Spotted Cow Viet Kitchen

They ripped my family off. We asked for more meat because we only got 3 small pieces. When we asked for more, the waiter said, «Look, cheap price. We give extra but pay extra.» She pointed her fingers and showed us the price. Haven’t they heard the expression, The Customer is ALWAYS right???

Good enough and cheap enough to be visited three times this month. The first time I visitted with my brother who ordered the beef phở, which had me craving phở for the next few days. On my second visit I tried the vegetarian phở and my boyfriend had a 12″ in BBQ pork sandwich. We were both satisfied. The server was fast and friendly. When I asked for extra cilantro, boy did he deliver! I did however find my veggie phở to be more on the American side. The babby corn, zuchinni, celery, cabbage, bamboo, and American broccoli threw me off, but it was still good. Those are just a few of the veggies my dad throws into his American-​Chinese dishes. This was also my first time ever finishing a bowl of phở in one sitting! And I’ve gone out for phở since I was really little. It was delicious!

On a cold wintry day in San Diego, it was a wonderful idea for lunch. I had only tried the sandwich before and decided to try out the phở today. BBQ Pork Sandwich was delicious when I had tried it before — and today it was the #1 Beef Phở Special.
This may be my second time eating phở — so this is coming from a phở beginner. Upon first look when they make it, they grab a bowl, fill it up with the noodles, and then move along grabbing the variety of meat that goes into each time of phở along with the rest of the ingredients. I killed the entire bowl of phở which was a total first. The first time I had phở though — had to give it to someone else as I couldn’t finish it. Tasty and a delightful broth to match — delicious! Plus might have been a tad cold.
We also got the egg rolls which was AMAZING if I may add. Three words: TOTALLY WORTH IT. This put me at a total crossroad. I have always said that lumpia was my favorite of all time… but after having the egg rolls, I am totally at loss at which is better. The taste of the combination of ingredients within the egg rolls goes along so well with the crispy outside layer and the sauce that comes with it.
Will DEFINITELY come here more hopefully to bump into those delightful Bao bun tacos which look pretty tasty as well. Mmmm — my stomach was pleased.
Plus parking was not a big hassle as Spotted Cow Viet Kitchen is within Zion Market so there is plenty of parking.

Hunger pangs too strong to ignore prior to a shopping trip in Zion market. I did not want to venture out of the shopping center to grab a bowl of phở from a joint on Convoy St. On towards this fast food vietnamese kitchen. Other than phở, they sell banh mi also.
Boasting a customizable phở building experience, I picked the phở chicken with all the fixings expected in a regular bowl of phở. The employee created it in less than two minutes, whoa so fast (hence fast food). The side basil, bean sprouts, jalapenos, and lime wedge did not look fresh and a bit wilted.
Sitting in the cafeteria area, lobby was clean and plenty of seating to be had. So much space I can eat my phở without bumping anyones’ shoulder. The broth was not piping hot, rather lukewarm and not really appetizing. The flavor of it reminded me of american style chicken noodle soup, and I was put off a bit. Chicken meat to vermicelli noodle ratio was less chicken more noodle. The meat tasted okay, unimpressed. Not feeling the phở, I tried to salvage it by adding sriracha sauce directly to the bowl. It helped the aroma and flavor a bit, but the bowl has no soul.
I give props that they have friendly and fast service, but the phở creation needs to be an ongoing and slower paced process. Also, they gave me a plastic fork to drink the broth from the phở. Phở real?

Too bad this place isn’t it’s own restaurant!
You can have lunch here for less than $ 10.
The broth of the phở is phenomenal and the noodle dishes are pretty huge for what you pay for. The chefs seem to be cooking all the time so what you are getting is freshly cooked meat.
If you’re lucky, they have Bao bun tacos out for display, all packaged and ready to go. I tried the BBQ pork buns, which included pickled carrots/​radish and cilantro. Almost the same things that go into banh mi, but I liked the buns because they are softer and easier to eat.
I saw a complaint about the ratio of ice to Vietnamese coffee and I wanted to defend the restaurant. It’s actually supposed to be a small serving and they give you a big cup for your ice. Vietnamese coffee is very strong and you shouldn’t be drinking a huge cup of it anyway. It’s traditionally poured over a lot of ice. When you make a serving of coffee, it’s about ²⁄₃ cup of boiling water with the coffee grounds, and filtered into condensed milk and poured over ice. Many vietnamese places with pre-​made coffee will have their cups less than half filled and will add the ice upon purchase. I’ve seen it a lot growing up.

Trying to eat less meat, its not that easy but we got here the noodles with fake chicken and it was delicious. Plus friendly and fast service.
I thought for $ 9.95 we would get a bigger portion than what we had. :/​but overall it was good.
Also the subs are yummi! :)

Terrible. I ordered vietnamese broken rice with grilled and shredded pork and meatloaf or com-​tam-​suon-​cha-​trung. (The T7). I get a fried rice chopped jumble! They do not know what Vietnamese food is.

