Restaurant: Sáu Can Tho Vietnamese Kitchen [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
Location: 8450 Garvey Ave #103, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 307-8868
Date: December 26, 2021
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Rating: Excellent (and so full)!
Every December my Hedonist club goes to this awesome SGV Vietnamese place — which used to be named Phong Dinh and is now Sáu Can Tho. This authentic Vietnamese/Chinese continues to serve up interesting stuff — plus they’re happy to take some of Yarom’s “do it yourself” meats, like his recently shot wild boar.
The new logo.
Our menu for tonight.
Shrimp and Pork Papaya Salad. Mild but nice.
“Dressing” for salad (fish sauce).
Grilled Squid and Mango Salad. A bit of fish sauce. Nice char on squid.
Wild boar sausage (Yarom’s boar). A bit spicy and ridiculously good. Ate way too much. We had a bit of a pacing problem where there was a lull in dishes and I kept eating these.
Spring-rolls with herbs. Delicious.
Goat ribs with beancurd marinate. Good flavor but VERY chewy. Hard to even chew through.
Coconut Snails. Barely any snail meat but the sauce was as good as its ever been.
Famous Baked Catfish. Super soft and tender this time. Delicious. Had 2 which was too much (full later).
Condiments for the fish.
Sauce for the fish. garlic!
Noodles, ostensibly to go in the “fish tacos” but I like it with the curry.
Noodles with coconut curry sauce. So good, but certainly contributing to my over-stuffed state.
Lamb chops. Delicious, lots of char.
Alligator curry. The curry was amazing. Super rich and delicious.
Crisps for the curry.
Garlic butter quails. Very tasty and crunchy. Lots of garlic.
Salt and lime for the quail.
Vietnamese Rotisserie Squabs. Bit of a sweet sauce. Now I was getting lethally full and could barely taste.
Wild boar curry. Again curry was delicious but the boar was too chewy to even get through.
Pepper beef. Tender.
Goat Beancurd Hot Pot. Broth flavor was amazing. Too full to even try more than a taste. Lots of taro and beancurd.
Greens for the curry.
I’m sure the curry would have been great with the noodles, but I didn’t dare.
Jelly dessert.
I love this flavor — Peppermint Bark Gelato — Base is pure peppermint milk (subbed the sugar with crushed peppermint candies) and it’s laced with house-made double-sided peppermint bark, Valrhona Dark Chocolate and Ivoire White! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — The Peppermint Bark recipe was developed by a famous pastry chef and author, the mum of a Naughty Dog Alum @nancy_baggett — this year I added the two layer thing which is awesome — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #dessertgasm #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #peppermint #bark #Valrhona #chocolate
Passion for Pistachio Gelato — Sicilian Pistacchio di Bronte DOP custard gelato base with just a touch of Grand Mariner, ribboned with bits of Valrhona Dark Chocolate Passionfruit Ganache — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #pistacchio #bronte #Sicily #Valrhona #Chocolate #Passionfruit #GrandMariner #Ganache
Overall, Sáu Can Tho is a delicious place, and most of the dishes were great — particularly the catfish, boar sausage, snails etc. This is pretty spot on California style authentic Vietnamese, similar to many places in Garden Grove / Westminster. I suspect these are mostly Saigon style places reflecting the 1970s exodus of many Vietnamese to America and are part of our great Los Angeles cultural melting pot! I didn’t pace correctly and was so full by the end — painfully full. But I really do love this kind of full service Vietnamese restaurant. A lot of places are small and specialized but for a really epic meal it’s hard to beat Sáu Can Tho!
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