take pride in the food he was serving; always a good sign. As we were finishing up, more people started to come in and everyone seemed to love the food. I would rate this as a must try, even for non-vegetarians.
FLAVORFUL VEGETARIAN CUISINE WITH CREATIVE TOUCHES!
OK, this is my first trip on Thuyen Vien. We got there around lunch time, not very crowded. The first impression was alright, pretty decent joint on the corner. Parking was a cinch no problem.
Right away the owner(I presume) came over with nice friendly overtone which was a good sign and proceeded take our order and drink was served very quickly also. The owner gave us 3 mini tacos with an imitation fried fish sprinkled with avocado for free sampling which was really nice of him, I like that!
Since we've never been to this place B4, we cautiously went through the decently extensive menu and this is what we got:
***** Soy Chicken with garlic - Nice! Excellent texture of the chicken and flavor!
**** Tofu Salad with wasabi sauce laced with seaweed. Nice cool dish just right for the hot weather!
***** Spicy Fish with lemon grass - Fantastic grill texture and fish meat stuffing, absolutely love it (Best vegetarian fish that I have had by far)!!!
***** Beef steak and salad - The look really mimic the look of the diced cube beef chucks. Great sauce flavor in combination with the cool vegetables and thin slices of onion.
All in all I love this place and the inventive foods that it offers. Will definitely return for more other exploratory dishes!!!
Went to Thuyen Vien last night after reading the reviews on Yelp and I'm a fan! Unfortunately the owner didn't arrive until we were almost finished eating so we didn't luck out with his food suggestions but did pretty good on our own with help with Yelpers. The brown rice was fantastic and tasted great on it's own. For starters we had the spicy tofu salad and "pork" spring rolls. The rolls were my least favorite part of the meal. It was served with a watered down version of peanut sauce. For entrees- the soy lamb with veg and spicy soy chicken- both great. The chix portion was particularly small because it didn't have vegetables with it but it was enough to serve one semi-hungry person. Next time, I'll try the garlic soy chicken. Oh i almost forgot the vegan cheesecake...delicious. Save room for that.
GREAT vegetarian Viet dishes and especially bun cha gio thit nuong (grilled "pork" and egg rolls over rice noodles with fresh veggies). Also great is the "fish", a gingery soy slab that really tastes like fresh fish...even the texture is right, and it has a skin! The owners are very friendly and always give us a little freebie treat to try out. I feel sorry for them because their location really sucks...end of a scuzzy strip mall row in a dead mini-mall complex with a boarded-up supermarket next door...sad.
Beware that they are closed on TUESDAY...WTF? Tuesday? Also bring your own beer as they have no liquor license (and their food is just dying to be washed down with a cold one).
Update: I was kinda disappointed when I found most of the "meat" dishes that Thuyen Vien sells can be found at the local Viet markets...I thought they made them from scratch. Oh well. The place is still cheap enough and the help is nice enough to warrant a visit.
The noodles were great! Loved the firm noodles with nice substantial and hearty chewing texture.
The soup was tasty in a nice deep flavored vegetarian soup way. This one landed between light and rich style, it reminded me of Bo De's vegetarian Pho soup, similar but lighter and more delicate, less punch but not bad still.
It was nice but I longed for something more, an extra punch of some sort that will make me remember this Pho by. But on the other side of the coin, it was smooth and delicious, soothing even. So a punch might kill this soup? I'm confused, focus....
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http://www.yelp.com/bi...
The imitation tofu beef was ok but it's not what I'll order again. To be fair I've not had good vegetarian beef to date, veggie chicken beats beef any day IMHO.
I've ordered the following and they were all Ok except the Brown Rice, the rice was fantastic. Moist and tasty fantastic (I'm so glad I didn't opt for the white rice here).
Chicken and Basil was pretty good (Tasty!).
Pic-
http://www.yelp.com/bi...
The Clay Pot Fish was ok (Sophisticated taste, too soft for me, I want Red Snapper firm texture. How they make the tofu acquire slight fishy taste is a mystery to me.
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http://www.yelp.com/bi...
Nothing else comes to mind right now so I'm just going to say what appears to be at the tip of my tongue at the moment, 'soul is missing', yea that's it.
Huh... (I check behind me quickly), just thought the folks form this place was right behind me saying 'I'll show you soul!' Just my imagination looks like, ah my laundry's done gotta go.
Want some vegetarian fish? This place offers the best! A few months ago I had taken on a bite of some fried soy fish from my vegan buddy at a vegan BBQ. After forgetting about it for awhile, I brought it up again and asked him where he had grabbed the food from. A block away from his place up on magnolia this place sits in a ghetto shopping center. We sat down and was quickly greeted by an eager gentleman that I believe was the owner. He spoke to us enthusiastically about all of his food explaining what were the big hits, what to look for in each dish, etc. Christa M. had purchased the spicy soy chicken with lemon grass and I had ordered the spicy soy fish with lemon grass. The vote was in! Spicy soy fish with lemon grass won the battle of the two meals. Although the chicken was pretty damn tasty as well. If you're new to being a vegetarian or vegan, then this is a MUST TRY place!. Also on the wall was a OC Weekly best pho in town poster. Overall this place was a hit with us two. We will definitely be coming back soon.
