We were invited to try Spotted Cow Viet Kitchen in the Zion Market off of Clairemont Mesa Blvd. the other day. It is located in the right hand corner of the food court area.
Maybe it was my false assumption but I had thought our experience was going to mirror Chipotle where you pick and choose different things to add to create your own bowl of pho. I don’t know where I got that notion, but it turned out to be more of an assembly line where you choose a bowl and they put it together for you.
They do keep it simple for you and only offer a few soup options. There’s beef pho(most popular), chicken pho, vegetarian pho, beef stew, and egg noodle soup to choose from. They also have a few banh mi sandwich options.
Lastly, there are mixed plates you can order that come with a meat, veggies, vermicelli, and egg rolls.
Here are the various items and broths they add to make your soup.
They also had a drink menu so I opted for an iced Vietnamese coffee. It was sweet and refreshing. I’ve had very strong Vietnamese coffee’s before and this one was slightly less strong than the average Vietnamese coffee.
They recommended we get the lemongrass pork since they were out of the beef filet mignon. Coming with a generous portion, we enjoyed the lemongrass flavor with a little sweetness on top. This was a good dish along with the vermicelli and dipping sauce. The green onions were a nice touch on top.
Their other recommendation was the beef stew. This came out in a large bowl, similar in size to a large bowl of pho you can get at most any other pho restaurant. There were plenty of carrots, beef, and noodles down below to stuff you silly. The main thing we didn’t love about the soup was the broth. It was overly sweet and didn’t give off enough rich bold beefy flavor like a good hearty stew normally does. If we come back we’ll need to try another soup to see how it stacks up. Reflecting back on the experience, we felt welcomed from the start. The gentleman that rang us up was nice and really excited to make recommendations. You always enjoy meals more when you get great hospitality. Thanks to Emily over at Bam for setting up the visit and Tammy, Jenny, and the Spotted Cow staff for having us!
Spotted Cow Viet Kitchen
7655 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111
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