We stopped by late night on Friday and thank goodness we did! This is a great spot, and it's absolutely perfect for a late night bite! It's a creative and well-done Asian fusion. Garlic noodles 5/5: incredibly rich, really interesting combination of Italian style noodles with a Vietnamese twist. We got it with the house chicken, which was perfectly tender. Literally the perfect late night carb load! Banh mi 5/5: this was so good with quality meat and your classic veggies. Exactly what you'd want in a banh mi! Chicken wings 5/5: the meat is so tender and is perfectly juxtaposed with the crispy coating. Flavor definitely comes through, and it's one of my favorite fried chicken from any restaurant! Peach and lychee green tea 5/5: this has the highest praise of "not too sweet." The tea flavor really comes through with the perfect amount of sweetness. I would highly recommend it! Definitely if you're in the area, or even if you're not, this is a great place to go to! read more

Nguyen's Kitchen - Menu - Vietnamese Near Me - Costa Mesa, California

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We were visiting from norcal and chose to come here because I've been seeing a lot of hype from foodies on instagram. The hype does not disappoint! The food looks as good as it looks and the plus is that it's super reasonably priced. My friends got the crawfish garlic noodles while I got the bulgogi. We were all satisfied with what we ordered. If i were to come back I'd love to try the fries! read more

Nguyen's Kitchen - Vietnamese Near Me - Costa Mesa, California

I've always wondered about Nguyen's Kitchen whenever I'm at St. Joe's in Orange, but decided against it due to the tight parking situation over there. So definitely glad when I noticed the Costa Mesa location become available on DoorDash for delivery. Parking is still tight over in this area, but with delivery, at least someone else does the driving/parking. I ordered the Garlic Noodles ($5.95) with addition of the Bulgogi Short Rib Steak (+$4.95). Note: prices are what I saw on the DD site - so there's a possibility there was a surcharge over what you'd see in person. The food was well packaged in a tinfoil pan and plastic covering. I like the tinfoil pan since it kept the food piping hot while it made it's way over to me. The beef bulgogi was dry and barely marinated. I could tell the quality cut of the meat was poor as well - definitely not chewy or juicy like a typical "short rib" cut would be. The garlic noodles were also dry and the garlic flavor was very lacking. I took a few more bites hoping that perhaps my opinion would change, but to no avail. Good thing I ordered delivery since I raided my kitchen for any sauce which I thought might save the dish. Trusty soy sauce to the rescue! It literally added a bit of life to the otherwise dull dish - and made it somewhat more palatable. The green jalapeno cream sauce was a bit too spicy for my liking - good thing they added that in a side container rather than in the dish itself. For a $10 dish, I'm not sure it's something I'd recommend. While the portion size is acceptable, the dish didn't taste very fresh to me, flavors were lacking, the beef cuts were dry and poor quality, and the noodles left me yearning for the garlic noodles over at EMC Seafood. I don't know if maybe it was an off-night for them, I mean, it's a Friday night so I can't imagine there being a better day for this - but overall the meal was disappointing for me. read more

Nguyen's Kitchen - Garlic noodles with bulgogi - to-go order - Vietnamese Near Me - Costa Mesa, California

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Fresh and delicious as always. Casual and friendly atmosphere. We ordered online, pick up was smooth and easy. Our order was perfect.

I usually have the same order, but it never disappoints! I love the fact that this place is open until 2:30am. It's very filling for me and usually I even have leftovers. My go-to is the crawfish pasta. I've tried their garlic noodles and that's a good option if you're not into spicy foods. I think the sandwiches are mediocre. read more

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I had heard good things about Nguyen's from a coworker, so I was excited to see that I happened to be in the plaza one of the locations was in this past weekend. My boyfriend and I split the bulgogi banh mi and cajun garlic fries w/ bulgogi. Both were super tasty, but to be honest two dishes with bulgogi was overkill. I wish I had tried one of their other meat options. Regardless, the meal was yummy and the service was pretty fast. Worth trying if you're in the area! read more

