Vien Huong Restaurant
Order the Teochew noodle soup: pork, chicken and shrimp with chewy ho fun in a clear broth, in a room on Franklin Street that fills at noon and does not quiet down.
Why go
Nico Savidge, associate editor at Berkeleyside, wrote that when he went back to eating indoors in 2021, no dining room felt more satisfying to return to than Vien Huong's.
1 His go-to has long been a bowl of Teochew noodle soup,
and he is clear that the food is not the whole of it. What he goes back for is the room at midday, which is Oakland Chinatown eating its lunch, and it is a room a stranger can walk into.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Teochew noodle soup. Savidge's broader advice is to take any of the noodle soups.
- Avoid: a leisurely lunch at the peak of it. The turnover is the point.
What locals & experts say
- Nico Savidge, Berkeleyside Nosh (February 2024):
It's a stellar lunch, especially on a chilly day, but like many of the restaurants we treasure, the great food isn't the only thing that makes me love Vien Huong.
1 His own pick, in his own name. - Savidge on the room itself: it is
full of seniors and young families, folks from the neighborhood and office workers popping in on their lunch breaks, crowding together around sparse metal tables and steaming bowls.
1
Good to know
- Booking: walk-in.
- Timing: lunch is the service everybody writes about.
- Getting there: Franklin at 7th, in the middle of Oakland Chinatown, five minutes from 12th Street BART.
Verdict
should-visit — Nico Savidge, an associate editor at Berkeleyside, says no dining room felt more satisfying to come back to in 2021 than this one, and names the bowl: Teochew noodle soup, pork and chicken and shrimp over chewy ho fun in a clear broth. A local editor's own lunch order is the strongest evidence available for a room this size, and it is worth more here than any ranking would be. The dining room he describes, seniors and young families and office workers packed around metal tables, is the thing you go for as much as the soup. Held below must-visit on evidence volume rather than on doubt: it is one source, and it is a good one.