King’s Chinese Restaurant. Best phở in Tucson
Author: TucsonFoodieAdmin | Filed under: Restaurants, ReviewsI don’t remember how I stumbled upon King’s Chinese Restaurant. A lone Google review for it, I believe, amongst two. I better check it out, I thought. After all, I am the Tucson Foodie, for whatever that’s worth. (Very little, monetarily, just so you know). When I first drove up to the place around 8:00 pm one evening with my significant other, we didn’t get out of the car. It didn’t look worth it. Second time we didn’t get out of the car either. The third time, it was just me and my daughter and she loves Pei-Wei, which I think is equivalent to an Asian version of Taco Bell, so this couldn’t be any worse, I figured. Five or six visits later it’s not any worse at all. No where near it.
In fact, I’m amazed at how clean and light their Chinese food is. I’m not going to go into menu descriptions because it’s pretty standard Chinese food. They offer items such as Broccoli Chicken, Mongolian Beef, Sesame Chicken, Lo Mein, Chow Mein, etc. All entrees are priced between $6.99 and $7.99 with half orders available for between $4.59 and $4.99. Everything I tried tasted fresh, and well prepared. Everything. I wanted to try as many things as I could from the Chinese menu since they are a Chinese restaurant. That’s their name – King’s Chinese Restaurant. It’s not King’s Chinese and Vietnamese Restaurant. If it was, I might have tried it sooner. And had I tried it sooner, I most definitely wouldn’t have held out so long to try their pho ($6.25). It’s the best pho I’ve ever had. I don’t know why. The broth itself is delicious. The plate of basil and bean sprouts is, well – a plate of purple basil, limes, and bean sprouts. But the meats they put into the Pho Tai Nam Gau are not just the rare beef slices you typically get. There’s three kinds of meats in there. Even though the menu decription says “Rice noodle soup with rare, tender beef slices,” trust me, there’s other meat in there. And it’s good. And very filling.
I’ve also tried the Fresh Spring Rolls. Those are great, too. Really big and made to order.
Ambience? Uh, heh… yeah. None. It’s small and bright inside, lit with fluorescent lighting. A big TV is on for you to watch CNN. One of the owners’ children is usually sitting at one of the tables doing homework or playing video games on a laptop. He’s cute.
Service? They have great pho! Who cares about service?! But seriously, don’t go here expecting much. Just go for the pho. Maybe that could be their new advertising slogan. Just GO for the PHO. Of course, it’s pronounced “phuh” so that wouldn’t work. Unless you said “Just GUH for the PHO. Anyhow…
Next door – which I had never realized was an Asian market – is the Grant Stone Supermarket. They have some amazing things for you to peruse and/or purchase if you dare. It’s a nice little weeknight cultural experience – dinner at King’s then a jaunt through the Grant Stone Supermarket. I always get Pocky – those shortbread sticks dipped in chocolate.
But, check out King’s Chinese Restaurant first and let me know what you think. It’s seriously worth it and they probably seriously need the business.
They’re open everyday until 9 pm, but close early on Sundays, I think.
King’s Chinese Restaurant
10 West Grant Road
Tucson, AZ 85705
(520) 829-7214
Google Map
Thanks for the tip! I love Pho and frequent Miss Saigon’s and Pho 88. I’ll give King’s a try sometime.
honestly my mouth waters reading this description, I truly can’t wait to try it – I’d go today buy my 12 yr old & friend want Panda Express today….ick!
Did you ever make it over there?
So, did you ever make it over there?
king’s restaurant is the best place ever!!!!
the pho there is AMAZING!
Glad you liked it!
King’s Chinese is seriously great. Speaking as a complete Chinese food groupie, it’s one of my favorite places. I wish I were more of a pho nut, but I cannot get enthusiastic over soup. Any soup. At all.
As for Grant Stone Market, I’m still slightly traumatized by my experience with a very angry cashier there. She wasn’t angry at me, but she was definitely enraged about something a co-worker (employee?) had done (or not done) and spent a long time stomping up and down the aisles and screaming (only partially in English so I couldn’t quite get the full context) and slamming flats of canned goods down in stacks.
Okay, so I was impressed by the slamming of flats, because those things are heavy. Still, it was a little disconcerting and she was the only cashier on duty so I had to wait around clutching my pearls and curries until she calmed down enough to get back to check-out duty.
That’s the kind of stuff that makes me WANT to go there.