Trash service. My mom was in line and saw one of the servers give one girl huge portions of meat in her phở, but someone else served my mom & COUNTED the pieces of meat in her bowl. Exactly 3 slices of meat and one or two other things in it, and when she asked for a little more (she’s ordered here before & had more portions), the server said no. Are you serious? So my mom asked to speak to the manager and the manager pointed at the menu and said, «You see the price? It’s cheap, so that’s what you get.» What a joke… so we asked for a refund.
One of my relatives knows the owners here and says they make tons of money, so what is another two slices of meat to them lmfao. Hope they read this and any other future customers.

I am a big fan of Zion’s food court. It is a great alternative to UTC whenever I need to bring a lot of people to lunch and no one can decide on what they want. Inside this giant food court, there is this place, Spotted Cow, one of the better named Vietnamese places. Here they serve a variety of foods from phở to banh mi. They have a variety of lunch combos that are decently priced too. Food service doesn’t take too long depending on what you order. If you order any of the «Grill» items (starts with T) then it can take longer because they are made fresh to order.
half banh mi lunch — it’s pretty decent! I usually get BBQ to be on the same side and I’ll admit that it is decent. It comes with an egg roll and a drink. I recommend the roasted coconut juice! The banh mi didn’t knock my socks off but I definitely had worse. Egg roll is decent as well. It is surprisingly filling! You can opt for the full sandwich if you want but you’ll food coma after.
BBQ pork egg noodles — these stir fry egg noodles with tons of bbq pork. These are made fresh to order so it can take some time but it isn’t that long. They also serve it to you ON A BOAT. For a to-​go place! The noodles have quite a bit of flavor, and best of all it isn’t greasy! The BBQ pork are cut in small pieces and easy to eat. They are tender and well seasoned. This is probably my favorite order here.
The drinks served here range from jasmine ice tea to canned drinks. The canned drinks are expensive so I recommend you opt for the ice tea instead. The menu can be confusing when it comes to ordering so make sure to ask questions! It can get expensive if you’re not careful!
Overall, as a food court place, it is decent. I feel that if it was a restaurant on its own, it would not survive too long because the prices are a bit too high for the quality and quantity of food that you get.

I’m not usually write a review for restaurants, specialist bad review, actually this is the very first one.
I’m a Vietnamese and I do support for all of the Vietnamese restaurants, but this one is totally frustrating. I had stayed in front of their food shelf for 15 mins, and both of two service in there didn’t even look at me.(I’m not an Invisible, fosho). And then a Vietnamese guy in there asked me to order, after that, I had to stand 15 more minutes to wait for the cute White cashier (she was working with the smoothie and I noticed that she had tried to ignore me, so sad).
Don’t wanna talk about the food (it’s the food court in the market so we have nothing to expect)!
At the end, HORRIBLE, just wanna let those services know that they broke my heart!!!

Highly recommend their sandwiches. 3 6″ sandwiches for $ 10. I am eating the bbq pork one right now. It is served w/​pickled vegetables in it, cilantro, w/​bread perfectly toasted.
Follow-​up w/​dessert at the boba bar.

The food here is pretty good. For takeout the Phở taste good. Not authentic, but good. I like the egg noodle soup as well.
Their egg rolls are not that good though.
What is annoying and the only reason I would not return is that if you don’t finish your meal and you ask for take home container they charge you $.59. I even commented that I just paid for 3 meals and you still charge extra. Kind of annoying

This store is located inside of the Zion market. I decide to try a Banh mi sandwich, since I have tried a couple other places that served it. I would have to say that the price was the best out of all of the places, but the actual sandwich itself did not compare to the others. I hardly ever leave food on a plate, but I couldn’t even finish this sandwich it just did not appeal to me.

Feeling a bit under yet needed to go to Zion Market to shop. Thinking, «Hey, why not get some phở to make me feel better?» Wrong! Broth was super salty. I just ate the pork and veggies because I was starving. The pork had little flavor to it and I wonder what they used to marinade it because it was like fluorescent pink and not that traditional red with black char. The veggie combination threw me off as well. Somebody needs to work on their knife cuts. The onions, scallions, and celery were all sorts of chunky sizes. And yes I did say celery. Out of the dozens of phở places I’ve been to this is the first time I’ve seen celery. As Scooby would say, «ruh roh.» That probably should have been a clue that things were not quite Vietnamese kosher. So won’t go there again.

Is this bowl of Special Beef Phở really legit? Hold on, I’m asking my sainted Irish grandmother. Ok, she says YES, this is as genuine as any bowl of vietnamese Phở this far from ‘Nam and Ireland. For $ 5.99, I got a big bowl of richly flavored broth with various parts of the cow, including rare steak, brisket, flank, tendon and tripe, and oodles of noodles, and all the yummy add-​ins, such as bean sprouts, basil leaves, lime, and jalapeño. They also let me get a ½ order of crunchy egg rolls for $ 3.50. I elected to omit the tripe from my Phở.
The Spotted Cow is in the eclectic food court inside of Zion Market. The prices are reasonable, and the service is helpful.
Yes you can have a real soup spoon if you ask, but remember to return it. If you don’t ask, you’ll be given a small plastic spoon.
I enjoyed a 6-​inch ginger chicken sandwich for $ 3.75 on my 2^nd visit. The baguette was crunchy outside and fresh inside. I also tasted my husband’s BBQ pork sandwich. While the pork was good, I preferred the chicken.
They also offer vegetarian Phở and chicken phở, plus other dishes. I’ll definitely return when I’m in the area.

