So-Q

This was the second time I’ve been here with my friend. We ordered 1 pha lau, 1 banh trang nuong, 1 ha cao chien trung.
Pha lau: didn’t taste like curry. However, it didn’t taste much like the one in Vietnam. I guess it is because not all necessary ingredients are available in the U.S. The bowl was small; the bread was rather soft than crispy. If you are hungry, then it would be passable; but to be honest, I thought it was kinda bland.
Banh trang nuong: so-​so. 1^st time I tried banh trang nuong, and it was not quite as tasty as I imagined.
Ha cao chien trung: my favorite! The ha cao itself tasted just like the ones in Vietnam with lots of stuffing. If I ever come back here, I would order this dish again. It is more satisfying than the pha lau.

First, the greeting was great, I love it, they are really friendly, they greeted with smiles and were easy to talk.
Second, the price was neutral, it was not expensive or cheap, I really like this place.
Third, the food is good and they didn’t take to long to make food and the quality is super good.
This place reminds me about Vietnamese traditional food like banh tran tron, banh trang nuong, bap xao and ha cao.
I am satisfied, you gotta love this place and would visit again!

Service is good. but smoothly is not good.
I got the durian smoothy with large size. but the taste was so light. I hate to say that but it was like water with a little bit flavor.
I give them 3 stars for the service.:)

To be honest, I never even knew this place existed until my boyfriend took me here. Oh my, I’m madly in love with their fish ball with roe and banh trang tron. The lady at the cash register is always helpful, she’s always happy and greet everyone with a smile. You can’t go wrong with going here.
(My boyfriend really enjoys the pha lau here as well, so you must try that. They run out of that in a quickness)

So q —
This place reminds me of tay do where they have Vietnamese vendor street snacks. The only difference is that this place closes super late which I love ! I was so disappointed when I went to tay do at 8pm because on Unilocal it said they open till 10pm? And then we drove all the way there just for them to say that they were closed like huh? I don’t get it? Can you change your hours so I don’t have to drive 20 mins to your restaurant? Wait I’m supposed to write a review for so q not tay do ugh I hate having add .
Anyway, it was on a gloomy rainy Saturday where my mother and I were craving for some pha lau and bot chien right? And tay do was closed so we went here .
I love the fact that it’s not crowded on a Saturday night and I kinda don’t want to give this place a good review just cause if it gets popular then everyone’s gonna know then I have to wait everyone I dine in LOLOL how selfish of me hehe .
They accept credit cards but then when I gave the guy both of them, they both got declined. Like honey my cards have no limits there’s no way it’s declined especially it’s such a small transaction. Having said that, I told the guy to try again because it’s not possible that my card got declined and he was nice enough to try to do it again but then it got complicated because he has to enter all the card numbers in rather than swiping it? So he said may be there’s a glitch on his system. So I decided to give him cash instead .
We waited about 20 mins for our food which wasn’t a problem well kind of. My mom and I were too distracted talking so it seemed fast but at times I’m like OMG noones here and our food isn’t out yet ?
20 mins later our food came out ! YAY! Now let’s go into the main part on reviewing about their food.
I have to say this is the best pha lau I’ve tasted in America. So I recently went to vn last year for the first time right? So I know how pha lau tastes like and I must say this place is the closest on making it the same taste as in Vietnam. I was shocked and amazed and very very satisfied and so my mom. Id have to say this place has the best pha lau in town until you’ve proven me otherwise .
So pha lau ⁵⁄₅ because given the fact that were in America we don’t have the same ingredients as Vietnam so this is really good alrwady. It doesn’t taste like curry at all. Like dont y’all hate it when other places call it pha lau but then it tastes like curry? LOLOL
Honey so q has the legit pha láu .
My bot chien (one of my favorite snacks of all time !) the second time around was perfect ! It was crunchy, it was soft after biting into it. It has the perfect texture with the flavorful sauce to go along with it .
In conclusion, you can’t really go wrong with this place. The owners are super attentive, friendly and accommodating. The food is fresh and flavorful. They also open super late. I’m so happy this place is just 10 mins away from my house !

