Viet-House in Altamonte Springs, FL

Orlando has a really nice selection of Vietnamese restaurants in the Mills 50 District. That's good since Vietnamese food is generally really tasty. Once outside Mills 50, Vietnamese food gets a bit harder to find. I can only think of a couple Vietnamese restaurants in Seminole county, so I was happy when I saw that a new restaurant had opened in Altamonte Springs called Viet-House.

The tiny restaurant is located in a building behind a gas station at the intersection of 436 and 427. You order at the window and eat at some nearby picnic tables. There isn't an inside here. Viet-House seems to specialize in banh mi but also offer soups and appetizers. I found out the hard way on my first visit that they close at 4:30. When I returned on another day to give them a try, I had their combination banh mi.

The sandwich consisted of various types of sliced pork products (I'm going to hide my ignorance of Vietnamese meats by leaving it at that), pate, pickled vegetables, lettuce, tomato, and cilantro on a French baguette. The banh mi was good and was very filling for under $5.

I also shared these summer rolls, filled with shrimp, pork, noodles, bean sprouts, cucumber, and basil. They were somewhat messy to eat, but tasty.

Eating Vietnamese food in a gas station parking lot is definitely a different experience than eating in one of the nicer Vietnamese restaurants in Orlando, but the food was good regardless. A banh mi sandwich does seem like a perfect type of street food, so perhaps this is actually an ideal location for the food!

Phở 88

I have my favorite restaurants in Orlando's Little Vietnam, but on my last trip to the neighborhood, I decided to try something new. I ate at Phở 88, famous for the graffiti murals on the side of the building. I didn't know this at the time, but phở is actually the name for a type of Vietnamese soup consisting of meat and noodles. Perhaps if I knew this beforehand, I would have made a point to order a soup dish, but now I know for next time.

The meal started out with a Summer Roll appetizer. The two rolls were filled with shrimp, cucumbers, cilantro, and vermicelli noodles. A bowl of peanut sauce accompanied the rolls. These summer rolls were okay, but I've had much better elsewhere. The outside wrappers seemed thicker than what is normally served and they were quite gummy. The fillings could have used more variety as well. There was too much vermicelli and not enough vegetables.


For the main course, I had Grilled Shrimp served over vermicelli. It came with plenty of noodles with the shrimp and assorted vegetables on top. A vinegar based sauce came on the side. It was very tasty, although I remember getting a similar dish at Viet Garden in the past that came with probably double the amount of vegetables. But this wasn't Viet Garden, it was Pho 88 so I have no complaints...

Lollicup in Orlando, FL

I stopped in Little Vietnam in Orlando, FL. The plan was to eat lunch, probably at Viet Garden, but I got distracted by the sign in Lollicup's window. I've had boba tea from Lollicup several times in the past, and when I noticed this location now served food I decided to give it a try.

I started with the obligatory overpriced boba drink. I had a Papaya Avocado smoothie with boba. It was good, although I think they may have added lots of extra sweetener to the drink. There were huge jugs of fructose under the counter, so I'm assuming those go into the drinks. A fruit smoothie is sweet enough as it is and the boba makes it sweeter. There's no need to add additional sweetener on top of that. It was almost $5 for a small drink, but a dessert elsewhere would most likely also be about the same price. I've found that smoothies are definitely the way to go at Lollicup. All of the tea drinks remind me of a bottle of Orbitz with way too much ice (although I did love that stuff).

Moving on the the food, a Summer Roll was ordered. Sort of like the healthier Vietnamese version of a Chinese egg roll, the summer roll consisted of shrimp, pork, cilantro, cucumbers, and vermicelli, all wrapped in rice paper. Peanut sauce was served on the side. I love how the rice paper is somewhat translucent so you can see the brightly colored contents of the roll.

I have heard of Vietnamese Subs, or Bánh mì, but have never tried one. The sandwich consisted French bread stuffed with sliced pork, cucumbers, onions, cilantro, jalapeno peppers, assorted pickled vegetables, and possibly more toppings that I'm overlooking. I was really impressed with the sandwich. It reminded me somewhat of a Cuban sandwich with the pork and pickles, only improved with the rest of the toppings. This good sized sandwich was only $2.50. That's less than a Boba drink!


For a bit of an update, Lollicup no longer serves food and are back to only serving beverages. It's unfortunate, especially since I haven't found a better summer roll elsewhere in Orlando!