Located inside of Zion Market this place probably has the least busiest of lines and fastest turnaround (depending on what you’re getting). Take a gander at your wallet and know you’re paying for a pretty decent in size and flavor, but dont expect too many crash-​boom-​bangs! Remember, this is still a food court!
Food:
— Chicken Phở ($ 5.95): The first thing you notice is the really rich broth; it’s hard NOT to notice the broth because it just packs in so much flavor, and also a little bit of worry because phở broth is normally not as strong. You really get a whiff of stronger spices that they use so, maybe be a little worried! They give a generous-​generous portion of noodles which is very welcomed, but again nothing special from regular rice noodles. Throw in some pieces of dark chicken meat and that’s apparently your main entrée. What’s nice is that it’s set up like a little bar so you can ask for more onions or cilantro before you take it away. I have to admit that I had a little bit of a challenge slurping every drop because of how strong all the flavors were, and probably ingested 235x my recommended sodium intake. If you want to compare this to something, imagine a really hearty bowl of chicken soup that does hit a funny spot for phở, but also leaves you wondering why the other ingredients just simply bowed down to the soup.
Pros:
— Very fast service and food prep. If you want phở, you’ll get it within a few minutes.
— Customization of veggies on the spot! Tell them what you want and you’re good.
— Cheap and budget-​friendly! A solid lunch for 6.50ish after tax is pretty awesome.
— Easy access to other food options and Zion Market!
Cons:
— Really dinky portion of bean sprouts and other fixins.
— They don’t give you the caved asian soup spoon. You’re just ganna have to enjoy it with a normal plastic throwaway one.
— Not very representative of good phở. Sad. Hence the three stars.
I’m glad I finally checked out this place, and I’m glad they do provide what they do. Sometimes I want to just pay a few bucks and get a decent phở meal, and well, here it is! But really, everyone will probably agree that their soup is a little over-​the-​top, and not in the best of ways.

I actually didn’t expect much from this place or any other food shops in Zion Market because my friend had told me that it wasn’t good.
I decided to try the Spotted Cow since I was craving something soupy. I ordered the Bun Bo Hue (Spicy Beef Noodle). It came out in a big portion! The dish was actually good. It didn’t taste authentic as I’d like it to be but it was still good. I loved the spice level to it. It perfectly complimented the whole soup. The only thing I would say is that they didn’t give out much vegetables on the side as normal restaurants do.
Service was good. The lady was very nice and food came out quick.
I’d probably give this place 4 stars because of the service and the food was better than I expected!

If you are hungry enough to eat a cow after an intense round of grocery shopping, look no further. This place has great phở for a great portion, price, and most importantly flavor!
I got the beef phở this time, and was pleasantly surprised by the sheer size of the bowl and its overflowing contents. Though the noodles were bountiful and the soup was rich, it was a bit too rich for my taste. I had lime on the side and oyster sauce to cut the richness, but near the end of the bowl, it proved too much for me. I don’t know if that’s a viable complaint though, since I’m sure some people like that :)

Vietnamese food in the food court of Zion market! We stopped by on the way to a friend’s house in need of some lunch and were craving sandwiches. There were so many choices, but I was starving and craving a big, freshly made sandwich. They advertised sandwiches on the menu, but I had trouble trying to find what was actually in the sandwich. When I got to the front of the line, I found I had the choice of BBQ chicken, BBQ pork, lemongrass pork, or tofu vegetable. I wasn’t in a BBQ mood, so I chose the lemongrass pork… wishing I could just have plain chicken. The person who took my order convinced me that the sandwiches were tiny and I needed the larger size. So, I then waited 15 minutes… which seemed pretty long for a cafeteria style place that wasn’t that busy. Finally, my sandwich came out… and, though I was famished, the small would have really been enough. I enjoyed the bread and veggies, though the meat did not have much of a lemongrass flavor.
All in all, the wait was a bit much, and the sandwich was not bad. I probably would not go out of my way to go there again.

Although I had a difficult time locating the spotted cow, I did however enjoy some rather larger tasty egg rolls from this place located inside of the Zion Market. The egg rolls came in a set of six and they were not you average small Vietnamese egg rolls, but these huge cigar looking rolls which came with some fish sauce and a side of lettuce and fresh mint (
).
The beef rolls had a great crunchy well fried exterior (
). The rolls came stuffed with ground beef, glass noodles, and carrots (
). They were piping hot and all the ingredients tasted great. Some of the rolls I wrapped with the fresh lettuce and mint provided on the side (
) and then dipped in the fragrant fish sauce (
). This was the way to go with these rolls. At six dollars and some change, these were a good deal, given their large size. I was only able to it three of them, so these would be great for sharing.
Service was good, and if you are not ordering phở, you can order the egg rolls at the register, not at the line were customers have their phở assembled.