This is as authentic of a Vietnamese place it can be - Vietnamese speaking restaurant with limited seating. If you would like to try noodle soups, other than pho and bun Bo hue, then this is not too far of a drive. We got the crab noodle soup and duck bamboo soup. They were huge portions with free veggies and a clean tasting broth. Tap and Apple Pay is available. We would come back again.

Not sure if I ever gave this place a review, but they do have the best duck soup in San Diego, if you never have steam duck, it's the stuff to died for, you dip the duck in that ginger fish sauce and you just went to heaven. The only problem I have is the parking, it's hard to find parking here. The owner is just nice people.

Edit: Forgot to mention the lemongrass sausage! So delicious and spicy! I took it to go and it reheated nicely! Went perfect with the mild duck soup I had leftover. Would definitely order again! Duck soup- served with the duck and a light cabbage salad on the side. The duck was very flavorful and the sweet ginger dressing drizzled over it all was perfect. Others have commented the soup is sweet but it is only as sweet as you choose to make it. If you don't like sweet, don't add the ginger sauce, duh. The soup is a very light broth with slippery thin rice noodles. I loved the shredded bamboo topping. Very comforting warm bowl on a stressful day. Loved it! If anyone can answer this question for me- would it be heretical to add chili crisp to this dish? haha! TIA! The only spicy condiment available was sriracha which I didn't use. Ambiance was typical low-key unembellished for an inexpensive hole-in-the-wall yummy cafe in the middle of City Heights. Service was very quick. Parking was super easy at the curb. Will definitely he back to try more dishes!

I used to bring my ex here for dinner back in 2016 when they first opened the place, I knew the owner Tu Thanh pretty well as I was her regular customer, she used to give me extra food back in the day; it must have been 5 years since I returned, fun fact Tu Thanh and Phuong Nga are actually owned by the same people. The food definitely stayed the same, all the flavors of the original South Mekong Delta Vietnam, at least I didn't taste any MSG in the broth, bun mang vit, mien mang ga, mien mang tom cua, plus cha chien are all the favorite dishes. Since Covid and inflation I can see the portion got smaller and the price went up quite a bit. They now closed on Wednesday but still better than when it began, I can only go during evening time, I am glad to come back and try the food I used to love, they will be taking 1 month off, so more reasons for me to visit as I won't have a chance to eat anything for a month

We love the duck dishes here. Service is fast, no wait. Parking can be tricky. I would suggest bringing cash to avoid an extra card fee.

If you're looking for a genuine Vietnamese dining experience, Tu Thanh is the restaurant for you. Tu Thanh is hidden gem tucked within City Heights and the restaurant's aesthetic and the taste of the food are both genuine to what I've experienced when I visited Vietnam. I came here on a weeknight with a party of 7 ready to dine and there was ample seating available. Admittedly the night was a bit quieter because otherwise the limited seating would've been a bit more of a problem. My friends and I ordered dishes like the Banh Canh, Bun Rieu, Bun Mang Vit Co Goi, and some Doi Chien (fried lemongrass sausage) and Cha Chien (fried fish cakes) to share for the table. Both the Banh Canh and the Bun Mang Vit Co Goi have a light and clear broth with a delicious aroma made up of traditional Vietnamese herbs such as lemongrass. The protein in both of these dishes are also delicately boiled in water to create a more tender bite as compared to searing and frying on a pan. The Bun Rieu on the other hand features a more heavily seasoned clear tomato broth with more unique toppings like pigs blood which I really enjoy. Both the Doi Chien and Cha Chien were fun finger foods to nibble on before our main entrees hit the table and were the perfect sides to share with a large party. We were all extremely satisfied with the food and many of us felt like the taste and experience was very true to the culture. The service wasn't the fastest but the staff were all very friendly and welcoming. Parking around this area is often very rough so expect to park a few blocks away within the residential area for a less than 10 minute walk to the restaurant.

Most authentic Vietnamese restaurant I've been to in San Diego. The food was delicious. I'm really happy they had the real sides for the bun rieu.

Worse parking ever. SD needs to improve the area...plenty of restaurants but most of em had no parking lot. Street parking avail but no space avail at all. I drove like a couple of circles in order to find parking to eat here. Service here was lacking. Everybody was like hiding in the kitchen. They didn't even noticed customers walking in. We had to look for them and placed our order. Presentation 10/10 I liked how they sliced the duck so neatly. The sauce was decent. The bamboo noodle soup was good. Clear broth but flavorful. Fish cake was okay. It would have been 10/10 if it was super fresh. There was this frozen taste or something in it. I can't think of the word lol One thing I disliked about here was the portion they brought out for us was smaller than the other customers. I think it was because they thought me and my mom gonna share so they purposely gave us a smaller portion. Our plate of salad was a lot smaller than the others. I don't like business like this. It shouldn't matter if sharing or not. The portion should be the same. I usually will never return to businesses like this. I will only go if someone wanna go.