Its been so long since ive found a place that serves vietnamese street food.
Having been opened for less than a year. This place could count as a whole in the wall location.
The Jasmine milk tea is freshly made by order. Much better than the Quicklys variant. And not as pricy as boba guys.
The two owners are fairly young but sociable. Thats a nice change from being at places where they leave the work to underlings ²⁴⁄₇.
Quail lovers need to come here. It will bring back your childhood memories of the hidden ethnic foods you rarely find anywhere else espcially if your not from the vietnam or do not carry vietnamese heritage in your blood. This will be an experience.
The only item i wouldnt go for here is the thai tea.
But if you get the quail egg with sirracha and shredded pork. This will be a nice intro for newcomers.
Bathroom is clean too so thats always nice.
Why 5 stars? The menu isnt excessive. The prices are friendly and the quality shows… places that try too hard with a menu of the 50 states are a major turn off. kinda like a high maintainence date…

Fish ball w roe — I like this item in general, but it was nothing special here. Just fried w no extra coating or anything. Wasn’t crispy and barely seasoned.
Banh Trang Tron — I enjoyed it! Wish they gave a bit more jerky though.
The guy at the register was awkward. He didn’t greet and just stared at me as I was staring at the menu… no «thank you» either. The place overall is small and uninviting. Maybe it’s the chalk walls, karaōke system and lighting that made me feel… weird? I felt like I was in someone’s garage. Lol. I would order for togo and go some place else.

This place got the best mixed rice paper (bánh tráng trn) I had so far in san jose… lol…always come here for this… i tried other stuffs… i dont like it much… i will come back and try durian tofu when i get a chance lol

This is my new go to snack place! Sooo good.
Customer service: owner Christine is super adorable. Her and her boyfriend own the store and run it by themselves so I can’t expect much. Even then I was treated so well as I was greeted. And she apologized for leaving us as she had to go cook the food too, which I don’t mind at all since she’s so sweet.
Food wise… I only got two things.
Quail balut (cut Lon): so rare to find! I was craving balut and she had it. She told me people rush to get the balut sometimes since there’s no other stores that have it. It’s a pretty good price too since she sells 10 for $ 6. The only other person I know that sells quail balut makes you buy 100 eggs the least for $ 60. So this was so much better. Love the quail eggs since they’re much easier to eat than the duck ones too! Cooked well, can’t really go wrong with these !
Fish balls with roe: WHEN THEY’RE HOT THEY ARE SO GOOD. The roe inside wasn’t too much, they’re were perfect. I haven’t had fish balls anymore crunchy, but if they could be crispier that would be a plus! The sauce that come with it is like sweet and sour, not too overpowering. Only downside to this is that it is kind of oily… but it’s worth it I swear!!!
Lastly I did try a drink which was the Jasmine milk tea. It’s more on the milkier side which I liked but if you’re more of a tea person then you should let them know because I’m sure they’ll make it differently for you! Still really yummy.
Overall I really enjoyed this place. It’s new and definitely deserves 5 stars from me.

I like that So-​Q closes late, but after reading Holly V’s review, I decided to come here at an earlier time around 7 PM… I ordered their rice paper salad and the fried squid balls with roe inside.
Banh Trang Tron — The crispy rice paper salad here is good!
Fried Fishballs w/​Roe — I love this specially in my hot pot! Too bad they weren’t crispy at all when I ordered them here… The roe was still delicious, but if you don’t like oily foods don’t bother with this one.
Also be prepared to wait… the food took kinda long.

I came to So-​Q to order some to-​go food thinking that it won’t be good when I bring them home, but I craved for these snacks and couldn’t just eat out that night. So I did it anyway, and it was my first experience to So-​Q.
The place is not too small or too big. The chalk walls are «trendy» now for bubble/​snacks places, and So-​Q does have one, too. It’s kinda cute but at the same time kinda messy in some way. I guess it’s because they let people write on it? I’m not sure, but the writings and drawings aren’t all nice. Anyway, no biggie.
I ordered rice paper salad (banh trang tron), fried rice cakes with eggs (bot chien trung), and stir fired corns (bap xao) all for to-​go. It did take them awhile for my order to be ready, but it was reasonable, and i wasn’t bothered by that.
Food — 4 out of 5.
The rice paper salad was very good. I thought it would have been all mussy and stick together when I got home. But they put the sauce aside, so everything was still dry, and I added the sauce as I ate. I actually never seen any place put the sauce aside for rice paper salad. This is a brilliant idea! I’m not sure this is because I ordered to-​go, or this is how it is at So-​Q. (I have never ordered rice paper salad to-​go at any other places also, so I don’t know how they do it). So the mixture was good, decent amount of small shrimps; the seasoning was good, kinda spicy. 4.5 out of 5.
Fried rice cakes with eggs. This one is actually just okay. When I got home, the rice cakes were not crispy on the outside anymore, and again, I’m not sure if they would have been better if I had eaten there. Eggs seemed to be more white than yellow. Next time, I’ll try to eat it there, but to-​go home, probably not. 2.5 out of 5.
Stir fried corns. It was still hot when I ate at home. The corns were dry and smelling good with butter, baby shrimps and fried chopped shallots and green onions. It was flavorful. It was also kinda spicy, too. Portion is fairly big. I definitely recommend this for both to-​go and eat there. 4.5 out of 5.
Customer Service — 4 out of 5
The guy who took my order was pretty nice and clear and polite. He brought the food out to me and apologized for the wait. I saw him bringing the food out to another customer also instead of calling name and waiting for people to come up to get their food.
Location — 2.5 out of 5.
I think location is a disadvantage for So-​Q because the plaza is kind of old and outdated. At night time, it is very empty, but because of the emptiness of the plaza, people are reluctant to give it a try.
Next time when I come back, I’ll try some of their drinks.