Nguyen's Kitchen - Bulgogi Short Rib Steak Sandwich and Cajun Garlic Fries - Vietnamese Near Me - Costa Mesa, California

Love the crawfish noodles here. The bulgogi bowl is also really good. Nguyen's Kitchen is perfect for late nights since they are open until 2am. The food is delicious and not over-priced for the area it's in. The thai tea is great as well. You can't go wrong coming here. The sandwiches are delicious too. read more

Nguyen's Kitchen - Crawfish Pasta - Vietnamese Near Me - Costa Mesa, California

Very good! Especially late at night! Just gotta watch out for the late night eating! Gaining weight is too easy here because it's delish.

I have to say, I'm always skeptical of places that stay open late because I assume it's just late night after bar drunk people food, and probably not good daytime, but Nguyen's Kitchen is definitely the exception to this rule. Their food is delicious, and consistently delicious. The house marinated chicken is so good. The green sauce is also really really good. Garlic noodles with bulgogi also one of my favorites. I've ordered food from here so many times now. I wish they had a gluten free banh mi that would be amazing. Anyway, come to Nguyen's, get the chicken you'll love it! read more

Bomb late night food. Can order through Yelp or online. Nice ambience inside if you dine in. read more

Loved this place!! The food is yummy, clean and priced right. We had the pork sandwich, egg rolls, and garlic noodles with shrimp. They have green dipping sauce that was amazing!! I added to noodles and dipped my sandwich and egg rolls. Loved this place:) read more

Nguyen's Kitchen - Vietnamese Near Me - Costa Mesa, California

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I keep forgetting to take photos for this review! Anywho, amazing food! I always order grub hub delivery here. My bf always gets the crawfish pasta w/jumbo shrimp. He says it's a bit spicy but nothing too crazy. The shrimps are cleaned and works well with the crawfish. Large portions! After one bowl, it's time to knock out. I got the garlic noodles w/ garlic chicken. Massive portions! They were not stingy with the chicken nor the pasta. Tasted amazing. I wouldn't recommend for anyone on a diet. I literally got so much for what I paid for..lol read more

This place always hits the spot, the noodles, the wings... yum! Love that they are open late

I reordered from Nguyen's Kitchen thinking that I made a mistake with my meat of choice last time. This time I ordered the garlics noodles ($5.95) with chicken ($4.25). The chicken was dry and flavorless. No bueno. What I really wanted was a rice dish, but alas, they no longer offer rice dishes. No more garlic noodles for me. read more

Nguyen's Kitchen - garlic noodles ($5.95) + chicken ($4.25) - Vietnamese Near Me - Costa Mesa, California

The crawfish past hands down is the best dish to get. Delicious flavor and packs a punch with the spice. Get a Thai tea to cool the spice! Got the garlic noodles and they were ok.. it a lot of flavor in my opinion, just soggy with garlic and oil. read more

Always a great go to place. Would have given it 5 Stars but, the garlic noodles had too much garlic compared to other places I have been and eaten garlic noodles. Everything else was fantastic as usual. read more

The food deserves 100000 stars! I ordered (for pick up) the garlic noodles with shrimp, 6 pcs wings -with some delicious dipping sauce- and an order of pork egg rolls. I ate everything! Nothing left! The noodles were cooked to perfection and super-garlicky, I totally loved it. Unfortunately, with the whole drive back home, the wings and the egg rolls arrived soggy. However, I put them in my air fryer for 4 min at 350 degrees and they came out perfect! Crispy exterior, yet tender and moist inside... and that dipping sauce was to die for! So I recommend don't use your microwave to reheat anything. Use an oven or air dryer. The only thing I didn't like was the pick up process... once I arrived there, there was 4 ppl inside so planned on waiting outside until someone came out, but no one was. Then, this guy comes, parks and walks in like nothing.... gets his order and leaves. So one of the guys that was already inside asks "is mine ready?" So the girl asks for his name and they gave him his order. That's when I found out the other three people were there had just walked in and ordered and had to wait! So finally, that one guy walks out (not happy to be there and no one saying his order was ready), I then walked in and of course, my order was ready. It was perfect food, but there it should be a differentiation (with signs) between the walk in-take home line and the line for those who ordered and were only picking up. read more

