Pho Kim Long in Milpitas

[Porthos]

It's been a while since anyone has posted on this place but it is a true and true chowhound spot for Vietnamese. There are the reliable standbys like pho and grilled pork chop over rice but their noodle dishes go way above and beyond. There's a crab roe and periwinkle noodle soup (excellent); a pan fried noodle dish with very chewy and savory noodles, chicken or beef (#24 or #25); and countless others that looked delicious. The large is enormous and enough for even the biggest appetites.

It's one of those busy, bustling places where the countertops are a little greasy/sticky and where the person taking your order is stern and no-nonsense. Pause too long and you feel like you may be kicked out. It's not for the faint of heart. The prices are around $6.95 for a bowl of the large noodles and if you want serious Vietnamese cuisine with more than just the routine stuff, this is it.

Pho Kim Long
2082 N Capitol Ave
San Jose, CA 95132

[Porthos]

We went back to Pho Kim Long tonight and it was as busy and as good as the first time. A few updates/corrections to my first post:

1. The dry pan fried noodles is fried with mustard greens, celery, carrots, and very chewy delicious noodles. #24 is beef, #25 is chicken

2. #28 is the noodles with periwinkle and ground crab, not crab roe

3. The drinks are very good. The mixed combination drink consisting of ice, coconut milk, various jellies, and chickpeas was very refreshing.

The prices are really cheap. The regular is a sizable portion and the large is a 50% upgrade for about 50 cents.

[Carb Lover]

Thanks for the tip. What is periwinkle noodle?

So this is really in San Jose, not Milpitas, right?

[shortexact]

Punching this place in on Google Maps reveals that it is a few blocks from the Great Mall. So I guess it's technically in San Jose, but really on the Milpitas-San Jose border. It's definitely much closer to Milpitas, than to, say, downtown SJ.

[Porthos]

Not periwinkle noodle (which would probably be pretty awesome) but periwinkles and crab roe and noodles in a spicy broth. It seems to be a favorite there along with #24 and of course, the pho.

[Carb Lover]

Sounds great! Thanks for the clarification, although I had to look up what periwinkle is because I'm not familiar w/ it. Cook's Thesaurus describes it as sea snails aka bigaros popular in Europe and Japan and found in Asian markets.

[SanJoseHound]

We love this place too. We stumbled on to it by accident, at about 3pm on a Sunday. The place was just packed to the rafters: people streaming in and out, orders being taken and delivered. My husband and I both had different types of pho and found the broth to be tastier than usual. Next time we'll have to try some of the noodle dishes you mentioned above.