Le’s Restaurant

CLOSED
Changing to Toan Ky Restaurant — Chinese Thai & Vietnamese
I went here about 10 years ago and liked it!

I really can’t say anything bad come on it’s like 6 dollars a dish!

This restaurant will always hold a special place in my heart. When I first moved here to San Diego I lived really close to this restaurant so I decided to check it out. Who would have known is was three restaurants in one, the menu offers Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai food. Whenever I stop by there is never a line and the service is always fast and courteous. My favorite dishes are yellow Thai Curry and Pad Thai with beef and shrimp. The proportions are huge and there is always room to share dishes with your dinner partner. In the past disco lights were seen coming from the restaurant so I believe during one night a week is was possibly a club too at one point too. Overall great food and decent prices.

First of all look at the wide swing of star ratings, I was a bit concerned but I realized that sometime you just need to try it and rate it yourself.
We went there at 930 at night, for a Phở fix. It was very very good… to my surprise. The owner came over and spent some time with us asking how the food was and if their was anything we would change to make our experience better (again a surprise) I told her not to take offense to my comments and that it was truly constructive criticism and to take my comments to heart.
We discussed the crazy menu, Thai, Viet, and Chinese… it was a bit much. I told her that she needed to tone it down a bit, the menu was so large that it took a long time for use to figure out what to eat. I told her to record what she sold and to focus on items that sold frequently as for items that hardly move she needed to get rid of them to ease the clutter of her menu.
We discussed the layout of her restaurant, lighting, furniture, and cleanliness. She was great truly listening to what we all had to say.
To qualify my opinion I have travel extensively across south east Asia. I am Asian, my wife is Thai, I also own a catering business and I’ve cooked for parties as small as 4 people to events with over 90k people. I know my food and I know what taste good.
I base my 4 star on the fact that her Phở was great, their service was great and the most important fact, she wants to truly improve her restaurant. I told her I would be back in 2 weeks to see how things were going and to try a few other dishes.

this place sucked big time!!!

Those Stingy new owners have ran this place into the dump! My food wasn’t even thoroughly cooked. The second time I ordered the same food and specifically told them that I want my food to be cooked; again, it wasn’t. Besides that, they don’t add ingredients like Le used to run the place. The result was that the food smelled/​stank. They told me that the chef bought the business from Le. Same food, same chef, why did it turn to be so horrible? I haven’t ordered any food from there for a couple of years now and don’t intend to in the future. Since then, I don’t even look at the place when happen to I drive by.
Did Le open up a new business somewhere?

Le’s Restaurant is officially gone… I’ve actually never had their food, but this review is soley based on Le… He was the nicest and sweetest man ever! I was one of his vendors and he was always sooooo great to work with. I’m just throwing 4 Stars out for Le since he was such a great guy and really cared about his business.

I agree that this place use to be a LOT better. The quality of the food just isn’t as good. And the service is redick! The waitresses are SO awkward! I guess the only reason I’m writing a review is because of my disappointment. I use to REALLY like this place. Oh well.

Its been ages since I’ve stepped foot into this place so since my buddy and I were looking for a late phở-​fix and was in the LV area we decided to hit up Le’s. Seems this place was renovated since the last time I ate here and I noticed that ya’ll stated it had a change of ownership.
I don’t think I should get too much into detail with this place, lets just say the new ownership that everyone else is complaining about is true, this place sucks now. They had one guy serving and taking the orders but it seems the owners got this guy working like a slave, doing all the work when they just sit around relaxing.
I had the typical #1 Phở bowl and I have to say I was sadly disappointed. It just looked sogged up and man, the soup was too thick. I complained about the shady portion of beef and they brought me out another plate, which wasn’t so great either. The beef was horrible by the way! Chewy with no flavor at all! Definitely tasted like left-​overs from the day before, maybe even more than that.
So we get our tab and I noticed they charged me extra for the meat when I clearly stated that I wasn’t happy with the portions. They also charged us for the tea. What phở joint ever charges for tea? :/​
Anyways, they took the extra charge off the tab but insisted we still had to pay for the tea (the tea was also horrible tasting, like its been brewed all day, the taste of the tannins was strong).
Stay away from Le’s. I shoulda Unilocaled this place first before eating here.

