restaurants near new airport

quoting [email removed] (Roberta and Craig Becker) :

>: Tan Tan was recommended to me by a Vietnamese friend; it's my favorite now
> Heartily seconded.

      yep, Tan-Tan it is these days.

      I recently went to replacement of my old favorite on N. Lamar,
      Dong Phuong (I forget what it's called now; it's next to the original
      Saigon Kitchen location).  I get my hair cut next door and ended up
      going in there for the wait to test spring rolls and Pho.

      I shouldn't have.  Spring rolls where old/hard and pho wasn't what
      I ordered (I don't like all that cartlidge and fat stuff) and when
      I "inquired" an attempt was made to give me a snow job.  Taste was
      lousy, too, so I did something I haven't done in a long time: refused
      any attempts at replacement, paid for a pair of spring rolls, of which
      I had taken one bite, and left.  They had a TV hanging on the wall
      tuned to ESPN, at blasting volume, which when grand-pa left for an
      errant, I found the mute button for.  When he came back, he turned
      it on full blast again, perplexed that it should be off, but didn't
      sit down to watch, walked off to do something else.  And two kids
      had some computer game on another monitor, competing, volume-wise.

      I mean, I like Vietnamese mom-and-pop places, but this was a bit
      much in terms of a restaurant with a family life.  No wonder they
      don't seem to have any customers to speak of...

      I haven't gone back to Saigon either anymore, though that day last
      month, I regreted not having tried them (on the other side of the
      barber) instead....

      If Saigon Kitchen down south has gotten worse, in spite of Mrs Kim
      closing the north location (where the Thai buffet place is now)
      and returning back to the south location, then I must assume that
      both parents have (semi-?) retired, and number one son is (still)
      running the south location into the ground.  Sad...  with the traffic
      what it is down there (IH-35 and Ben White) I am simply not tempted
      to go there to check on things any more...

      and I don't really like the atmosphere that Twin Dragon and
      Saigon Dragone have acquired over the years.  Sic transit mundae,
      they used to be the ones that kept me fed, 10+ years ago...

p.s.: I heard about a place at McNeill and Research to get kebab at yesterday.
      I don't know the name yet...

p.p.s: I admit to having had the Burger King chicken sandwiches a couple of
      times during the last month.  As 99 cents special, they aren't bad
      as drive-by food (which I am never even tempted by, normally)

NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 19:31:22 EDT
Xref: alexander.INS.CWRU.Edu austin.food:4889

Hmm,
Well, I've got to admit that I think that Saigon Kitchen is one of the better Vietnamese restaurants in Austin.  However, I pretty much limit myself to the curried chicken which is almost as good as my mom's (yumyum) and the grilled beef (I forget what they call it in english but it's bo luc lac in vietnamese
- my spelling may be off a bit).

What other Vietnamese restaurant do you like in Austin? (and please don't say Kim Phung) ;-)

Later...Tri

Wayne D. wrote:
>Someone wrote:
>>Good God!!!!!!
>> do not go to Saigon Kitchen at the intersection of Ben White and IH-35.
>
>Although I haven't been in a while, and most of the dishes are so bland as
>to bore one to the Subway next door, there are a few gems on the menu.  I
>usually get what I recall is called Saigon Special Shrimp with Salt, or
>something close to that.  Very tasty, but they were skimping on the hot
>peppers last time.  My wife likes the place if only for the
>vietnamese-style spring rolls.  Very much like the Thai fresh rolls at a
>restaurant we frequented in Seattle.
>
>-W-

If our expectations -- if our fondest prayers and dreams are not realized, then we should all bear in mind that the greatest glory of living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time you fall Nelson Mandela

NNTP-Posting-Date: 21 Jun 1999 23:52:40 GMT
X-Newsreader: slrn (0.9.4.3 UNIX)
Xref: alexander.INS.CWRU.Edu austin.food:4890

Someone wrote:
>Hmm,
>Well, I've got to admit that I think that Saigon Kitchen is one of the better
>Vietnamese restaurants in Austin.  However, I pretty much limit myself to the
>curried chicken which is almost as good as my mom's (yumyum) and the grilled
>beef (I forget what they call it in english but it's bo luc lac in vietnamese
>- my spelling may be off a bit).
>
>What other Vietnamese restaurant do you like in Austin? (and please don't say
>Kim Phung) ;-)

I like pho alot, and my favourite pho houses are the Pho Cong Ly up on 183 in the Vietnamese shopping center there, and I have tried the other one downtown on 6th, and like it alot too.  Am not a fan of Kim Phung, in that as far as the pho goes, their broth is always cloudy and has, to me, a weird flavour.  Also, their noodles are wider and flatter and to me taste more like egg than rice noodles.

The Fortune 75 pho near my house is not on my list of favourites either.  The broth they use looks and tastes more like chicken or maybe vegetable broth than beef, and they use the same thicker yellow noodles like Kim Phung, than the thin white rice noodles at Pho Cong Ly.

Been meaning to try the Java noodle house, just haven't gotten around to it yet... maybe a austin.foods pho review should be our first outing? ;)

mandi
>

Someone wrote:
: Tan Tan was recommended to me by a Vietnamese friend, and it's become my : favorite.  It's packed at lunch, so going either early or late is highly recommended.

Heartily seconded. Although my favorite item isn't really pho, it's the #23, with a chicken-based broth. Yum!

Craig

 Someone wrote:
>p.s.: I heard about a place at McNeill and Research to get kebab at yesterday.
>     I don't know the name yet...
The Best Middle Eastern restaurant? Not quite eponymous, and not quite McNeil. It's a bit south of McNeil in the spot where restaurants apparently go to die. It's in the former location of Al Capone's and that Chicago hot dog place.

Fwiw, I thought it was good and worth a return visit, which I haven't done as yet. It was a bit expensive for lunch.

Doug