Banh Cuon Tay Ho

As one of the longest running Vietnamese restaurant chains in Orange County, Banh Cuon Tay Ho is over four decades old, with exterior signage that looks straight out of the 1982 movie Blade Runner. Although the menu covers a fair number of Vietnamese classics, including bun noodles, com rice dishes, and hu tieu soups, they’re generally written off as not particularly good by visitors, who focus on the namesake banh cuon (bah-n coo-n): freshly made steamed rice rolls that superficially look like Vietnamese spring rolls, but are thicker and contain different ingredients.

Compared with rival Banh Cuon Luu Luyen, our top choice for banh cuon in Orange County, Tay Ho’s version isn’t as compelling: the pork rolls we ordered had flatter flavors, waxier rice, and no other alternative protein for fully assembled rolls – most places offer at least a second choice, such as fishcake, as well as DIY banh uot rolls with other ingredients (shrimp, meatloaf, pate) that you can roll yourself.