Huong Sen (loosely translated to "fragrant lotus") is a Vietnamese vegetarian restaurant in a relatively quiet center that's a bit high (drive in at an angle!). Unlike many Asian eateries in Chinatown, I found the decor well thought out and zen-like. It almost has a cozy tea shop feel, but I'm perhaps influenced by the cute traditional tea pots and cups that were used as decoration and wooden accents.
I have been a strict vegetarian for almost a decade now but I haven't eaten at many Vietnamese vegetarian restaurants and because of that, most of what I prefer stem from my omnivorous days. Sad, because I love Vietnamese food! Why? We also don't eat alliums and Vietnamese vegetarian cuisine (like American) does use alliums. Luckily, you can request for no alliums and my dad was with us (the Vietnamese speaker) so there wasn't much struggling involved... other than when he told our waitress to not add any onions and garlic and leeks showed up in the Hu Tieu Mi Chay... so you've got to be VERY specific.
This place doesn't serve all the Vietnamese dishes that you'd find at most Vietnamese establishments. They have (off the top of my head) a few sides that are eaten with rice, hot pot, and noodle soup dishes (with one cold rice noodle dish) with some appetizers. They also have one fried rice dish. My go-to Viet dishes are com tam (broken rice served with "fish" sauce) and bun rieu (traditionally seafood - crab - and tomato based). They don't have either. I do like bun (cold vermicelli dish) but it isn't great as leftovers and as I wasn't that hungry, I passed on it.
The noodle soups they do have seem to use the same base... which is probably why they offer only those. I settled on pho chay, or vegetarian beef noodle soup. Hubby got Hu Tieu Mi... which I can't really describe because I never really order it. I got it for him because it has both rice and egg noodles. I did taste it and the pho broth is more flavorful by far... hello, MSG and sugar! The hu Tieu broth was bland in comparison. My pho reminded me a little of what I remember about non-veg pho, though it's missing animal bits and flavor. So kudos to them! Coupled with the oyster sauce, fresh herbs, and lime (i would have liked more lime wedges), I was pretty content.
I must say that even though they know no alliums and the soup base is safe for us, they rely on sauce additives to get to the final product - a finishing sauce, I suppose. Those sauces quite possibly DO contain alliums. This was the case for the spicy noodle soup two others in my group got ON THE SIDE. The dish tasted okay. The sauces (looked like a paste?) probably would had added oomph. In fact, my pho automatically came with vegetarian oyster sauce (tasted safe) as well as what smelled like sriracha and hot chili oil (are NOT smell safe) in a small sauce dish. I requested for another sauce dish of only the oyster sauce. If cross contamination is a deal breaker and you're also about sauce, know sauces are suspicious here. I remember restaurants keeping these condiments on the table for you to get at will, but they don't have that here. Maybe it's COVID-related or maybe they're just fancy.
Okay, let's cut to the chase. Nice environment, fairly nice staff, decent tasting [mostly] allium-free renditions of some noodle soups. Menu could have more variety but it clearly didn't stop the other patrons (the place was mostly full by the time we left); I guess I'm biased since they don't sell my favorite dishes. They don't even have my favorite dessert drink. Value? It's in a smaller bowl and more expensive (average: $13/bowl) than San San, who also serves Vietnamese noodle soups (my favorite bun rieu included). Everyone at the table finished theirs except for me because I had a wonderful froyo smoothie 2 hours before (NO REGRETS). I would like to come back and try some non-noodle dishes to get a better idea of their offerings, but based on this one visit, it's not bad, if on the pricey side.
I'm mostly glad there are some other places to eat at when my go-to vegetarian eatery where we can eat everything is closed (which was why we all came on this occasion, haha). I wish they switched to recyclable to-go containers though. They used styrofoam, so I take back my thought on them being fancy. read more