Where do I start??? The place is by far the best vegetarian/vegan restaurant out there. Been to them all, went to the vegetarian restaurants in "Little Saigon" where it's supposed to be the best Pho in town, no way. Been to veggie places in LB, they don't compare. Just try their pumpkin curry dish, it's so good and every time I go I for sure order that.
The owner is a really chill guy, you can talk to him about anything. Went there for lunch today, Wednesday, and they have have a lunch special where they serve mexican cuisine.... kinda like taco Tuesday thing except on Wed. It was excellent and the lunch special included vegan ceviche. The owner will take your photo too and post it in his wall of fame. I insisted that he take my email address down (and hopefully others) so I can be informed of new specials.
Whether your a meat eater or vegetarian I definitely recommend this place, everything is fresh (unlike other veggie restaurants) hidden off the corner of katella and magnolia. There is a reason it's currently the highest rated Vietnamese restaurant in Garden Groove.
I had the chicken curry and spicy garlic chicken with the brown rice. Food was very flavorful. The curry was a tad on the salty side. Owners are very nice. I would definitely return.
I think this place might be my favorite restaurant.
My girl and I have been eating here pretty much since it opened.
I spent a lot of my youth in this neighborhood (it really feels more like Stanton/West Anaheim area- it's only technically Garden Grove) and I can tell you that it is characterized by two things: a surprisingly multicultural gang scene and failed businesses.
The center where this restaurant is located has had MULTIPLE supermarkets located in it go out of business. If Albertson's is having a tough time staying in business, you know it's rough.
Anyway, I pray for this place because they have unbelievably good food and great family restaurant service. I would really hate to see a great restaurant like fail... so go eat there and then tell all your firends about it.
The owner, his wife and kids are all the type of people who will keep the place open late for you to sneak in and grab a meal and they're always adding new dishes to the menu. I've never had something I didn't like here, and I have tried it all.
I like to buy stuff from here and feed it to people without telling them its vegetarian- they either don't notice or realize it's better than most meat they've had lately (pause).
I Recommend:
Buddha's Feast
Claypot dishes (pick one)
The roasted "fish"
"Chicken" drumsticks
You can literally choose at random from this menu and walk away satisfied every time.
we were visiting disneyland and found this restaurant via yelp.
thank you for the recommendation, it was AWESOME!!
we went there fairly early for dinner, so it was not crowded yet. the owner came over and when we told him this was our first time visiting the restaurant, he said -- let me make you something special..
he made these three dishes not on the menu:
1. fried tofu with lemon sauce
2. a vietnamese cole-slaw with raw mangoes
3. tempeh "fish" of some sort.
all three were EXCELLENT and we just gobbled every morsel.
would recommend this place to anyone who is vegetarian/vegan and even if you are not -- just try it for the perfect blend of flavors and textures.
Thuyen Vien is AMAZING! My carnivorous boyfriend and I (a vegan) have made this cute little hole-in-the-wall our weekly date night spot! Everything we have tried so far has been SO delicious - no complaints at all. Tonight, we tried their grapefruit salad, which isn't on the menu, but is a salad bursting with flavor. TRY IT! The sweet and sour chicken, kung pao chicken, mushroom chicken, lemongrass chicken are all very tasty.
Plus, the atmosphere is really cute and the owner is super friendly.
Dude. This place is my new Veg spot. The boyfriend and I were sitting around the tele watching the foosball (Damn, Niners didn't even come close to makin it to the playoffs...grr) when hunger strikes. We were in the mood for some Vietnamese but wanted to try something different from our usual Viet-Veg places in OC. Soo, with a little research a la Yelp.. BAM! Thuyen Vien pops up..sounds good. Let's roll!
It's a tad aways from Little Saigon but that's cool. Don't wanna deal with all those crazy Asian drivers anyway. Hey, I'm Vietnamese too. I know first-hand how bad they can get. Their menu consisted mainly of Vietnamese dishes with a few Chinese and Korean (?) plates thrown in. We ordered the BBQ "pork" rolls, "Chicken" with lemongrass (Ga Xao Xa Ot) and the vermicelli noodle bowl with egg rolls. All were delish! I like the dipping sauce that was served with the pork rolls, and the lemongrass chicken was awesome. Their brown rice is yummy too. Chewy and nutty. Hmm..that didn't come out right..anywhoo..
It seemed to be run by a family and all were super nice! It's a small place located in a grungy plaza, but do not fret, it is clean and will definitely please your taste buds. The man there is super nice and so is the woman. Can't wait to go back!
I tried this place out with my dad, a meat eater, myself being a pescatarian/vegetarian. I was very excited after reading so many rave reviews from other yelpers. I love experimenting with new foods however my dad is often not so adventurous. That in mind, after we arrived, I purused the menu to find dishes with very tantalizing names, but very little description to let me know what all is in them. The owner described to us the wonderfulness of one dish in particular that arrived lacking much of the luster he had described. The brown rice was very rich of grains, just the way I love it. The pho soup was good. I loved all of the veggies they put in it in comparison to some traditional pho. All in all, I wish the menu had more descriptions. I will be back to try more of their "meat" dishes, but I will probably think twice before bringing back another person to enjoy the experiment.
