I've lost track of how many iterations of pho joint has occupied the space at 3013 Harbor Blvd. in Costa Mesa. A few years ago I ate at one called Pho 99, which at the time was part of a larger chain.
That restaurant has since become a blip in the timeline, replaced by another pho restaurant. But what replaced it (which I believe was called Pho Company) has now itself been replaced by yet another Vietnamese restaurant. The latest is called Mama Hong's.
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It proves that Vietnamese restaurants don't die, they just reincarnate into other Vietnamese restaurants.
Mama Hong's looks much swankier than its predecessors, though…which does not preclude it from serving the usual roster of pho, bun, rice plates, banh mi sandwiches, and stir fries. It does, however, offer the turmeric-tinged and dill-garnished pan-seared Thang Long fish dish, here offered on a salad or on top of rice vermicelli noodles.
Check out the menu at its website here.
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Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.