The next time you’re craving soup, take a sojourn to Little Saigon on Sacramento’s South Side for an evening of efficient and delicious Vietnamese food.

In fact, if you’re coming to Sacramento for the International Food Blogger’s Conference (#IFBC17), make sure you plan extra time to go “off the grid” in search of this city’s best hole-in-the-wall establishments.

The 65th street corridor is chock full of amazing establishments catering to the mostly Asian population in the area.

Like many efficient, popular locations in the area, the food is the star at Banh Cuon Tay Ho, a modest, well hidden, family run establishment.

Head to South Sacramento the next time you need to be warmed from within.

You’ll sit at basic tables set with an impressive array of sauces and spices, including pitchers of fish sauce for dipping spring rolls and other appetizers.

Start your dinner with something familiar. Goi Cuon are delightfully fresh spring rolls with shrimp and pork, served with peanut dipping sauce.

Given the restaurant’s location in Sacramento, there is amazing access to a wide variety of fresh and local ingredients to flavor the dishes. The freshness comes through in every bite.

Living on the edge of one of the country’s most prolific agricultural regions is perhaps why Sacramento is the nation’s Farm-to-Fork capital.

Savor the local flavor when you try Banh Tom Chien Khoai. This special shrimp tempura is fried with matchstick yams, and served with crispy cold lettuce, bright and fragrant mint and crunchy raw carrots. When dipped in fish sauce, the experience is a sweet, salty, sour, warm, cold and crunchy fresh flavor explosion.

Also, be sure to try Banh Xeo. Called “Vietnamese Tacos” by many on Yelp, these fried rice flour pancakes are made with pork, shrimp, green onion and bean sprouts. Once cut into long pieces, the Banh Xeo is also wrapped in lettuce, seasoned with fish sauce and enjoyed even if a bit messy. If you have to decide what to eat now or save for later, save this dish. It tastes great cold the next day!

If you still have room, and I wouldn’t blame you if you don’t, choose from a variety of hot and steaming soups like Pho Bo, a traditional beef vermicelli soup to the wild- Bun Bo Hue, a Vietnamese favorite featuring pigs feet and pork blood.

No matter what you pick on the menu, the variety of noodles, bowls and broths at Banh Cuon Tay Ho make for an exciting and filling dinner.

If you are in town for #IFBC17, you’re missing out on the best of Sacramento if you just stay in the midtown grid. There are great dining gems there, but the real stars are in the suburbs. Bring some blogger friends and fill out a table. Order different soups to share so you can compare and contrast. I’m five visits in and still trying new, delightful dishes. Let me know- I’d love to go!

(Banh Cuon) Tay Ho
6840 65th St
Ste 125
Sacramento, CA 95828
Open seven days a week, 8:30am-8pm
(916) 395-1188 (ask for Tony)