Vietnamese 7 Courses of Beef

[CPV]

I took a look around chowhound but couldn't find anything on this topic, so if you could either point to me the right post or give suggestions, I would really appreciate it.

I'm looking for people's favorite place to get 7 courses of beef in the bay area (SF to San Jose) as we are looking to bring my Mom for her birthday.

Thank you!

[calalilly]

My friends love Pagolac in the tenderloin. It's definitely a great deal for under $20 bucks.

[Pei]

I don't know of Pagolac is somewhere I'd go for a mom's birthday, but it is one of the best in SF. Maybe outside SF there are nicer places not in the Tenderloin? Beef 7 ways is rarely over $20 no matter where you are.

[Robert Lauriston]

I like Anh Hong (several locations around the Bay).

I had a good version at Saigon Kitchen recently. Nice place.

-----
Pagolac
655 Larkin St, San Francisco, CA 94109

Anh Hong Restaurant
808 Geary St, San Francisco, CA 94109

Anh Hong Restaurant
150 Tully Rd, San Jose, CA 95111

Anh Hong Saigon
243 W Calaveras Blvd, Milpitas, CA 95035

Anh Hong
2067 University Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704

Saigon Kitchen
1111 Story Rd, San Jose, CA 95122

[chefj]

I believe there are a couple of threads already started on Vietnamese Restaurants. I think that the best are in south bay (San Jose). You may want to pursue the best of those and see if they do the 7 menu.

[Robert Lauriston]

Here are some previous threads, I don't see anything recent and comprehensive:

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sour...

[chefj]

That could be. I do so much research on Rest. I get confused where I read discussions and reviews. The last time I did some in depth research looking for great Vietnamese was a few years ago.

[sfbing]

I suspect the best places for 7 courses to be in San Jose, but I'm unwilling to drive all the way down to SJ and then back to SF for dinner.

In SF, there are two main places: Pagolac and Anh Hong. Where I go, depends on what I'm looking for. The relatives favor Anh Hong for the larger portions, more efficient service, and overall authenticity. For them, Pagolac has an annoying tendency to provide tiny salad plates and gringo sized portions of rice paper. Which would be fine if they were efficient about refilling them, but the service is slow if pleasant. Anh Hong is pretty brusque but brutally efficient, which is important if you're trying to do seven courses of beef with a party of greater than four.

Pagolac's meat quality is better than Anh Hong. Pagolac's raw beef dish is much better with bright red slices of raw beef in a sweet tart sauce with onions. In contrast, Anh Hong marinates the beef to the point where it resembles boiled pork. (If you think your guests are going to be skeeved about eating raw meat, then I would recommend Anh Hong.) The cooked meats are better at Pagolac for this reason as well. I prefer the porridge at Pagolac, but that is a matter of personal taste.

However, Pagolac cops out on the banh hoi rice cakes (where they use a quickie fake version with thick rice noodles and cornstarch) and Anh Hong provides the real thing. If you go to Anh Hong, I would strongly recommend adding one or two of the banh hoi dishes to complement the 7 courses.

So...if you were going to just do 7 courses in SF and in a patient mood with a small party, I would go to Pagolac. If you wanted to add sugarcane shrimp and other banh hoi dishes and had a large party, I would do Anh Hong.

[chefj]

The poster said "(SF to San Jose)" Hopefully some folks in south bay will chime in.

[Robert Lauriston]

Some previous reports said that the SF Anh Hong was better than the San Jose original.

The raw beef at the Berkeley branch was raw, red meat.

[grayelf]

FWIW and hardly comprehensive but here's what we thought of bo 7 mon at Pagolac last April:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/613349

I don't think my mum would have been very happy with this meal but then again she's been to Song Huong in Vancouver :-).

[vulber]

I know Pho Garden has one, although I only can speak for the quality of their pho (very good)

I think Pot de Pho has one too....

[CPV]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone! I really appreciate it!! All the detail for the restaurants was really helpful and critical in my decision making. Thanks again for spending the time to reply!!

[wolfe]

I realize you've probably made your choice and this isn't in your asked area but La Cheval, Oakland still has it on their menu. It's been a while since I had it. It was about $7/person at the old location. I'm not sure it is worth the present menu price of $28.

[Robert Lauriston]

Anh Hong charges $15.50 to $18.95. I don't know how Le Cheval can charge so much.

[wolfe]

"Price subject to change depending on customers attitude."
http://lecheval.com/index.php?option=...=