Came here on friday with my wife and some friends. I did not expect my friends to be bringing us to a Chinese/​Vietnamese/​Thai restaurant as I had no idea that they were into that sort of thing. Turns out, they had no idea that that is pretty much 60% of what we eat. I was a little skeptical because of where the suggestion had come from, not knowing that they really enjoyed this type of food, but was reassured by the location (in the Vien Dong parking lot and a few blocks from Sab-​e-​lee. In any case, it was a nicely decorated, clean restaurant with a decent sized dining room.
One thing that my wife and I were excited/​skeptical about was the widely varied menu. We (I) immediately decided to forgo the chinese items as, in our experience, these types of places tend to do very mundane renditions of the «classic» chinese stir-​fry dishes. We were very excited about being able to order both thai and vietnamese entrees simultaneously. Between the four of us, we ordered quite a bit.
Before I go any further, I just want to credentialize myself. I recently took a trip through SE Asia, visiting both Thailand and Vietnam. That being said, I only visited Bangkok briefly (which is where the owner is from) and spent most of the time in Chiang Mai, and only visited Saigon in Vietnam. Now, we first ordered the fried spring rolls, which were pretty vietnamese and very good. We also ordered the fried wontons, which were nothing more than battered cream cheese with scallions. I was not impressed, but everyone else loved them. Don’t ask me. One of our friends ordered the vegetable tom yum soup, which had a very strong coconut flavor and would have been very nice with either chicken, shrimp, or both. It was not quite what i was used to as it lacked the dominant lemongrass flavor, but I did enjoy the strong coconut flavor.
Next, we ordered the Yum Nuah, or spicy beef salad. I love the thai version of this and only like the vietnamese version. so far, aside from my own version that I learned to make, this one was one of the better ones that I’ve had. A little too sweet, but it was actually spicy and the beef was very tender and delicious. We also ordered the thai red curry with pork. This dish came with a nice assortment of vegetables, but I have never seen most of these vegetables in a red curry (e.g., eggplant?). I thought it all came together pretty nicely, but still, not the most authentic thing I have ever tasted. My dish, the vietnamese style venison, was very good as well. the waitress did her best to describe this dish to me as a spicy curry type of dish. when it arrive, it was quite different, but still very good. it was thinly sliced venison, not tough like I usually have had and not very gamy, in a sort of peanuty type of sauce that was actually not spicy at all. Accented with some of the thai chili sauce on the table, this dish came together very well. Our friends ordered vegetarian pad thai, which didn’t look great to me, but I’m also not really a fan of pad thai, even the version that they serve in thailand.
We ordered a ton of food and had some leftovers, but it was well worth it for the food and the company. The staff were very friendly and attentive and came and chatted with us at times. The portions sizes were not huge, so we were actually able to eat a decent amount of what we ordered. The prices were about average for thai food, if a bit high for vietnamese, but it was still less expensive than many of the other restaurants we have been to in the area. I have read that they have changed ownership and that things have changed, so that tells me it must have been very good in the past because it was still pretty good in my opinion. They don’t advertise well, but they’re working on it. I heard they have live music saturdays, so check them out and at least give them a try. You can try three different cuisines all in one meal, how adventurous?!

They offer up some great vegetarian dishes. A little pricey for somethings but not bad overall. I would recommend the lemon grass mock chicken. Thai food is also not bad here, especially the tom ka. It is A Ok…
Lets not bash the place after it changed ownership.
If you don’t know, this place has changed ownership. Used to be a 4 star place now its dropped to a 3 in my book but still is in my rotation of good vegetarian restaurants in San Diego.

