cha ca was good but i wish it came with rice paper and more fish. really good flavor though and lots of fresh veggies. would come back

This review is strictly for the pho. I came here with my parents after an appointment, and we didn't have that many choices in the area as most places opened at 11am, but we were there a little before 10am. Thien Long was already opened before 10am and the reviews didn't look too bad, so we decided to try it out. There were 4-5 parties already seated so I guess it meant the place shouldn't be too bad right? Wrong. The table we were seated at smelled strongly of bleach or some cleaning chemical and kind of made my appetite diminish, so I wasn't as hungry once I got my food. Then the pho came...The soup was not hot enough and didn't cook the raw beef that normally tops the noodles. I didn't think much of it, so I just threw it under the noodles and ate. Once I got to the car, my mom said the soup wasn't hot enough either for her, then I was like okay...it's not just me. Fast-forward hours later and my stomach starts making noises and feeling unwell. Then the rest of the day, I didn't really have much of an appetite and frequented the bathroom. Literally all I had that day before the stomach problems was the pho. tldr; be cautious of getting pho here and make sure the soup is definitely hot enough. Ours wasn't necessary lukewarm, but it definitely could have been hotter. I'm skeptical about coming here again, but maybe next time I'll just come for their signature dish. Oh yeah, CASH ONLY!! read more

Racist Restaurant. Don't go here!. I took the wife out to dinner at Thien Long Vietnamese restaurant on Aborn Road last night, and the wife ordered Goi Cuon (Vietnamese Spring Rolls). Waiter said, "Sorry, but we don't have anymore Goi Cuon", so my wife ordered another dish. 5 minutes later, an American couple (white American) sat down and also ordered Goi Cuon, and the waiter said, "Yes mam, I'll bring it right out", and in 2 minutes Goi Cuon was on their table. I asked the waiter, "why did you serve them Goi Cuon and not us? His response, "Because they're American, and if I don't serve them Goi Cuon, they won't come back." I could put up with the nasty food that served since not many Vietnamese restaurants open past 9pm, but I draw the line at discriminating on your own rate. For the owner to use the word "American" to describe the other customer who received "Goi Cuon" was utterly offensive to me ass I too am an American citizen. It's a shame that disrmination still exist, but it's shockingly sad when your own race discriminates against you. I'm proud to be called a Vietnamese American, and I take offense when I'm not treated as an American. It doesn't matter if you're black, white or yellow, you should be treated with respect and equality. Our Four Fathers would roll over in there graves if they ate at Thien Long Restaurant and were driminated against as my wife and I experienced. read more

i usually come here to get the fish on the fire. mmm its good here. has lots of flavors and its soo filling for 2 people. the service is usually quick and thats it. dont expect to get your water refilled though. ohh! the banh bot chien (flour cake with egg) is really good here too. read more

This was one of the best Pho locations I have been to. If you like Pho this place will not disappoint! We got the Number 7 Beef Pho and the 36 A and B enough to feed 5 people and was around 15.00 a person with lots of variety. I will be returning to this location in the future. We drove 45 minutes to get here but well worth it. read more

The food is good and authentic. I love the fish dish (Bun cha ca la vong) a lot. It's definitely a generous portion and would probably feed 3 people easily. Service is pretty no-frills -- you're expected to get your own to-go box and you're pretty much left alone the whole time. Cash only. Parking can be a pain but you can usually find a spot in the lot if you circle around. read more

I have been a customer here for as long as I can remember, but of all the food I've tried I narrowed down my order to only two dishes and those are Banh Bot Chien and Pho Ap Chao Bo. Majority of the time I order the Pho Ap Chao with lots of sauce. My favorite food contains soup/sauce, noodles, meat, and veggies and so Thien Long's Pho Ap Chao does the job! read more

Nice place that opens until late like 10pm - very clean. Their Bun Bo Hue is below average, the pork was so big and hard that it was difficult to chew. read more

