Lan Huong Vietnamese in Oakland - good food - Le Chaval tried to rook us so we went here

I took some friends to Lan Huong in Oakland on E12th, (807 E. 12th, ph. 451-0202).

They wanted some good, authentic Vietnamese, and I heard this place was okay, so it was a first time for all of us.

We had:

Goi Cuon (Vietnamese Spring Rolls, $3.50)
delicious! Wrapped in Rice Paper, with a prawn inside, fresh mint, and some other nice veges. A great appitizer, and had a nice peanut dipping sauce)

Pho Tai (Beef Noodle Soup $4.50)
Decent Pho. Nothing to rave about, it seemed something was missing, I cant tell what, the broth was just a little lacking. Nevertheless good Pho, and you could eat just this and fill up)

And, of course, the YUMMY Banh Mi Thit Nuong (grilled pork sandwich)
These were amazing at $2.00 each. The bread was wonderful, fresh crunchy french roll, perfect. The sandwich featured very good spicy pork, with mixed vegetables, including carrots, cucumber, jicama, and some sort of spicy pepper.

We each had a Banh Mi, shared the Pho and spring rolls, and it came out to about $18.00 for lunch for 3, left stuffed. This included drinks as well (coke, two vietnamese strange drinks, and something else, a sprite I think)

The atmosphere is nothing to brag about, but thats not why I go to places like this.

Additional Comment:
I started out with the intention of going to Le Cheval, I like it for lunch. However, we got there at 3:00 and the waitress sat us and gave us the dinner menu. I asked for the lunch menu and she refused, telling us that they were now serving dinner. I told her I thought dinner started later, she said it started at 3. I pointed out that it was 3, and that people were still being served their lunches. She was very rude and uncooperative, so we all got up and marched.

Frankly I was happy to have eaten at Lan Huong instead.
They seem to be doing some construction inside, they have a wide screen high def TV, lots of things going on, and appear to be adding on.

Good food. Anyone else eaten here? Comments?
Gil

Here's a link to my post on the curried goat here. Are they doing some work on the enclosed patio area for the addition?

Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/...

Yup, they are adding on to the patio. It looks like it will be about 3x as large as originally sized.
This place is really good. Is this standard to the Vietnamese food I can find around there?
Was in Indeed in "Little Saigon"?
Any other reccomendations for Vietnamese in that area?

We just stopped because 1) Le Cheval treated us poorly so we left
and
2) it was there, on E 12th, and it grabbed our eye.

PS: the girl who took our order was fluent in English and was willing to reccomend things, something which is always nice.
Gil

I haven't eaten there, so I don't know how it compares to other places in that area, but yes, that's "Little Saigon" -- East 12th and International between the lake and about 18th (where it transitions into Fruitvale and becomes Mexican). They're trying to call that neighborhood "East Lake" (and that's what we call it in chownews), but "Little Saigon" is much more descriptive.

The places in that neighborhood are quite authentic.

Here's a thread about some other discoveries in that area:

Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/...

[Mike Tyson]

mmmmmmmmmmmm... My parents are from South Vietnam (Saigon) and
they always talk about how they cooked curry goat back home.

I born in North America have only been exposed to Jamaican curry goat. I would love to try Vietnamese curry goat one day though ;)