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Grateful to see a late night restaurant after finishing up at the Isle of Magic Marketplace we were in town for. Yummy fresh food! Service was good and ambiance was nice. Happy to discover when we arrived there was limited seating! read more

Their prices are fair and relatively on the cheaper side with dishes averaging anywhere from $10-20. That's a plus especially if you're trying to find food that won't break the bank.. They're located in a corner plaza with relatively ample parking spots. A big disappointment for us was how poorly packed the food was. Becsuse of COVID, we did takeout. We ordered the garlic noodlespopcorn chicken, and crawfish pasta. As they called out our number to get our order, it seemed as though our to-go was already messy. The containers were not sealed well so there was butter and sauce all over our bag and containers. We were overwhelmed by the amount of butter that was in the pastas. It seemed to be dripping everywhere. Overall, for the price I can't complain. read more

Garlic noodles are amazing, add meat to it for the perfect plate. The staff is super helpful. Great spot for casual quick lunch or takeout! Portions are huge so I always feel like I can split one entree into two meals. Wish I lived closer so I could eat here more often. read more

Open during Covid: (8/7/20) Oh my gosh! This place is soooo yummy! We ordered the chicken wings, garlic noodles with jumbo shrimp, & the bulgogi rice plate. The chicken is a hit! The crispiness is the skin with that Asian fusion taste is something worth getting alone. The garlic noodles had just the right amount of garlic and butter. And although they don't peel the shrimp, the shell is sliced nicely to peel off easily. The bulgogi rice plate was equally delish. Give this place a try. It won't disappoint. read more

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I found this small Vietnamese kitchen in the heart of Costa Mesa. I'm not familiar with this cuisine so asked the front desk lady for some guidance on their signature dishes and she recommended the garlic noodle with the type of protein you want. You can get steak, chicken or shrimp. I also added a fried egg on top.(cherry on top haha). The dish was very tasty and combination of seasonings and garlic made noodle smell so good. I should ask for extra noodles next time. All in all, good food, good service and descent prices. read more

Nguyen's Kitchen - Garlic Noodles with Jumbo shrimp + fried egg - Vietnamese Near Me - Costa Mesa, California

Amazing! So glad we found Nguyen's Kitchen in Carson, on our way to IKEA! I ordered the garlic noodles with pork and my husband the bulgogi bowl and omg! Just what our tastebuds needed. The staff was super friendly- it's rare to experience young people with superb customer service but great job to this team. I also loved that there is an açaí bowl place in this location. The flavored chia puddings are amazing, this time I had turmeric cinnamon but can't wait to try chocolate Lastly, the music was poppin' with a reggeton mix. We're definitely returning and sharing with our family. I'll take photos next time lol read more

Tu, the owner of the restaurant was fantastic in helping us plan for a rehearsal dinner. The set up was wonderful. Helping us plan the Menu was extremely efficient. We learned alot about Thai food. Needless, to see the dinner guests were all impressed with the delicious, mouth watery food and had a great time. The cost was also reasonable. I hope more people will try this wonderful restaurant. Once they do, they will continue to be regulars. Thank you again for a great, memorable time. read more

Great food but not consistent. Everytime you order via Postmates or Uber eats, there is always an order wrong or missing. The price point is very reasonable, but it is absolutely unacceptable to get orders wrong. YOUR BUSINESS DEPENDS ON THE CONSISTENCY AND QUALITY. Get more reliable, detail-oriented staff. Tonight, they missed 5 orders of eggs rolls, the chicken in the garlic noodles was dry, and the pork grilled sandwich was actually beef. Wtf?! Who runs this sh-t show? We've attempted to contact them the last hour and the line is busy... Hospital staff depend on businesses getting their group orders correct so that we can eat and continue taking care of pts, not calling this restaurant and trying to get a refund/mistake fixed. read more

Nguyen's Kitchen - Vietnamese Near Me - Costa Mesa, California

The grilled pork and spare rib sandwiches are AWESOME! It's a go to when I'm close by or for a random Door Dash.