After reading such great reviews, I was disappointed with the food here. We ordered the Lemon Grass Chicken and the Eggplant Sensation. The portions were small for the price we paid. Not a very good value compared Bo De, where we had just eaten earlier for lunch. The Lemon Grass "Chicken" was too spicy and didn't resemble anything close to chicken. The Eggplant Sensation was a little on the flavorless side.
On a positive note, the decorations and music were very nice, but not nice enough to save Thuyen Vien from the mediocre food. Closes at 9pm on Sundays.
Hey Meat Lover. Yeah, you. Put down that steak. Faux-meat is many shades of fierce deliciousness. Vietnamese cuisine makes up the majority of the menu, but other cuisines like Chinese and Indian have their own Vegetarian takes. Clueless? Ask any members of the family that own this restaurant. Especially daddy Thuyen Vien -- he makes fabulous recommendations for those apprehensive of vegetarian cuisine! And he'll probably drive you to your girl scouts meeting if you want. Your order will be delicious like you wouldn't have ever guessed that it's actually tofu prepared in such a way that it almost tastes like meat! Like you were in an alternate dimension of reality where people eat things that look like meat...but isn't actually meat. Post-modern chic!
Another awesome thing I love is that it's a hole-in-the-wall kind of restaurant without the hole-in-the-wall charm. It's CHEAP, no weird smells, no insects, no wobbly dining furniture and there are no language barriers. This place is super clean and they like to play French pop music from the 60s! Tres bien!
And hey. Rated one of OC Weekly's best? Not too shabby!
Ever have the desire to become a vegetarian? ..... For one meal? If you answered yes pay a visit to Thuyen Vien. Everything here is vegetarian. Even the BEEF and CHICKEN. WHAT?! How is that possible? This place substitutes your normally meatlover's dish with soy.
I walked inside this mom and pop and began to dissect the menu. Our server warned us that the menu is still in the works. I noticed because it has lots of photos of the dishes but no labels next to the photos. Kind of useless eh? My friend and I ended up ordering Tamarind Iced Tea, Spicy Tofu Hand Rolls, Beef Pho, and the Chicken Stew with vegetables. The Tamarind Iced Tea was tangy and not too sweet, great for getting the salivary glands going. The Spicy Tofu Hand Rolls - picture a spicy tuna hand roll and then sub. the tuna with spicy tofu; apparently it was pretty spicy because my friend broke a sweat. Beef Pho was A-OK; the soup base tasted no different than most Pho broth, the noodles were cooked just right (slightly post al-dente), and the Beef was awesome! It looked just like beef and almost had the same texture. The Chicken Stew dish was what got me sold on this place. It was prepared in a tomato base with straw mushrooms, peas, and carrots. The sauce was excellent over the brown rice. All that for a little over $20.
Some may bash Thuyen Vien for deceiving its patrons by mis-labeling otherwise tofu dishes as meat dishes. But I say don't hate until you've tried the dishes. I was convinced that it's ok to become a vegetarian. No just kidding but I'll be back here again.
If I lived in Orange County, I'd eat through their entire menu.
We had three things last time we went: the baby lotus root salad, which I remember liking more on previous occasions, the lemongrass fish, just this side of char-blackened, with a crunchy ground lemongrass topping, and the garlic chicken, which brave and bright and spicy in a way most vegetarian restaurants (e.g. the Chinese ones in San Gabriel) don't dare for fear of scaring off the grandmas.
Very satisfying. Attentive service and good iced french coffee.
This Family operated vegetarian restaurant is excellent!!!
good service...food is excuisite and loveee their vegetarian dessert! thats right...they have tiramisu and cheesecake for vegan lovers!
my favorite dish is chicken ginger rice! yummmmm :DDD
I tried this place for the first time yesterday after driving by it so many times for the past 2 years and I'm so regretful that I didn't try it sooner! The food and service was great and the place was pretty clean. :] For being non-vegetarian, I thought the food was great! A lot cheaper than Au Lac (which is another vietnamese veg place I like) although it has a more mom and pop shop feel to it. We ordered the kung pao "chicken", lemon grass "fish", and also fried rice. All were yummy. The only reason this place didn't get rated 5 stars was because I thought the portions were going to be bigger than they were. However, between two people, we were able to finish all of our food and our check came out to be about $23. The owner also told us about the vegan cheesecake which is apparently a big hit with other customers but we were full to try it at the end of our meal. Oh well, we'll try it next time and oh yes, there will definitely be a next time. :)
Westminster, CA
Category: Vegetarian
Westminster, CA
Category: Vegetarian
Garden Grove, CA
Category: Vietnamese
Garden Grove, CA
Category: Vietnamese
Garden Grove, CA
Category: Vietnamese
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