************DO NOT DO IT!!! HORRIBLE FOOD & SERVICE!*************
Went there with my boyfriend & a group of my friends last night. We were hungry & wanted something to eat. Waitress/​hostess (very immature) didn’t seem to understand English, Vietnamese, or Lao very well, let alone know their own menu. They screwed up on 3 of our orders. 15 mins after taking our order, she came to ask me what I ordered again. My friend asked for Hu Tieu noodles for his phở… ended up getting regular phở noodles. On top of all that the phở was too sweet & they didn’t even provide us with veggies. We ordered spicy papaya salad (10 being the hottest) it wasn’t even spicy at all). Took them nearly 1 hour to bring us our food. There was a total of 6 of us, but the bill ended up being $ 120. I was going to calculate our bill to make sure they got everything correct, but my friends said to just forget it & to just get out of there. BAD SERVICE! HORRIBLE FOOD! NEVER AGAIN WILL THEY BE GETTING OUR BUSINESS. Tip for this restaurant… If you’re going to run a restaurant, PLEASE learn to speak & understand ENGLISH, but most of all PLEASE learn your own menu. Geesh!!! NEVER AGAIN!

This was ONCE our favorite restaurant in San Diego by far. But as you’ll read below, it was sold a few months ago and sadly we won’t be going back there.
The menu was once great — Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai all done very well. The Phở was amazing, the «House Special Beef» was one of the neatest dishes I’ve ever had, and their Thai fried rice was delicious. From catfish to vegetarian entrees, there was nothing they couldn’t do.
Now, the food is just bad. The beef is now chewy and tasteless. The spiciness is erratic. The Phở is lacking in something. Once great-​thai noodle dishes now taste pasty and lack all flavor. The service has gone from personal to rushed and sloppy.
I should point out that after a few renovations, the restaurant is probably nicer inside now than it was before. But it doesn’t make up for the drop in quality.
Avoid Le’s now…

I liked it, my girlfriend didn’t.
Her opinion: I love curry, but it wasn’t the kind of curry that makes me want to finish the bowl, the red or the yellow. Very friendly service, though a bit forgetful– dishes ordered spicy had no spice, and forgot the fish sauce. Chicken was quality breast meat and probably my favorite part of the meal. Not bad, but I wouldn’t go back. I’d rather go to Amarin Thai food on Richmond (between University and Robinson in Hillcrest) and get a lunch special.
His opinion:
I was pleasantly surprised to not see chickens hanging upside down when i entered when I was told it was just outside the Vein Dong sharing a wall with YumYum Donuts. Very clean and comfortable dining area. I shared the Egg Drop Soup with my brother and since we got the big bowl, 3 other mooches jumped in on it and everyone seemed to like it a lot (see slurping the last drop). Also, I ordered the hot tea which was soothing and good (she forgot to mention she thought it tasted like dirty water but who cares what she thinks). The menu is not for the anxious as it has about 300 choices but I was happy with the 4 we made (Garlic Supreme w/​shrimp, red curry chicken, yellow curry chicken, and I don’t remember the last). It was enough to feed 6 of us with leftovers (which I ate today and it was still good!). The staff was friendly, and there appeared to be some sort of Vietnamese bar mitzvah being set up as we were leaving. Apparently they are open friday/​saturday nights for live music and dancing. We didn’t stay for it. Everything was inexpensive and authentic! I say its worth a try!

