Them Ky

Best Vietnamese rice plates in SF, IMHO.

That was me a few years back leaping up kicking back my chair and running out crying because at my left elbow on the saucer of bean sprouts for my steaming bowl of phở was a lively gigantic bug the nasty sort makes spooks me and makes cry. My friend paid and tried to kill the beast bug but it slipped out of his napkin.
Before that ate there scores of times my gang loved the food and the staff! Now I see they have a seriously bad health score obviously they need to be fumigated.

The food was okay, it’s definitely authentic, complete with the cook yelling at the waiter loudly during lunch time. Got to love these family owned restaurants.
Their menu is very extensive with a combination of Viet and Chinese food it seems.
I’d go back again… just not often.

Food = good. But some items are misses.
#1 Egg rolls = good. But needs more seasoning. $ 6.25.
#15 Radish pancake with eggs = boring, boring, and where is the turnip?! :(Very disappointing. $ 7.95.
#48 Charbroiled chicken with rice vermicelli and vegetables = great chicken, juicy and full of flavor. Plenty of food for one. Definitely worth a try. $ 8.45×2.
#120 Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk = strong and good. $ 3.25.
#137 Three color drink = perfect. Not too sweet. $ 3.25.
Service = friendly.
Prices = reasonable. $ 40.89 for all of the above.
Seating = plentiful. Mostly 4-​tops.
Parking = street.

Despite a smaller restaurant, the lower rating and a low health department score, I liked Them Ky much better than Ha Nam Ninh (located across the street); as many of you have read. The people and workers are much friendlier and efficient. More importantly, they did not call me, «Sir».
I was here for dinner. I had #84; Five-​spiced chicken with shredded pork and an egg mixture over rice. For $ 9.00, the hefty portion was just the right amount and cooked to perfection. The grilled chicken is very moist and not too arid.
I also ordered a colorful jelly drink with my meal. For $ 3.50, I get a concoction mixture of colorful jelly and beans in creamy sweet milk. This is not a bad treat or dessert (however you look at it). And the sweet milk is not overly sweetened!
The Tenderloin has many good Vietnamese restaurants. Them Ky is a good one.

Haven’t dined here in a while, but my mom and I recently ordered Ca Nuong to-​go here.
Excited that they now serve one of my favorite Vietnamese specialties: Ca Nuong (Vietnamese Roasted Catfish)! It takes 45 mins. for the fish to cook (call in early to order) and is about $ 33.
This Ca Nuong dish comes with rice paper, veggies, and two dipping sauces to make spring rolls. So instead of making your spring rolls with shrimp/​pork, you would be making it w/​the roasted fish.
Must order the banh hoi (Vietnamese steamed rice vermicelli noodles) to add into the spring rolls also. Banh hoi is sold separately — $ 3 per order.

**HIDDEN GEM ALERT**
Wow the people here are so friendly and the food is so delicious! My boyfriend and I were in the area seeking some cheap dinner so we dropped in and they sat us down with some tea. We decided to just get banh mi’s to go but the server insisted that we sat and drank some tea while we waited anyways.
It took awhile for the banh mi’s to come but boy were they worth the wait!!! I wasn’t expecting much because the banh mi’s seemed like an afterthought on the menu, after all it was the cheapest item on the menu at $ 4. I got the bbq chicken banh mi and my partner got the bbq pork banh mi and it was SO DELICIOUS!!! The bread was warm and crispy but not hard and was easy to bite into. I wasn’t expecting much out of the chicken but the meat was SO TENDER! It had a wonderful balance in flavor!
I am so excited to go back and try some more of their food because it looks freaking amazing.
It doesn’t look too fancy on the inside but I believe the value of a food establishment relies on the quality of their food and customer service. And they’ve won my 5 stars for both!

