Seven Courses of Beef at Phuong Trang is delightful

Neighborhood: Convoy Street, Kearny Mesa

Price: $$

Vibe: Mid-80s home kitchen vibes. As with a number of Asian restaurants in this area, you are not here for the atmosphere, you are here to eat! Closes at 8:30pm SHARP so plan accordingly.

Phuong Trang is a staple of the Convoy Street food scene, and has been around since the early 90s, serving up authentic, fresh Vietnamese cuisine. It’s been around for so long that it doesn’t quite get the kudos it should as one of the best options for Vietnamese in the area. The ingredients are fresh and the quality just can’t be beat.

During one of my last visits to Phuong Trang, I was introduced to a lovely meal called Seven Courses of Beef. Meant to be shared, so it’s perfect for 2 or 3 people. This lovely coursing of beef involves a variety of different cooking techniques - each meant to be served in a “make-your-own-spring-roll” fashion, which is a little messy, but delicious and loads of fun! I love a good interactive meal!

Before I start in on the Seven Courses of Beef, I also must share a couple of fantastic appetizers we tried. There really isn’t a bad option on the menu, but I do hope to share with you some suggestions for things you may not have tried before.

Garlic Wings with Butter

I could come here just for the wings. Let’s be honest, I have done this! The deep-fried Garlic and Butter wings are out of this world! Perfectly crispy on the outside, while still perfectly juicy on the inside, yum! You can order either a half or a full dozen of these wings - go ahead and order the dozen because the leftovers are worth it.

Vietnamese Crepe

We also tried the Vietnamese Crepe, which is a crispy rice flour crepe filled with shrimp, pork, bean sprouts, sliced onions and mung beans. Wow. I absolutely love the flavors here, and the crunch of the bean sprouts inside this very light and fluffy crepe was really unique. The crepe was a lot larger than we anticipated, so keep that in mind when choosing your apps, as they are substantial!

On to the star of our meal - the Seven Courses of Beef, or Beef Seven Ways. I absolutely love fresh spring rolls. In fact, if we didn’t order this meal of beef coursings, I would have ordered the fried tofu fresh spring rolls (another time).

The Seven Courses of Beef represents 7 different preparations of beef — each to be eaten in your own spring roll concoction, with the exception of the Beef Porridge. Though during our visit, we missed out on the “Ground Beef in Caul Sheet” and were supplied with another helping of the “Ground Beef in Grape Leaves” (I was not mad about this! The Ground Beef in Caul Sheet is actually beef wrapped in caul fat, a membrane that encases the digestive organs of some animals).

They start the meal by bringing out all of the goodies to make your spring rolls. This includes the rice paper wraps, a small bowl of warm water and a plate of delicious accoutrement including lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, jicama and pineapple. I also suggest you order the vermicelli noodles to include in your spring roll inventions, this is an extra $3 but totally worth it.

Rice paper wraps are served with a bowl of warm water to make your fresh spring rolls.

Fresh lettuce, cucumbers, jicama, carrot and pineapple to adorn your spring rolls.

The first two preparations they serve are “cook-it-yourself” fondue-style courses. We started with the Vinegar Fondue with Beef. A small pot of vinegar is prepared on a warming plate, and you are each served a few thin slices of raw beef topped with thin sliced onions and scallions. Once that vinegar starts to bubble, grab your chopsticks and drop a slice or two of the beef in, it will cook instantly, so you won’t wait long.

While your beef starts cooking, I suggest you dip one of the rice papers in the water. It only needs to be submerged for a second and it will immediately soften. Place it on your plate and start making your spring rolls. You can add the meat first, or start with veggies, I just recommend that you start small so that you can actually wrap everything into the paper. I say this as advice to myself in particular, because I habitually overstuffed my rolls. It made them a little messy, but still delicious! Don’t forget to try the vinegar/fish sauce dipping sauce. It really ties the whole roll together. My dining partner and I each requested our own, so that we could dunk our sloppy rolls into our individual dipping sauces and didn’t have to worry about double dipping (or sharing).

Dipping sauce for the Spring Rolls

The second “cook-it-yourself” course is the Hot Grill with Beef, which is basically replacing the vinegar with a skillet of melted butter, you can drop in your beef and onions and cook to your liking. The raw steak that they serve are meant to be cooked one of these two ways,. My favorite was definitely the Hot Grill beef, so I chose to save the two of my three pieces of beef for this option.

Ground Beef in Grape Leaves, Char-Grilled Beef and Steamed Beef Meatloaf

I thought the first two preparations were fun, but then came out this amazing platter with our remaining courses. This included Ground Beef in Grape Leaves, which were fabulous! In fact, this was one I didn’t eat in a spring roll, I just took a bite, and it was a wonderful depth of flavor. The Char-Grilled beef had a delicious flavor profile, with that fresh off the grill char and smokiness. The Steamed Beef Meatball was also a surprising delight, and probably one of my favorite spring rolls of the evening.

Steamed Beef Meatball had loads of flavor and was one of my favorite of the seven courses.

Beef Porridge

Last but not least was the Beef Porridge course which was really unique and delicious. The Vietnamese certainly know how to make some delicious soups and the porridge was unexpected and would be my ideal “go-to” comfort meal on a cold day.

The entire meal was delicious at Phuong Trang and the Seven Courses is something I can wait to try again. I’ll work on honing my spring-roll-making skills and will try, try to remember that less is more, but let’s be real, you know I’ll overdo it again,

If you haven’t been ever or even lately, make your next night out an authentic Vietnamese adventure. Try something new! But get there by 7:30pm latest if you want to be seated, doors close at 8:30pm sharp!

Phuong Trang

4170 Convoy Street, San Diego, California 92111