I was actually surprised when I logged in to do this interview and saw that the rating was so high from others. I really was underwhelmed by this restaurant. I saw it last week by pure accident when I was driving past on my way to another place… so yesterday afternoon I had a few hours off and it was a beautiful San Diego day so I hopped on my motorcycle and rode down to Linda Vista to check it out (just as an excuse).
At first I was unclear about the restaurant’s intentions. The gold lettering on the outside of the place advertised vegeterian food, and also said Chinese and Vietnamese food… but the lettering was very old and peeling off and it actually occured to me that perhaps that’s not even accurate anymore. I saw the menu on the door and investigated it to make certain it wasn’t exclusively a vegeterian restaurant and was relieved when I was scanning the page and saw the word «pork.» I entered.
I saw the menu and realized that the first items I saw were Thai… I flipped through the menu and saw pages of Thai food, Vietnamese food, Vegetarian food, and Chinese food. I was excited, as I like options. I ordered the Tom Ka Gai soup and the Green Curry Pork.
The Tom Ka Gai was solid… nothing special but not terrible. The bamboo seemed canned and that was the first thought out of my head, that they needed to prepare it differently; it was a little too slippery and the taste not fresh. Otherwise, the remaining ingredients were fine. The house salad that came with the lunch combo was weak. The dressing tasted like a combination of lime juice and sweet and sour sauce, and didn’t work. The curry was flavorful but tasted like it was out of a jar, and the rice was very wet so the dish ended up very porridge-​like, and the flavors all blended together. Just wasn’t really anything to write home about.
On the up side, the wait staff were pleasant and the atmosphere was quiet and mellow. Though the easy listening music started to get to me. Listening to James Taylor while eating curry just seems wrong, somehow.

edit: i had given a great review a few months ago, but i have to take it back.
a month or so ago, the ownership changed. i have gone there twice since and the food sucks now. i have got the same thing (vegetarian pad thai) pretty much every time i’ve ever gone there and it tastes terrible now. i asked for it to be spicy both times, and it hasn’t been at all. in my order last night, there were chunks of noodle with no sauce on them at all. it was bland and awful. i would not go back again.
le’s used to be so good, so i’m truly bummed out by this.

This place is a well-​kept secret asian restaurant which boasts the best vegetarian/​vegan chinese/​vietnamese/​thai food in town! This is the big-​brother of the Sipz Vegetarian chain, and it shows! Better food at better prices, and not filled with a million tattooed straight-​edge kids drinking root beer.
Favourites:
–Crispy faux chick’n drumsticks
–Green Curry w/​tofu
–Tom Kah soup (mouthwatering!!)
Another great thing is that I think they’re Buddhist, so if you aren’t a Christian drone, then you can go out to eat on silly holidays like x-​mas and Easter and enjoy great food while everyone else is at home eating nasty canned ham or turkey-​flavoured lunch meat.
AND Le’s is opened until 11pm! If you live within a couple miles, they will even DELIVER your food to you, which is a zillion times better than any pizza joint. Yum!
I love Le’s, and the service is beyond compare! Eat there tonight… You won’t regret it!

This was my ‘hood when I was growing up but to be honest I dont have too many fond memories of LV. This is an amusing story from a few years back and I’d like to share it.
Since I tend to support local businesses I went to this place when I got done shopping at Vien Dong Supermarket. We sat down and ordered some typical Chinese dishes, a stir fry with beef and vegetables, salt and pepper shrimp and I think catfish soup.
As I’m eating, I couldnt help noticing how familiar tasting this food was. It was really good and I truly enjoyed it. Strange because usually I’m not too impressed with cookie cutter Asian restaurants.
I pay the bill and I just happened to glance into the kitchen. Lo and behold, I see my mother. Yes, my mom. She made my food. Obviously she didnt know I was in there and I didnt know that she was part-​timing at this place.
I knew the food tasted familiar but I didnt want to say to my friends «Man, this tastes just like my moms cooking ! «My friends and I and my mom had a pretty good laugh about it. Turns out my mom is friends with the owner and helps out every now and then.

vietnamese, chinese, thai and vegetarian. usually when a restaurant offers a variety of cuisines i’m a bit wary.
le’s is not a classy joint by any stretch of the imagination. there are clouds painted on the ceiling tiles. but it’s GOOD.
the menu is really expansive. i got the vegetarian chicken with basil sauce. the sauce was tasty and there was a ton of veggies. my boyfriend got something from the thai section of the menu. it had mint, chilis, basil and ginger. it was good, but mine was better so i didn’t pick off his plate too much.
they have smoothies and slushes. i got a sour plum slush and it was good, but i was lazy about drinking it and it got all melty.
for adventurous eaters there’s venison, goat and frog on the menu.