A Quick Review of Golden King Vietnamese Restaurant

Golden King Vietnamese restaurant has the typical pho and rice plates of a Vietnamese restaurant, virtually idential to that of Golden Star, reviewed earlier. The main difference is Golden King is willing to open a little later and thus is a viable choice at 6PM when Golden Star will tell you they are already closed.

The food tastes almost identical, IMHO to Golden Star, as I also ordered the beef stew pho as a common basis of comparison. Similar amount of beef tendons, very tender beef that falls apart in your mouth, decent amount of fat in the broth (but not too much) with enough connective tissue to remind you you are eating beef, but not steak. There is a bit of spiciness in the broth, in that the waitress specifically mentioned the dish being "spicy", though it's not spicy hot in the hot chili sense, just that there's a bit of a kick in the spices used to prepare the beef.

Actually, after repeated comparison, there seems to be a lot less meat in the Golden King beef stew pho. Maybe half as much.

The portions are quite large and will fill you up. This is the southern style so they will give you some sweet basil, bean sprouts, and such if you want to add it to the broth. I doubt you'll taste it in the beef stew broth, but they offer it anyway. It's really for the regular "pho" broth.

The place is usually quiet and they actually cut off half of the space (the place is on a hill on Clay) to make it easier to control. I usually go in in the afternoon and find it not busy at all, and you should be seated immediately, something that doesn't always happen at Golden Star.

Prices are about the same. I would definitely come back here.

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