The best pho restaurant around. One of the few places around here that serves the chicken's egg w/ Chicken pho. They are also known for their Cha Ca Thien Long, sea bass over a bed of dill and onions, served hot and will keep sizzling for however long you desire. Everyone raves about it. One order is for two people and is served with vermicelli and a bunch of veggies. If you would like, it also comes with the little rice paper so you could wrap it and dip it into the sweet fish sauce (or if you're daring...into mam nem, the pugent vietnamese sauce made with ground up anchovies, salt and pineapples!). My mom and brother loves their Pho Ap Chao as well (Vietnamese pan-fried rice noodles). There are so many things on the menu that are good. None of them are a hit or miss, they're all a hit! Rarely can you find a restaurant where ALL or majority of things on the menu is good, but Thien Long is the exception! Oh and I can't forget...the egg flour cake! A must. Service is always quick and I LOVE the owners!!! :D read more

Highlights - Grilled fish (cha ca la vuong): This is the dish to order here and what this restaurant is known for. Definitely enough to share for two or even three with another dish ordered. Basically it's make your own spring rolls with all the fix-ins provided and a platter of grilled fish. Came with rice paper, lettuce, mint leaves, rice noodles, two kinds of dipping sauce. Skip the brown sauce and stick with fish sauce if you are not a fan of the pungent fermented shrimp flavor. The grilled fish is perfectly flavored grilled with dill, onions, topped with peanuts and came with a side of rice crackers. - Crab tomato noodle soup with water spinach (canh bun): one of the few Vietnamese restaurants that offer this dish. Typically water spinach is not in season so they substitute with different green leafy vegetable. Nit the best and in the sweeter side, but it satisfies my cravings! - Fried flour cake w/egg: It's simple, but delicious with the vinegar soy sauce that accompanied this dish. Improvements - Service can be hit or miss, but expected for Vietnamese joints like this one. - Crab tomato noodle soup (bun rieu): basically the same thing as the canh bun minus the leafy greens. Nit the best, but decent. - Stir fry noodles: skip, nothing special and toppings like veggies and meat were skimpy. Tip - Located in a plaza with a parking lot, but during peak lunch and dinner times, anticipate time to circle around for a spot or park on the street. read more

I would say this is my first time going to a Vietnamese restaurant and not purposely going just for pho. I had never seen or heard of these new dishes so the two of us split three huge dishes. We got the pho ap chao with chicken which is pretty much layers of chow fun stacked on top of each other and then fried. So they are bricks of that noodle mixed with chicken and sauce. I was not a fan of this because the outside layer was just fried and inside was flavorless. I got the chicken pho and that was meh and nothing special about it. What really impressed me was cha ca la vong which is this one silver platter with fish that a lot of people get. it is over $20 but well worth it. It comes with the clear wraps that you dip in water, then you add noodles, veggies and fish to make a wrap. I was a noob and didnt know what to do but the lady was nice enough to teach me. The fish was flavorful and a bit too oily but it is definitely a must. If I come here again, I would just order that dish and that is enough. This place is located in a prime legit vietnamese plaza so you know it is prime time legit. Cash only! read more

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I honestly don't understand why this place is so popular. I think it's just okay but definitely nothing special. I never crave anything here... Nui xao bo luc lac (pasta with shaken beef) is okay. The pasta noodles varies depending on what they have available. The meat is cooked well, it's never overcooked. Pasta noodles and meat are tossed with some onions and bell peppers in a light sauce that I'm assuming is tomato. Sometimes their sauce can be bitter, which has happened to me a few times I've ordered this dish. Mi ga long (egg noodle with chicken) is a little too oily for my taste. The broth was flavorful but not in a good way. They use way too much oil and chicken powder to make the broth. The broth should be a little lighter and made with real chicken for the best broth. Noodles were cooked okay and there was plenty of chicken in the bowl. Banh bot chien trung (fried flour cake with egg) is also okay. I like that the flour cake is super crispy because some places make it kind of soggy and this dish isn't good when it's soggy. The egg scrambled and cooked fully on top of the flour cake. This dish is best made at Han Kee. Overall, there is absolutely nothing special about this restaurant. The service is decent, not ever amazing but not ever horribly bad either. There are plenty of other restaurants in the same plaza and I would much rather be going to those places than here. read more