The food is serious here. Their clear noodles combo is good. I like the option of having it «dry’ style so that I can add as much liquid as I feel like. one time it was super good but sometimes it’s hit or miss. The sauce was amazing but they lose one star b/​c I like consistency and it’s not exactly consistent here. The Cha Gio/​spring roll wrapped in a soft wrap is good, but they used to have another type here that was better imo.
They have a Chinese pancake here; I think Shanghainese style & it’s very good with the sauce. I highly recommend it, but sometimes it’s very burnt. So i’d check it first personally, especially if you plan to take it to go.
It scares me that their cleanliness or food safety is ⁵⁷⁄₁₀₀ what really!!! It’s posted on Unilocal but I’m not sure how accurate, anyone saw a sign there? And negative that they DO NOT accept credit cards.
However, yes of all the negativity I would still come here due to the fact that I notice they give free food to some neighborhood hobos that peep in to ask for just rice or noodles and I think the bum is a regular? That type of act of kindness makes me feel like I’m doing something good by just eating here. This is part of the business ethics so personally I think it deserves to be in the review. Sharing is caring. :] When you’re having a warm meal indoors, then you look at the poor dude hanging out in the cold wearing a garbage bag… it’s like ouch. right? But I felt ok today, b/​c the hobo got food at the same place too lol. I saw him carry out like 3 boxes so I’m glad he’s fed too. Props for that. I hope other restaurants would do the same for neighborhood bums.
It doesn’t cost too much to spare a meal here and there. I would do it too

very quick service, great food and good price what more could you ask for. Eat once a week at least here for lunch.

This place is kinda in the cuts but it’s worth it for their Vietnamese food! They have the most variety and options on their menu that I’ve ever seen at a Vietnamese place. In some places, this might mean everything is mediocre, but it works at Them Ky!
The beef phở is really good. They have some of the best noodles and broth. The noodles are nice and chewy and the broth is very flavorful.
Another of my favorites is the eggplant fish rice plate with Vietnamese rice.
Their service is quick and friendly, and prices are cheap :)

Great variety of noodle soup selections as well as plate entrees!
If you are confused about what to order, they have food pictures up on the wall! It helps with the vision!
You can expect meals to be in the 10 dollar range!
I love their fried egg rolls here! It is the bomb with the sauce that they provide with the dish! They have good phở noodles and broth! It is comfort food — especially on a cold, foggy SF day!
Don’t expect top notch dining at this spot, but sufficient chairs and tables!
Cash only — unavailable swiping of cards at this time!

Fire roasted.
You can get tomatoes in a can:
Or you can get tomatoes as part of a steaming hot house special soup with a generous assortment of seafood, sprouts and noodles in a tomato broth.
Couldn’t believe how good it was. Couldn’t believe it was just $ 8.
Perhaps their signature dish unless you try the $ 4 roasted chicken bánh mì on a just the right amount of softness roll. Flavor kept coming. So did the tasty prices.
Seemed like the lady helping me took more time to answer my questions than it took for the food to be prepared. Took even less time to eat it.
Extra large photos of the various menu items adorn the walls along with strands of lights. No reason why not. They should be proud of their offerings.
This place is on fire.

One of my favs when i am flush and slumming in that part of town.
The House Special Salad is a vegetarians delight (just give the shrimp chips to your non-​vegetarian dining partner). The Phở is enough for two normal people, but perfect for a growing boy like myself. The spring rolls are great, and I love the Clay Pot Shrimp and Spareribs, which may or may not be authentic Vietnamese, but who’s asking?

Definitely not a place to take your family or date. Up next to the counter was ant/​roach spray, behind the counter was a mess and the food was just okay. Very traditional food, without a lot of flavor. I had to ask for sugar, salt, pepper and other spices to make my broccoli beef tolerable. My friend had a sweet/​sour chicken that tasted mostly like vinegar and smelled like bleach. (Yes bleach) Customer service was nice when we got the lady who spoke english. Most of the employee’s do not, which is not bad but annoying when you need something and you have to go through a chain of command just to ask for some sugar, silverware, extra napkins etc.

Cheap (~$ 8 for a big bowl!), but not that good. Beef Phở broth lacked rich flavor, but included lots of meat and toppings. There was enough noodles to fill 2 people.
Opens early. Would return only for their iced vietnamese coffee.

I adore this place! I’ve been to the more famous restaurant next door (Hai Ky Mi Gia) and I like Them Ky better. This place is legit with some pretty authentic dishes (a lot of offal to go around). I came here for lunch with a coworker and we shared the taro cake appetizer place and Ariel ordered the combination beef parts phở (don’t know how else to call it, but it has beef balls, stewed beef, tendon and sirloin) and I had the beef stew phở.
The taro cake is en pointe. I love taro and the egg batter isn’t oily at all. The little bits of peanuts and pickled daikon added crunch and a bit of salty/​sweet to the dish. The fresh scallions added a freshness element. I think it’s a must order.
The stewed beef phở is also great. The meat and tendons are cooked down and the stew is so flavorful. My only complaint is that the rice noodles are slightly overcooked and could be a bit more chewy, but that’s a minor complaint.
Overall, I highly recommend this place. It has a lot of dishes that you can’t get at Americanize Vietnamese places. The price is cheap and the wait is short. I would like to go back and try the curried lamb stew phở. Can’t wait!

