#288: DT Noodle (Take 2)

11:35AM, 3/4/2023

https://www.dtnoodle.net/

A bit of an aside here, I was just about to hit publish on this post when I realized my blunder. I’ve already been here! It was #244 back in July 2016. Doh! Last time I got a sandwich, so this is slightly different. Same appetizer though, haha. Oh well, it gets a bonus post 😉

All this rain and chilly weather has had me craving a big hot bowl of soup, and I knew just what it needed to be. It’s been quite a while since I last had phở so I took a look at what Vietnamese spots around that I hadn’t been to yet. DT Noodle stood out to me, right over on Foothills at Junction, to the left of the CA Family Fitness. I headed over at around 11:30AM on Saturday and just barely had stepped inside before the rain started falling again.

DT Noodle was first out in Lincoln, years ago. I was aware of it at the time because it was next door to the Beach Hut that I went to often. I’m not sure when but they’ve since moved out here to Roseville. The dining room is simple – a boxy room with a small counter at the very back where you can pick up orders and pay. There isn’t much in the way of decoration, but one thing that caught my eye were the overhead lights. They turned what would otherwise be a pretty boring drop ceiling and fluorescent lights into something interesting by replacing the lenses with photos of waterfalls and schools of fish. This had the effect of giving the room a slight greenish tint.

I was greeted as soon as I entered and asked if I was picking up or dining in, then pointed to a table along the wall where I was met with a menu. At the time there were just a couple tables seated, but it picked up a bit before I left with both dine-in and pick-up traffic. I skimmed over the appetizers and picked out some spring rolls before turning to the full page of phở options. I recall the first time I tried it I got it with everything, rare beef, flank steak, brisket, tendon, tripe and meatball. Since then I’ve kept it to one or two meats. I think I just like a simpler bowl. Today I settled on rare beef and meat balls (Tai, Bo VIen)[$15.50].

Once my order was in I received the little plate of mint, bean sprouts and jalapeño slices along with my beverage, just a water today. A few minutes later and my shrimp and steamed pork spring rolls arrived (Goi Cuon Tom Thit)[$9.95]. They came with the usual brown peanut sauce, garnished with crumbled peanuts. These were wrapped up nicely and held together with little effort to the last bite. They were nice, fresh and had a satisfying crunch to them underneath the soft rice paper roll. I vacuumed up all the delicious sauce with three of these over the course of my visit.

Only a few minutes after the rolls came my phở. A big, steaming hot of clear-ish beef broth, loaded up with green and white onions, cilantro, quartered meat balls and several slices of rare beef, the latter of which was quickly cooking and turning from pink to gray in the hot bowl. Underneath all this was a nice portion of those wonderful, thin, delicate rice noodles.

I dug in, at first taking several bites without adding any condiments. It was piping hot, warming and deliciously subtle. Eventually I dropped some sprouts in, the jalapeños and some lime squeezed from the wedge provided. Later yet I threw in some hoisin for a bit of sweet and salty flavor. Without the spring rolls I would probably opt for extra noodles in this. The meat is a nice texture departure from the noodles but I don’t think they add a whole lot else to the soup. I still enjoy having it in there though.

I didn’t come close to finishing the broth today and left one spring roll behind. I left quite full and satisfied with a tasty meal, so mission accomplished. Although nothing particularly notable jumped out for me here, it was solid and I’ll probably come back when I’m craving this comforting bowl of goodness.

#244: DT Noodle

Yesterday I had a late lunch at DT Noodle, a fairly new Vietnamese Restaurant next to California Family Fitness on Foothills at Junction.  They were in Lincoln originally and recently moved to Roseville.

I stepped in at about 2:30PM and was the only customer in the large space, aside from a postal worker on his break.  They utilized the large windows for tons of natural light.  The place seemed very clean and there was lots of room for customers without being packed together tightly.  I was greeted immediately upon entering and was gestured to one of the tables along the wall.

I took a few minutes to skim the menu (link to scanned version), although I knew I would be getting the #13 Banh Mi (grilled beef sandwich) on recommendation from commenter Joell.  The prices seemed pretty low, just $5.75 for the sandwich, so I decided to add on an appetizer of shrimp and pork spring rolls to my order $4.95.  Had I taken a little more time to look at the beverages I probably would have seen that they had Thai tea, but instead I got a boring diet Coke :(.  One odd thing I noticed during my lunch was that there was christmas music playing.

The soda was brought out within a minute in a can with a glass of ice.  The can looked spotless and it was plenty cold so I drank out of that.

Three minutes later my spring rolls arrived.  I wonder if they have these made up in batches because that seemed fast.  They were excellent.  They were wrapped up tightly with a good amount of pork and each with a couple shrimp.  The lettuce was crisp and the peanut sauce was fantastic, especially served warm.

Five minutes after the rolls came my banh mi.  It was a decent sized sandwich, probably a 6-8″ baguette cut in half.  It had a somewhat thin layer of the grilled, seasoned beef and stuffed with pickled carrots, daikon, cucumber and topped with fresh cilantro.  There were also some thinly sliced jalapeños hidden within that kicked things up a notch.