This place has the worst customer service. Owners just want your money then rush you the hell out!!! Don't eat here!!! It's expensive and terrible service!!! read more

At times, my mom and I would come over to this restaurant to eat. Later on... I don't like this place that much anymore. :/

I believe this place used to be in the Centruy Mall off Story rd a while ago and thought they had just went out of business. Never ate at the one there but took my mom and here family here while she was in town. The unique thing about this place is they have a lot of specifically Northern Vietnamese dishes. They do a pan roasted style fish fillet with dill with vermicelli noodles. You can also get that as a combo with grilled beef which is a killer combo. They also make a fried Pho dish, where they take the rice noodles and fry them in a mold and cut them up into crispy squares which can come with a cariety of different meats. I'd say if you're coming here you want to hone in on those northern style dishes and skip things you'd see at any other Vietnamese places like Pho. Always a good step to ask for a restaurants specialties. The service here was actually pretty amazing against other comparable Vietnamese joints. We had a party of four but because we had so many different dishes with so many plates they put together another table of four for us. it was funny because there was the same sized table with like 9 people next to us. So props to the customer service here for being totally accomodating and pro active considering how crowded it was. read more

came here starving on a weekend night, only to find a live snail in my side leafy vegetables for my bun bo hue, which by the way, was horrible. when i called the waiter over to take it back, he just looked at the snail for a good 5 seconds, before he reacted and took it back. read more

Place does not deserve a four-star. We ordered their signature dish, Cha Ca La Vong. Their veggies came out unwashed and still have bugs crawling on the leaves. We showed it to the owner, she said "sorry" and still charged us full price. Another incident was when our friends ordered a soup based item that also came with veggies. There was a worm on one of the leaves. They took the worm off with their fingers and walked away. read more

Pricing is average like other restaurants. But the food is worthy enough. Collections have the cha la vong, come than etc. The environment is clean and well keeping and they have two flat TV. Crowd is not less than other popular restaurants specially at the peak hours time. The most important is honesty that I got here. read more

Finally tried the Bun Cha Ca La Vong! We actually were originally going to order the other sizzling platter dish that had beef and onions in the description, but our server insisted we should get the fish instead, saying it's their specialty. We took his word for it and ordered the fish, an order of banh xeo, and a plate of the Bo Luc Lac to share amongst the 3 of us dining. Wow, what a feast that was. We hardly had any room on the table to fit everything on it, but we managed. My BF and our friend both loved making spring rolls out of the fish. I only had room for one, I was so stuffed from the rest of the meal. But IMO the fish was just ok to me because I didn't like something about the herbs used. LOL I think I just have a picky palate. The shaking beef was still as delicious as I remember. And the banh xeo was good, but not as good as my boyfriend's mom's! =D But this is still one of my favorite Vietnamese restaurants for sure! read more

Thien Long - cha ca la vong - Vietnamese Near Me - San Jose, California

this restaurant serves pretty tasty food! my party of 6 came in yesterday morning and our wait was about.... 2 minutes...not bad for a vietnamese restaurant! haha we ordered com tam suong thit nuong, Ca Thanh Long, bun rieu, bun thit nuong, and dried seafood chow mein. the food was really good and service surprisingly was pretty good as well. our server was really patient with us because he came to take our order and we weren't prepared yet. i was very impressed with the ca thang long the most because the quality of the fish was fresh and the flavoring of it was lightly topped with curry which i love and reminded me of my mom's cooking....very very impressive since my mom is #1 cook in san jose!= ] our bill for the above foods + 1 orange juice + included calculated tip = ~$72 i'm definitely coming back with family next time! yum read more

My grandparents were the ones to introduce us to this restaurant, so you KNOW it's legit Vietnamese food. Thien Long is soooooooooooooooo good. Their speciality is the "Cha Ca" which is grilled pieces of fish and the "Pho Ap Chao" which is deep fried pho, with a gravy and stir fry veggies and meat. The prices are also reasonable. Two thumbs up for Thien Long. :) yummy. San Jose Vietnamese food at it's best. read more

