Exiting Our Comfort Zone at OC Poultry and Rotisserie - CLOSED

OC Poultry & Rotisserie Market

2117 E. Ball Rd.

Anaheim, CA 92806

As I have mentioned before, Katie and I have been going to hockey games this season. We have tickets to about fifteen games. That is fifteen chances to try a new restaurant. We have been to all the chain places around the Honda Center, and now it was time to venture out and try somewhere new.

I had remembered reading a blog post about local, non-chain places, located in the Anaheim Stadium area. The blog post was written by one of the great writers over at Stick a Fork In It, Dave Lieberman. You can read his post here.

Anyways, Dave listed about eleven places, and one of them was OC Poultry and Rotisserie Market. To be honest, this was a little out of our comfort zone, but 2011 is all about trying something new, so we headed over. This was going to be Katie and my first time having Vietnamese food.

As we walked in the store/restaurant we were greeted enthusiastically by the owner of the restaurant, Thu. All of the reviews on-line about this place mention the great service, and they are not lying. She is willing to talk at length about any of her food, and dole out samples of the tart yogurt she makes every day. After going through the menu, this is what we came up with.

The first of two of our appetizers was the Spring Rolls. These were filled with shrimp, rice, and I believe chicken. I am not much of a spring roll person and thought that these lacked flavor. I liked these a lot better when I added the brown sauce to them, and then I liked these even better when we were presented with a bottle of Siracha sauce. Katie liked the freshness of these.

The Egg Rolls were more my style, and these definitely did not disappoint. These were filled with pork, fried to perfection, and had a great taste. We initially ordered only three of these, but quickly ordered three more. The sweet sauce that came with these added even more excitement to the egg rolls. I could easily have polished off about 20 of these with no problem.

Katie really wanted to try the Vegetable Soup. I am no expert on this kind of soup, but it tasted good. The chicken was cooked nicely, the veggies were fresh, and the noodles were done perfectly. The broth tasted a little funky to me at first, but I grew accustomed to it by the end of the bowl. Katie liked the soup and made this better when she added Siracha sauce for a little kick.

The raves on-line are numerous about the Chicken Banh Mi, and they are warranted. The chicken is a great tasting. Thu mentioned that she was trying to copy the chicken of a place by her school in Vietnam. The pickled vegetables, cilantro, and chicken worked well together. The only complaint I would have about this sandwich would be the bread. I thought it was a little too crusty, but it would not stop me from getting this sandwich again. Katie fantasized about this sandwich the next day, and to think I only thought she fantasized about me. The real truth comes out.

A new addition to the menu at OC Poultry is the Lemon Grass Beef Banh Mi. I felt this was a good tasting sandwich, but was no match for the Chicken sandwich. The beef could have been a little more tender, but it was flavored well.

For the next day, I got a Steamed Bun filled with pork. To be honest I was not too big of a fan of this. The pork was my favorite part of this, and I felt the rest of the steamed bun was too dry. This could be because I warmed this in the microwave, so I will have to try this again at the restaurant on a future trip.

OC Poultry and Rotisserie is a great hidden gem, and I was happy this was our first introduction to Vietnamese food. Thu answered all of our questions and made us feel comfortable. The restaurant is very small. There is seating for about ten people here, so if you are here during a peak time, (lunch), it could be tricky getting a seat. The value for the money here is the best we have seen in a long time. All of the food above really meant for four people instead of two costs $25. The chicken banh mi was an incredible $2.89, one of the best values in all the county. Thanks for the tip Dave, we look forward to trying other places on your list.

Out of five Áo Dài's, (the national dress of Vietnam), five being best to zero being worst, OC Poultry and Rotisserie gets 3.5 Áo Dài's.

OC Poultry and Rotisserie does not have a web site, but you can find information and reviews about them here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/oc-poultry-and-rotisserie-market-anaheim.