Came here for a vietnamese banh mi sandwich. It was made to order and the bread was fresh — crispy and flakey, just the way I like it. The meat had a great flavor. The one downside is that they don’t have pâté.
Here’s a cool article from Tasting Table about Them Ky Restaurant:
If I lived in the city, I’d frequent this little hole in the wall…

We wanted to go to Ha Nam Nimh for dinner on Friday evening but as observed by everyone lately, that place opens whenever it feels like it.
So we were stuck with few Vietnamese options. We wandered over to Ha Nam Nimh hoping for good cheap eats.
Well, it was pretty cheap but it was Not very tasty
Egg Rolls (Imperial rolls) — pretty good; but completely fell apart everytime i picked it up with chopsticks and tried to dip it in the fish sauce. Messy
Bun Bo Hue– terrible noodles; i like al dente but i think this was waaaay undercooked. Soup was ok. Meat in the dish was not really edible; very tough, compeletly overcooked. I ended up just drinking the soup and eating the noodles
I’d completely skip this place

With a few of my favorite phở joints relatively close to me (PPQ!), it’s not often I head down to the TL just to get a bowl of phở. If and when I would though, Them Ky was usually my go-​to choice — solid food, reasonable prices, and plenty of seating. So while it’s great that two of the three are still true, the most important one (the food) is nothing like I remember.
As my friend and I flipped through the menu, it looked as though a handful of items had been added since my last trip. Since it’s been a couple of years though, I can’t say for sure. Regardless, I stuck with two of my usual orders at Them Ky — Beef Phở with Rare Steak and Well Done Flank (Tai Chin?) and a BBQ Pork Banh Mi to take back home.
While the noodles and rare steak in the phở were fine (
), I thought the flank was a bit tough and that the broth was a little funky. I can’t really describe it, but rather than a rich and savory flavor, it tasted somewhat fragrant to me. Perhaps it was just one bad mix of seasonings (or the spoon they gave me that smelled like bleach), but it didn’t seem that way before. Although it was edible, I admit I added a decent amount of sriracha and plum sauce to cover it up.
As for the banh mi (
), it’s still pretty decent, but I remember liking it more before than I do now. I don’t know if it’s my preferences that have changed or the rolls that they use, but I wish the bread was a little lighter. Again, that’s just what I prefer though; otherwise, it’s still a pretty good sandwich and the meat still nicely seasoned and flavorful.
I’m sure at some point I’ll be back in the TL again for another bowl of phở, but I’ll probably look to try a couple of other places before I come back to Them Ky again.
CASH ONLY.

OK, I have to admit I was kinda nervous eating here. I call it the Tu Lan Too Little Too Late Syndrome. It’s that creeping feeling you have when you step into a family-​run restaurant that looks rather run down with the slightly faded photos of their specialty dishes on the wall, but you feel like you committed yourself because you’re the only one in the place about to eat their food. Your conscience overrides any health concerns you are about to face by sitting down and ordering something off their menu.
After all, what’s so bad about a stomach pump when you’re helping a business survive for another day? Them Ky is not quite that bleak. There appears to be a stream of regulars who come here and trade bon mots with the ladies who run the joint. The food didn’t appear to be hazardous either since here I am writing this review in an upright position several days later. My motivation for coming here was that they serve Steamed Chicken. Yes, many people chafe at the concept, but I happen to like it if it’s prepared right.
They prepare it decently, but the portion is quite skimpy with a whole lot of rice to offset the plate (see photo). No chopped ginger and garlic to spread on it either, just a nondescript sauce for dipping. I guess I shouldn’t have expected too much for $ 6.45. I had better luck with the $ 4.75 Shrimp-​Pork Rolls, which turned out to be a pair of jumbo-​size spring rolls filled with a lot of lettuce and cellophane noodles. At least they served the right sauce for that — a thick peanut one with chopped peanuts on top, an ample amount for dipping (see photo). Will I return? Maybe but I may need to take some meds for my syndrome beforehand.
FOOD — 3 stars… decent enough with a robust spring roll that pushes this rating up a bit
AMBIANCE — 2 stars… well, if I had stock in Formica…
SERVICE — 2.5 stars… a bit surly but not too surprising
TOTAL — 3 stars… Tu Lan revisited… well, er, umm…