I came here after I noticed that they replaced the old yogurt place with a new snack place. I like snacks. Why not try it?
I came in and I got punched in the face with this amazing aura of ‘Vietnamese as phở* Please excuse my language. But yes, very Vietnamese, I love it. Generally, most snack and tea places incorporate a hybrid of traditional and modern service and ambiance but this place takes the cake of letting you know what they’re all about. It’s awesome.
I looked at the menu and there was one item in particular that caught my eye. The Fried Fish Ball w/​Roe. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a slightly modified fried fish ball with a glorious bomb waiting inside. I can’t even describe it to you guys, you’re going to have to go and find out on your own. It wasn’t my first time having something like that but it was my first time having it fried opposed to being boiled. It’s worth it.
For my beverage, I got the Sugar Cane Juice with Durian. At first I thought it was going to be some kind of sugar cane drink infused with some strange durian flavor but all it was was sugar cane juice with durian bits. If you’re not a fan of durian or you’re of a faint heart, this drink is not for you. I love durian, so it was nice to have some durian fruit bits mixed in with my drink. It was awesome. As for the sugar cane itself. I cannot put my finger on it but I’m assuming it’s not freshly squeezed to order. It has this sort of, ‘too cold’ to be freshly squeezed. Correct me if I’m wrong though. It was good nonetheless.
I had the opportunity to interact with who I believe is the owner of the place. I came in two days in a row for those fish balls so he recognized me. What can i say, handsome recognizes handsome. He threw in a sample of their newest snack item which was the fried Lobster Ball. It wasn’t anything amazing but it was really nice of him. I’ll stick with the fish balls.
4 Stars!

Came here on friday night. Not too busy. The guy with short hair here helped my girlfriend and I and was very friendly. This place has a very friendly atmosphere and parking was a breeze. Milktea and food was good too.

It was one of those times when I just HAD to have a snack.
Living across the street I just had to give this place a try after seeing their fried fish balls w/​roe here on Unilocal.The wait felt like forever, okay maybe like 15 minutes. But still @ least defrost before hand.
It was so bomb cause I never had it fried. More like an explosion in my mouth of fish jizzy goodness haha. No need for the sweet and sour sauce, these balls are good on their own! Minus one star for the puddle of grease collected at the bottom -.-
FYI There were 8 fish balls in a cup, along with one guava ice tea summed up to about at least 8 something.
Aside from the long wait, id come back if I’m lazy to buy the fish balls and fry it myself lol!
Ps. The tea is not too sweet, you could actually taste the tea & light refreshing aftertaste of the guava. Just alittle too much ice. Ask for easy ice.

5 stars customer service. The owner was super sweet. She communicates well with customers and always smiles. They bring the food to the table and get us utensils!
The owner also gave us complimentary pandan waffle because we were staying there for so long and finish our food so fast!
I had the fish ball with roe, viet pizza, banh trang tron and bap xao. I like the fish ball with roe the most. I dont like the bap xao as much. Its a little plain. I also had nuoc mia, not as what I expected. Overall I like the food but drinks need some improvement.
Still 5 stars because of the genuine customer service :)

i guess i came here a lil late. around 10? when they close at 11.
anyways. came here and there was a customer already waiting for his snacks, the cashier ordered me and left to the back that seems like a million years. the owner im guessing had to check on her and thats when he came out with my fish balls.
fish balls had like a lil less than 10 balls for 6 or 7 dollars? i forgot.
they were supposed to be fried. anyone knowing me. i looooove those fish balls with the roe inside and BEST fried! (everything is good fried)
buuuuuut mines came out not too crispy. and all the way on the bottom was a puddle of oil… and sitting there was 2 more fish balls. i had to take napkin to take the extra oil off :(
i guess i should try morning time