Classic ESSJ-authentic Vietnamese cuisine-cash only-deliciousness. There's so many good choices. Fan favorites: Banh Xeo and Mi Ga

I absolutely love this place!! Every time I come here, the food never lets me down! Everything on the menu I absolutely love! Came here last weekend and decided to try the canh bun, loved it. Definitely gets super packed here on Sundays since no one works on Sundays, so prepare for a wait if you come on sundays. Parking in this plaza sucks too so you been warned. read more

Thien Long - Canh bun! Yums! - Vietnamese Near Me - San Jose, California

The crispy catfish spring rolls are to die for! I crave this and whenever I'm in town I try to stop by. Be sure to crumble the sesame crackers on top before rolling up the spring roll. It doesn't have much flavor it self but that crunchy texture is bomb.com. read more

Omg the catfish with dill here is AMAZING!!! Very highly recommended. We have taken kids of all ages here and even the picky ones have found something they like. read more

We love Pho and we were excited to visit this place. First downside, they only take cash. Who carries lots of cash nowadays? They have an ATM machine inside, but it is kind of tacky. Food was good, but not good enough to carry enough cash in my pocket to go back and eat at this place. read more

Not a good place for vegetarians for sure. I tried fried rice noodles. It is way too greasy.

If only Yelp allowed 0 stars. Been a regular customer here for years and rarely post yelp reviews. However, today's horrible experience had to be documented. I bought a party tray of their grilled pork. We buy this routinely because it is delicious and feeds our family for several days. But today was different. We began eating and instantly the kids had a weird look on their face. I took a bite and knew instantly something wasn't right. The meat had a sour taste and very dry. I kept eating thinking I just had a bad piece. Second piece was the same, very off taste. My son made a comment and said dad this meat tastes weird. I knew it wasn't just me. So we decided to return it to exchange for another tray. We figured we got a bad batch, no big deal. When I came back to exchange it I described how the meat didn't taste right. She actually grabbed a piece to eat to taste it! Which I thought was pretty brazen of her in our current COVID environment. She said nothing was wrong with it and became very defensive, claiming they sell this all day long. We had cut them into small pieces and she raised her voice and said how come you cut it?? How can we sell it now?? I was appalled! Did they actually intend to resell our returned meat?? I asked if she actually intended to resell it again, and did not get a response. This was absolutely terrible customer service. I eventually got my money back but was left exhausted by the argument we had. I kept having to explain to them that the meat was bad. After being a loyal customer for years I can no longer support this place. Had they simply exchanged it with a simple apology all would have been forgotten. Instead they lost a long time customer and probably more after I tell my family and friends about this wretched experience. read more

This is one of my favorite Vietnamese restaurants in the area. The place is clean, prices are reasonable, and the food is good! Service is also fast and friendly. I like coming here for the bo luc lac and the bun rieu. Their pho bowls are satisfying as well. When I come here hungry, my stomach leaves happy because the food here is deliciously filling. read more

This is the place we go in the South Bay when we're in the mood for Kalbee-like ribs! They give you yummy grilled goodness with a mountain of rice, egg, and crisp fresh veggies for a whopping $6.50! For an extra $2 you can request double beef! NOT BAD, EH? But I don't really merit a place based upon portions, rather the quality of food, service and preparation. These guys got it down (Yes, even the service is decent here!). Haven't tried the Pho, as my favorite Pho spot right now is just a few doors down from this place..BUT the #17 Chicken & Liver noodle soup looks like somethin' I'll have to try next time! read more

Well Pho Cuong used to be my favorite pho place.. until NOW! I've heard of this place from everyone but never got a chance to try it. This place was amazing.. right when I walked in I noticed it was probably the cleanest pho place I had ever been to and it smelt of delicious food. I got a seafood pho and the broth was amazing.. literally the first time I could taste a BIG difference from other places. They had a little onion and garlic flavor to the broth that I just don't get at other places. Cheap beer is also always a plus to have with my pho! The flour pancake was also amazing and GIANT! I hate cash only but I can stop at the bank for this place! read more