The sandwich bread is intolerable. Also no chiles on the sandwich. They don't call it banh mi, which is accurate, but a disappointment. It's like a Togo's sandwich. Vietnamese baguette is distinctive for its crackly rice flour crust. This isn't it. Sorry. read more

I believe this restaurant is still open until 2am even during Covid19. Yesterday I had a car date with my bf from takeout from here. We got food here around 11pm last night. My bf and I live together, so we weren't breaking social distancing rules. My fav lady is the receptionist...I think her name is Kim. There were two kitchen people only I believe. It's better to order by phone than order and wait inside. That's not respecting and making ppl comfortable when there's ppl waiting. We just got our pick up food. I waited in the car. It's a see through glass wall and doors in the front. They have delicious sliders! We always order them without mushrooms bc the bf doesn't like mushrooms. Yesterday they accidentally gave us mushrooms but I could see they had many ppl going in and out back to back, but ppl go in and out every minute so we just dodge ppl bc they're ready for their customer if they CALL BEFORE and just do PICK-UP. I'm emphasizing for Covid19 right now. The wings are not dry, they are delicious as well. I usually get Pho as well, but as a car date by a scenery, it would be too much. Chicken is always best w Pho in my opinion. Their food is high quality, a mom type of delicious fresh food, and surprisingly not expensive for the amazing food they make. They have a lot of variety. ...side note: I got the beef w fries last night and I think I should have gotten ranch with it. We used to go here every week before the quarantine. I'm just cautious now. Glad we were able to support this amazing location. I always order only hot food to go to prevent any viruses to pass onto us at any restaurant. It was the most romantic car date with bomb food... ..too bad I didn't take pictures of the food. It was midnight when we were parked by-but still far- from the beach. The breeze felt amazing coming in from the sunroof and the opened windows. I was dress warmly. read more

Nguyen's Kitchen - Waiting to enter Nguyen's, but waiting for a couple that didn't order ahead of time...We were so hungry. It was worth the wait. - Vietnamese Near Me - Costa Mesa, California

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I was excited to try this place for take out as I was in the area and had heard of this restaurant before. Sadly, it did not deliver. I ordered the crawfish pasta, grilled pork vermicelli bowl and sliders. The crawfish pasta is quite spicy and very salty. The grilled pork bowl was mediocre at best. The pork was basically burnt, noodles were undercooked and contained a huge clump of noodles. Overall, not worth the money and won't be ordering from here again. read more

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I originally wanted to try Nguyen's Kitchen after seeing it every time I got a Blue Bowl in Orange. I didn't really check which location I did my online order from until I got the confirmation email. Turns out I ended up ordering from the Costa Mesa location. That being said, I was more than happy with my order! *Grilled Pork Sandwich* No, you're not going to get the volume of food that you get if you ordered your sandwiches from a place like Banh Mi Che Cali. I don't believe it's served with a pâté like you come to expect from Vietnamese style sandwiches. If it did I didn't taste any. However, it's pretty damn good on its own right. The bread has a beautiful, glossy crust with a soft interior. The pork was seasoned and cooked well while the in-house sauce that I think is mayo based adds a lot of additional flavor as well as some spice. There's a chance that the sauce might have been for just the chicken bowl but considering they gave me three containers I definitely don't regret putting some on my sandwich. *House Marinated Chicken Rice Bowl* Alright, this alone will probably be filling enough for most people. Priced at a little under ten dollars I'd say that this gives you more value for your money and still delivering on flavor. The chicken is tender and flavorful while the vegetables will definitely stretch your stomach. Besides the mayo based sauce I'm pretty sure that they have a black sauce too that I didn't get to try. I'll ask for it specifically next time when I get a rice bowl again. Easy online ordering and delicious, reasonably priced food. This is a solid example of a modern take on affordable Asian cuisine. I'll be back to one of their locations to try the garlic noodles in the future. read more

Nguyen's Kitchen - Pork banh mi - Vietnamese Near Me - Costa Mesa, California

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Great food - we did takeout and loved everything about it, the cucumber lemonade was a hit!

