Kabaelan: Memoirs of a scholar, a womyn, and so much more!

Not your typical pho place

I have always loved good food and for the longest time have secretly openly dreamed of being a food critic. Now that I have new career dreams, I no longer dream this, BUT I still enjoy eating food, critiquing it, and writing about it as one can see on my Yelp account. But Yelp is pretty limiting, so I decided to dedicate a part of my blog to restaurant reviews.

This is for you if you: 1) are a broke college student or you live like one, and 2) enjoy atypical, non-franchised San Diego eateries. Honestly, I’m probably only going to do these once a week at the most because my ass is broke. And you won’t see me reviewing Donovan’s Steakhouse anytime soon.

So let’s start with our first victim restaurant, Quehuong Restaurant located in City Heights. We first learned about this place from our friend Zar, owner of PNOY Apparel [shameless plug goes here]. He told us they had damn good wings, duck, and boar, so how could we resist? One Yelp reviewer described the cuisine as North Vietnamese and that there was “no pho here.” I really can’t vouch for whether this is “authentic” North Vietnamese food or not, but there is pho served here. However, this place does primarily focus more on meat and rice entrees and less on pho.

Atmosphere – 4

It overall had a nice feel to it. It wasn’t overly crowded when we went (on a Sunday at around 7:00p). It was well-lit, clean, and aesthetically pleasing, though nothing too remarkable, either. I also liked how all of their tables were large and round, and most had a Lazy Susan on it. It’d be a good place to eat for a large group; in fact, all of the other people there were families. One thing that really threw us off, however, was this:

There were at least a dozen really large carp in this small tank!

We were seated right next to this fish tank crammed with large carp. They barely had enough room to breathe, and to top it off they were all fighting the unusually strong current of the tank filter. This was both amusing and sad, but it was mostly just… odd. We were really hoping they were only there temporarily.

Food – 4.5

Nic, my wonderful boyfriend and critiquing partner, ordered the deer with coconut sauce.

Deer in coconut sauce, served with white rice

We both gave this dish a 5, but note that neither of us had ever had deer before, so we didn’t really have much to compare it to. The meat was very tender and similar to a good steak. The coconut really complemented the deer; it was almost like a curry dish. The dish was also filling, but not overly so, either. The entree was so good that I completely forgot I was eating something that looks as cute as this:

Bambi 😦

As for me, I ordered the chicken wings with fish sauce:

Chicken wings with fish sauce. It actually came with more wings, but we dug in too quickly and forgot to take a picture :S

I love wings, especially buffalo wings. But I’ve never had wings with fish sauce before. They definitely got plus points for being innovative. Plus, they tasted great! Fish sauce and chicken, who would’ve thought?? The Yelp reviews call these the best chicken wings in San Diego, and even Zar gave them that dubious distinction. However, they only get a 4 in my book (Nic thought I was being too critical; he gives them a 4.5). Why? Because they were overcooked and tough. And they definitely aren’t the best chicken wings in San Diego, in my opinion. I give that award to the salted pepper chicken wings from Mandarin of Chula Vista.

Service – 4

The service was good. The staff was friendly. Our food didn’t come at lightning speed, nor did it get to the point where we started looking around wondering if we were forgotten. But like the atmosphere, it was good but nothing spectacular.

Price – $$

Expect to pay about $9 – $14 on an entree. It’s definitely not too bad for how much food you get.

Overall – 4

I do highly recommend this place. The food was overall great, and I would like to come back again to give the boar and the duck a try. If you’ve never had deer, you have to try this place! And to all you UCSD students, it’s a great excuse to escape bourgy La Jolla.