Outside of a 5-star restaurant, I have never had such consistently excellent vegetarian food as Quan The Am Temple. The place is a "hole-in-the-wall" with parking worst than Sen Dai Sushi, but the food is worth the other annoyances.
The food is regular Vietnamese soup and rice dishes (VEGETARIAN), but damn is it good. My wife and I love sushi, which you can tell by the number of review/updates that I (self-proclaimed lazy-ass) have written about Sen Dai Sushi. But we go this temple more often than to Sen Dai, mainly for the food. (I am not religious).
FOOD: 5 stars
There are over a dozen dishes to order from. My wife and I got Mi Tiem and Bun Hue, respectively. In the Japanese movie Tampopo, the noodle soup is excellent when the customer drinks all of the broth. Well, I usually drink the broth at this place. Today, I only drank half of my Bun Hue soup, because I had to leave room to finish the remain half of her Mi Tiem. (I swear she has a stomach the size of a new born kitten - waste of a buffet on her.) Then again, I did drink half of her Mi Tiem soup (too full after that, though I wanted to drink it all.) Both broth was just perfectly seasoned, not too salty, spicy, nor bland. Just right for me to drink it all.
We often get the a la carte stuff to take home for the rest of the week. The a la carte stuff they serve here is better than Di Lac Cuisine. To be honest, I only had one bad noodle soup out of the more than three dozen times I have been here - it was over four years ago. By bad, I mean I did not drink all the broth and left some of the bleh noodles. It was the type with the fat round white noodle ~2" long.
VALUE: 4 stars
Our two bowls of noodle soups came to $13, so $6.50 which I think is the price on all the dishes on their main menu. At other restaurants with that good of a noodle bowl, you would pay at least $8-12 (Vung Tau anyone?). Great food at relatively inexpensive prices, nuff said.
SERVICE: 3 stars (biasedly gave an extra star due to 60+ grandmothers bringing you food on a tray)
Almost all your "servers" are grandmotherly types. These ladies look to be retired/someone's grandmother who are volunteering their time and labor for the temple. They will take your order, give you a number tag, take your money and bring the food to your table. They can be as nice or brusque as grandmothers. If you have questions or need help with anything, then they can be friendly and helpful. Just do not expect them to wait on you like in a restaurant. Everything beyond getting you your food is self-serve. The chopsticks and plastic spoons are in a corner opposite the counter. Once you are done eating, there are tables outside for you to place your empty bowl and trash cans for the leftovers.
DECOR / AMBIANCE: 2 stars
This place a hole-in-the-wall-in-a-temple. The decor is practical - walls, roof, lighting, tables and chairs for you to sit. You won't find anything fancy. The place is relatively clean. Bathroom is much cleaner than most fancier restaurants. My cleanliness standards leans heavily on how clean the bathroom is.
I was actually there when the Health Department came to inspect them. Who knew?! Though looking back, I should not have been surprised since they are a restaurant. The health inspector took quite a while but only had a few quips about the place. Yes, I was a little hesitant on their cleanliness the first time I was there and always uneasy about how clean things are in the kitchen, but after the health inspector came I never had another thought about their kitchen.
PARKING: 1 star (there are a few spaces)
The parking sucks. You think I hate the crappy parking at Sen Dai Sushi? Try this on: if all the people coming here knows how to park (rifting on Asian driving/parking), then you can squeeze in a dozen cars. If you come after 11:45 am, then pray to the Parking God to see if you are lucky enough to get a spot. Do not even think of coming here to park during any holiday/event.
Even though the hours of operations say 9 am to 7 pm, Tuesday through Sunday, I have gone there around 5-6 pm and they have run out of a lot of the dishes, so plan for lunch to get most of your stuff. Also, I have arrived there after 11:45 am and found a parking spot (thank you Parking God), but had to wait 30-60 mins for the food to arrive due to the lunch rush. After 12:45 pm is okay.
OVERALL: quite a few annoyances from this place, but if you can get past those, the vegetarian food is worth the trouble. read more