Very poor and bad service! I'm so disappointed! This waitress Like what the hell, we were eating and she's standing beside us waiting for us to get done! And the food it's not even that good!!! read more

Really good Vietnamese food. Try the fish and pork. Friendly service. Place is always busy with locals so you know it's legit

MMMmmmM their Cha Ca La Vong is SCRUMPTIOUS! Grilled pieces of lightly battered, yet very flavorful fish laying on a bed of veggies and roasted peanuts. YUM. It even comes out on a sizzling platter that continuously cooks the fish and keeps it warm as you eat. The order is accompanied by a plate of fresh veggies, thin white vermicelli noodles, and some rice crackers for you to enjoy with the fish. They also serve two types of sauces (nuoc mam and mam nem) for you to dip the fish and veggies with and both are delicious! This is a fantastic dish to share between two people and it's definitely my favorite thing to order here! Oh their Banh Bot Chien (Fried Flour Cake with Eggs) is also a great appetizer. It's a must-try if you haven't yet! read more

First and last time. Food was so so, but the service was horrible. First off, they sat my wife and I at a dirty table with stains on it. They didn't even bother to clean it. I spilled some hot tea on the table to use as water to clean the table. Afterwards, they brought all of the fixings for the main dish that we ordered, but they didn't bring out the actual dish. We sat there for 20 min before we had to call someone over to us to bring us our main dish (grilled fish wrapped with rice paper). Lastly, they accept cash ONLY, but don't have any signs up that say it, so I had to take out money from their ATM to pay for it. Needless to say, I won't be coming back. read more

Drove 25 minutes here for the Cha Ca La Vong - and it was well worth it! Can't wait to bring the family here to try it out. The order is plenty to share for two people ($25); it's even better if you have three people and order another dish to share. The rice paper is $2 but good value too (they give you a good stack of it). Also, having had this in Hanoi for almost the same price and 1/3 of the fish, Thien Long is super generous with the fish and herbs that make up this delicious dish! Thumbs up read more

Their signature dish ... nice atmosphere.. good waiters/waitresses friendly service clean foods ok

Overall Best Vietnamese in San Jose - Service is good, there are many options which many places do not have, and I havent had anything that sucked here. I now go here once a week or more. I typically get the Green Papaya Salad and choose one other item....their Salad is addicting, and for only $5.50, its a no brainer....it can be a meal unto itself as a little beef is in the mix ( a viet style beef jerky), peanuts, basil, cilantro, and a nice fish sauce based dressing I believe it to be....anyone I have taken here loves the place and this salad especially always....Its cash only and they have an ATM inside for conveniece.....TVs are all over the place - so its cool to chill here and chat with friends or even solo. The Pho stacks up well with anything in SJ, some days its better than others - based on the Broth quality that day - but its never terrible. Many people come for the Fish - the Bun Cha Ca La Vong - a Cod dish. You can get it for a party of people on a large hot plate which is fun...or get a personal sized one upon request. I have had many things on the menu and its always solid.....overall, the best Vietnamese in San Jose based on the number of options and consistency. The prices are good value as well. I used to think Saigon Restaurant based on the decor was the best, but its not always consistent and the prices are much higher. read more

Came here on 2 separate occasions, and both were satisfactory visits. The food was delicious and prompt, and the wait staff was quite friendly especially for a Vietnamese restaurant. On my first visit, I had the tomato pasta with filet mignon, which was delicious and tender. And on my second visit, I opted to try the banh mi, and my taste buds just fell in love. I'd definitely be making more visits here if I'm in the area! read more

Went today and 3 empty bowls that the lady gave me all had dried food stuck on them. But she did manage to scrape them off with her dirty fingers before walking away! The bun rieu was horrible and the bun cha ha noi was just alright. The other handful of times I went here were good, what happened? read more