The bread was soft with a thin, crunchy crust.  I generally enjoyed this sandwich with a couple things to note.  The beef was a bit overpowered by the picked carrots and jalapeños.  I think doubling the meat would be a simple solution here, and I would gladly pay for that since the price is already pretty low.  The 2nd thing was that it seemed like a fairly dry sandwich.  I’m not sure if that is normal or not, or if I should be utilizing some of the condiments on the table.  I remember the first banh mi sandwich I had and it was incredible, but that’s probably an exception because it was from a food truck and I’m sure they punched it up with some craziness.

The service was polite and attentive, despite not much being needed for my simple lunch. I suspect I will return to try their pho.

Website: None

(Scanned) Menu: Click Here

#163: Asian Blossom

After a long non-stop day at work I have to admit I just wanted to come home and take a nap, but I didn’t want to fall behind here either.  I decided I would do an “easy” post and go to Asian Blossom for dinner.  Easy in that I’ve been to this place several times and the experience is pretty consistent.  I actually kind of feel like I’ve been cheating on Eating Through Roseville by coming here, since I only first tried this place well into the blog but never wrote about it.  It was the very first place I ever had a bowl of pho, and that’s exactly what I get every time I come here.  I like to come here alone, listen to music or podcasts and relax while sipping and slurping up the tasty broth and noodles.  One of the main reasons I like to come here for pho, versus the several other Vietnamese restaurants in town is that, because Asian Blossom is not strictly Vietnamese, they have a more diverse menu.  Really what I’m getting at is that they have Thai iced tea.  Anyway, lets dive right in.

Asian Blossom is located kitty corner from the Galleria in the same shopping center as BJ’s.  I vaguely recall it being some sort of Hawaiian BBQ type place before.  They’ve kept a lot of the styling inside, and somehow it totally works.  I arrived at 5:35PM.  Only a handful of tables were seated, almost all booths as they give the most privacy.  The booths run along one wall and you feel like you almost have a little room to yourself, even though the seat-backs aren’t really that tall.  It’s because of the fake roof that serves as a “hut” type of decoration to fit into the tropical styling.  I took the remaining booth as the server that greeted me gestured for me to sit anywhere I pleased.  As I slid onto the bench seat he left me a menu and headed off to attend to other tables.  I didn’t do much skimming of the menu (Scanned PDF — note that this is pretty old and already out of date since I scanned it after my first visit, they don’t even have the appetizer I ordered today on it, but it should give you a general idea of what to expect) since I planned on getting the same bowl of pho with rare steak as always.  The very first time I ate here I ordered one with the works: rare steak, well-done flank, fat brisket, tendon and tripe.  It was a bit much, and I like to keep it simple now.  I might even drop the steak and just go strictly noodles next time because to be honest the rare beef isn’t really all that great.

On the first page I saw that happy hour is from 3-6, something I never noticed before.  Even more interesting was that instead of a limited selection on appetizers and/or drinks at a lower price, the entire menu is 20% off, which is a pretty awesome deal, I think.  I’ve never come here during happy hour and I’ve always been pretty happy with the price, so this was a bonus for sure.  The last time I came I ordered the small bowl of pho [$5.50] as well as an appetizer, instead of just a medium or large bowl by itself.  I did the same today, choosing pot stickers [$4.75].  I ordered quickly and within just a couple minutes the server started dropping off items.  First a bag with utensils (fork, spoon and chopsticks), napkins and a fortune cookie.  Next up was a plate of condiments for my pho (thai basil, jalapenos, bean sprouts and lime).  In addition to these were the standard items on the table including Sriracha, soy and hoisin sauces.

Along with the condiments plate my Thai iced tea [$2.25] was delivered.  I drank most of this at the end of my meal but I did take a test sip after it had arrived.  It was a bit thinner than I’ve had here before, though still quite tasty.  Less than ten minutes after sitting down I had my appetizer in front of me.  These pot stickers are the deep-fried and crisp variety.  I think I prefer them just steamed, but they’re always good either way.  With the soy sauce-based dip these were excellent.  Crunchy on the outside, hot and full of flavor on the inside.  I powered through about half of the plate before my pho arrived, then alternated between the two.  The pho was as good as always.  Upon arrival the rare steak was busy cooking in the hot broth.  It was clearly pink at first and quickly turning to a uniform gray.  A big pile of the thin, translucence  noodles hit just beneath the surface.  I tossed in some bean sprouts, ripped up Thai basil leaves and squeezed a bit of lime to get started.  Today was the day I realized I didn’t even feel like having the beef in there and ate most of it first to get it out of the way.  It’s pretty bland and the texture is not that pleasant.  Once that was out of the way I was able to enjoy the delicious broth, now with a little additional flavoring from the lime and basil.  Eventually I added a big squirt of hoisin sauce.  I like to enjoy different stages of flavor as I go through the bowl.  Often I’ll eat up to a third of it without adding anything, just focusing on the subtle, delicate broth.

I’ve been very pleased with Asian Blossom since I started coming here.  The pho is delicious and the prices are excellent.  20% off the entire menu during happy hour is a very nice plus.  After tax, this meal was just under $11.  The Thai iced tea could have been a little richer this time, but usually it’s pretty good.  The service has always seemed to consist of a somewhat young staff who are quick, efficient, quiet and polite.  There are always people eating here but I’ve never seen the place busy.  I hope they are able to survive on this busy corner.

(Scanned) Menu: Click Here