Cô Ba

If you love hu tieu kho (dry) you have to try this place. My favorite hu tieu here is the hu tieu nam vang with glass noodles.

They have fresh pickle garluc that really takes this dish to another level!

The name Cô Ba literally means 3rd Aunt which brings up a feeling of cozy family and relatives. The term itself is also very authentically, culturally "Vietnamese." I will get back to that in a minute.

So my wife told her 2 coworkers that her favorite hủ tiếu (white rice in pork broth originated in southwestern Vietnam) place was Hủ Tiếu Thanh Xuân. Both her coworkers both said Thanh Xuân was terrible and swore on Cô Ba and Mỹ Vị Mì Gia as the go to places for hủ tiếu.

So my wife and I went to both alternatives, of which our experience with Cô Ba is what I will review here.

At Cô Ba, my wife and I ordered the "hủ tiếu" which is supposed to be a very authentic southern/southwestern Vietnamese white rice noodle in the traditional southern pork broth soup. Of all the many different noodle soups in the Vietnamese cuisine, Hủ Tiếu is the one with the lightest flavor, in high contrast with the famous Phở (northern origin) or the spicy Bún Bò Huế (central origin) or Mì (Chinese origin).

What we got, however, was the white rice noodle but in the Chinese-originated broth that was meant for "egg (wheat) noodle", a.k.a "Mì".

Those that are not palatably knowledgeable would not notice that distinction.

And so we were eating something that was not quite "hủ tiếu" and not quite "mì". Instead of having 2 distinct broths ready to serve with 2 distinct noodles, the restaurant seemed to use just one broth and gave you which ever noodle you asked for.

The interior decor is decent.

But if we wanted "mì" we would go to Triều Châu or Lục Đỉnh Ký. And if we wanted "hủ tiếu" in the tradition of the deep southwestern Vietnamese, we would go nowhere else but Hủ Tiếu Thanh Xuân.

All in all, not a terrible place, but we would not come back for Hủ Tiếu nor Mì. We have not tried other dishes, but with the plethora of restaurants competing out there, why bother coming back to a place that either did not know about or intentionally did not bother to make 2 different broths for 2 supposedly different noodles.

And it turns out that many eaters don't know any better so they enjoyed "whatever that was served" for its own sake. Some people like the fusion kina things.

So back to the term Cô Ba, since the hủ tiếu did not taste authentic, I did not feel as cozy and familiar as I had imagined the name to convey.

They have many kinks of noodles to eat , good noodle , good service

Very good hu tiu in OC

I like the parking it's close to the entrance door. High ceiling, new tables, and big gaps for walking. The inside of the restaurant look more luxurious and spacious than the outside. Food is OK. Prices are lower than the average. The only disappointment I had was Gio Chau Quay was very hard not as good as the previous time I had it.