Found a good Vietnamese eatery (Austin, Spring: tax, restaurant, shop)

[Mckellyb]

I can't call it a restaurant, as it's like a quickie lunch place but with nicer chairs.

Anyway, it's in the same Target parking lot mall which Sunflower is in. The Pho Van restaurant, damn, did it anyway, is near the east side of the parking lot, and their entrance faces west. They're about 150 feet from the Sunflower.

The Sunflower is closed on Tuesdays, much to my dismay, but I have found what, to my wife and I, is Vietnamese food heaven....

NOODLE BOWL!

Rice vermicelli, with sliced egg-rolls and a sliced meat (we did pork, though we both wish they had beef), over a bed of greens, served with a bowl of fish sauce (don't ask, just enjoy it). $6.45 per bowl...and even though it's plenty large, I could have easily had another one. I like it this much.

The pork was cooked nicely, was lean, and there was the right amount. Next time, I'm going to request no salad stuff, it's just not my thing, and an extra egg-roll, but we have found the Holy Grail of Vietnamese food...noodle bowl.

We've been looking for exactly this dish, Bun Tho-something, since leaving Denver back in '00. Haven't found it, 'till now.

I'm still itching to try Sunflower, but that was one of the best $16 lunches, for two, after tax and tip, I've had in a long while.

Even though it faces west, and has a glass front, the interior was nicely cool.

This is the kind of place I'm glad isn't closer, else I'd be there a couple of times per week...at least.

[newrrmom]

Great news, my fav. but I get seafood, will have to try, thanks!

[AustinGuy]

You're in luck. You can get noodle bowls like that at many Vietnamese places throughout Austin.

[newrrmom]

Yeah so far all the Viet. rest. bowls have been very good in area, but I am always up for trying new places also.
Sunflower's cold spring rolls are some of the best I have had yet!

[atxcio]

Thanks for the tip, I'll have to try Pho Van sometime. I always see it when I eat at Sunflower, just never tried it -- or heard any reviews. Now that I have heard of at least someone who ate there, I'll have to check it out.

Have you tried Kim Phung yet? Kim Phung is like the grandaddy of the Vietnamese places here. On Lamar, just south of 183 on the east side of the street. My favorite dish there is the Vermicelli (Bun) with Charbroiled Pork and Eggroll. It takes practice to be able to finish a bowl of that, or of the leaner and soupier Pho noodle bowls. It's actually fairly healthy, I think, but it's a lot of volume to consume. Otherwise you get hungry soon after!

Another neat Vietnamese noodle place is Triumph Cafe on Spicewood Springs road near Mopac. It's a coffee shop too (if you've never had Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk, you've got to try it) and has a nice little courtyard in the back.

[Mckellyb]

Thanks for the other recommendations!

Yeah, noodles are common to Vietnamese joints, but it's a specific way it's done, with the rolls, nuts, meat, & fish sauce for which I've been searching. I've been unable to find this style anywhere but the one place in Denver, and the owner went back to Vietnam a few years back. Portland, OR, had great Thai food, as did Vegas, but Vietnamese tended to be overlooked.

Next, Sunflower...maybe Kim Phung after that. I dislike coffee something fierce, but dig on tea, so a place with Thai tea will be on the list of places to visit, too.