Ordered the garlic noodles with grilled pork. While the portion size was a bit smaller than expected for a fast casual joint, the flavors were spot on. Grilled pork had so much flavor and the garlic noodles were so good. Perfectly springy with the right kick of flavor. We also ordered the golden baos which were not what I expected at all. But the pork inside packed a lot of flavor that reminded me of that traditional Vietnamese taste. Saw someone ordered the bulgogi and he had A LOT of meat so I wonder why my portion size looked so much smaller in comparison... read more

Ordered garlic fries and added bulgogi for $6.45. All I got was fries. Tried calling but phone goes straight to busy even though the place was empty Crawfish pasta had very few crawfish. Seems like they added more sausage to make up for it read more

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Tried the garlic noodle with bulgogi steak and the crawfish pasta. Both came with extra garlic sauce that's a bit spicy. Garlic noodle was too salty for me (maybe it was the extra garlic sauce?) and bulgogi was too few. We had major headache and thirst from the msg afterwards. read more

Nguyen's Kitchen - Garlic Noodles with Bulgogi Steak - Vietnamese Near Me - Costa Mesa, California

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So ordered 5 different garlic noodles here as take out during COVID, which cleanliness should be a priority. Came back and noticed there were 2 strands of hair in one of the plates. Called them and we got it replaced and they offered as free egg rolls. Drove back home and noticed 1 long strand of hair in the noodles they gave us as replacement.. Just thinking about how theres a high possibility that the other plates could also have hair, but just didn't notice. Definitely won't come back here. read more

Nguyen's Kitchen - Hair in the noodles - Vietnamese Near Me - Costa Mesa, California

Delicious food! We love the noodle dishes and the Bahn Mi sandwich. We've been twice and both times the food was hot, fresh, and so flavorful! The only downside is it has a small area for sit down dining, and limited parking. So when the center and restaurant are busy it's best to order Togo! read more

I've been to their Orange location and I was in the area here and it was past 9:00 PM so this was one of the few places open that isn't your typical fast food joint. I ordered their Garlic Noodles with Grilled Pork and an order of their Egg Rolls. The Garlic Noodles are pretty decent for the price, but for an additional $4 to get about 10 pieces of unevenly cut pork is a complete rip off. The green sauce here was spicier than I've had at the Orange location, but it was really sweet as well, which was a bit confusing, flavor wise. The egg rolls for $3 was a decent price as well, but fairly small. A separated sauce for the egg rolls would've been lovely, but nonetheless, the flavor was still there for that. I spent a whopping $15 for barely any food. I'm glad this place opens late, but it's just barely decent for me. I'll be around this establishment only if it's late and craving some Vietnamese fusion fast food. read more

Can't say enough good things about Nguyen's kitchen. I love the Garlic Noodles. Just the right amount of garlic. The texture of the noodles are on point. The garlic chicken breast sandwich is also a favorite. My wife is a fan of the beef bulbogi short rib sandwich. The meat is really flavorful and bread is crunchy on the outside yet still soft. The chicken wings are good too. For drinks I like their Vietnamese coffee or Thai tea. Parking is difficult is this small plaza read more

We tried four different dishes - bulgogi noodles, chicken noodles, steak sandwich and Cajun fries (total around $35, which was enough food for 3 people). All were great, but be warned - these are heavy dishes. Don't plan on going out and being active after! Very oily, but delicious. You order at the register and pick up your food at the kitchen window. The lady at the register was very nice and explained the menu and their most popular items since we had never been before. read more

Nguyen's Kitchen - I forgot to save the photo prior to the caption but steak sandwich, chicken and bulgogi noodles and Cajun Garlic Fries - Vietnamese Near Me - Costa Mesa, California

Late night grub, this is the place to be at. Their garlic noodles and fried chicken are my go to's here. Service is quick but heads up food can be a bit pricy! read more