This Spot is Legit. Nothing but good vibes.
#1. The boss is awesome. Qui hoa is really a genuine person who cares about her customers. Each and every customer gets greeted with an energetic smile from her and her staff.
#2. The décor is very modern and a gives you a nice environment for you to meet up with friends or come by your self to study. She has this very nice red table that i really thought was cool.
#3. The Music was on point. They play great V pop that allows us Vietnamese Americans to be more in tune with our culture. No cai luong or anything like that. lol
#4. This Boba/​snack shop gives you 5 star service. They dont just cook the food and leave it for you to pick up. They personally walk it out to you and make sure you are fully taken care of before you get to enjoy your meal.
#5. Try the Fried fish ball with roe u will not go anywhere else.
I will definitely visit this spot every time i am in San Jose. Two thumbs up yall!

This place serves authentic Vietnamese snacks ! The place is situated in an Asian plaza so it might be hard to find parking at peak hours.
(+) Fish Ball with Roe! My favorite thing on the menu ! :) It’s so good so I’m actually craving for this as I speak. This was actually my first time having the fish balls with roe inside and it definitely did not disappoint. The serving comes with about 7 – 8 fish balls so it’s pretty decent. This goes perfectly with the sweet sauce/​sriracha.
(+) Banh Trang Nuong. My favorite ! It was my first time trying this and I instantly fell in love with it. I’ve had it every singe time I go there. The owner was super nice and substitute it with dried shrimp instead of beef jerky since I can’t eat that. This is basically a «Vietnamese pizza». I would recommend getting this and the Banh Trang Tron (Mixed rice paper) if this is your first time trying Vietnamese snacks.
(+) Baked Quail Eggs (Trung Cut Nuong). This is something new on their menu so you have to ask the owner to make it for you if it’s not on the menu. I love quail eggs so this is definitely something interested. Super light snack for you and your friends to snack on while hanging out.
(+) Sugarcane juice. My favorite juice any day. Its super refreshing and definitely complements the spicy dishes well. The large is only for $ 0.50 extra so you might as well get it!
Overall, the place is in a nice location to hang out with your friends if you are ever in the area. Everything is made fresh to order so don’t mind waiting a little bit long, especially since there’s only one person making everything. Prices are decent and the food is good! Don’t be afraid to ask for extra sauce or any other accommodations for your to-​go order because the owner is literally the cutest person ever.

This used to be Yogurt Star but they changed management so it have become So-​Q. There have been a lot of improvements since Yogurt Star .
The whole place have been remodel. There are more tables and chairs. There are also a table outside which is great for at night.
The menu have many choices but the most popular are banh trang tron (rice paper mixed) it is rice paper soften with tamarin sauces mixed with beef jerky, squid jerky, egg. They also have the Vietnamese pizza. It is personally the best one and my favorite. However it takes awhile since the boss lady make it fresh for you. If you are patience or want to try it real bad you should come in the morning or called in to order.

Came across this place and the name caught my attention. Warning: located in a parking lot with limited parking spots and many Asian restaurants and shops.
Met the owner and she’s really helpful! Told us a bit about the store and explained the menu to us since it was our first time here.
The shop isn’t super huge, around 4 – 5 seating areas for guest (maybe 15 – 20 people?). There’s a picture menu on the wall to get an idea of what they have to offer. They sell milk tea and snacks that range from $ 3-​$ 5 (not all prices are on the menu) and are perfect for sharing.
I tried the fried fish balls with roe, fried tofu, crispy rice papers, and a honeydew milk tea.
Fried fish balls w/​row: an order had about 8 fish balls and came with a dipping sauce and skewers. Made fresh to order so when you bite into it, beware that it’s going to be hot! The texture was chewy and the flavor wasn’t too strong. Typically I don’t enjoy roe inside fish balls, but I liked this one.
Fried tofu: generous serving size and also comes with a dipping sauce. Wasn’t the usual deep fried tofu I’m used to. This wasn’t as crispy and smooth looking, but there was a crunch and the inside was soft.
Crispy rice paper: the dish contains rice paper, beef jerky, hard boiled egg bits, mint, corn, and other small garnishes that I couldn’t distinguish. My first time trying this type of dish out, so it was interesting. The sauce on it is semi sweet and a bit spicy but not too overwhelming. A good small and light snack.
Honeydew milk tea: the honeydew flavor was not too strong but it wasn’t as sweet as I would’ve liked it to be. Didn’t see on their menu if they offered boba as a topping, but that probably would have made it more enjoyable. I’ll probably just stick to snacks
Overall, it’s a pretty cool place to check out if you’re looking to grab a quick snack and just hang out. Probably going to come back to try their balut in tamarind sauce! :)