Hai Ky Mi Gia has been serving Teochew-style noodle soups in the Tenderloin since April 1987, when founder Tuan Hua opened the noodle house after his family immigrated from Vietnam as ethnic Chinese. It remains family-run, located in what's known as Little Saigon, and still operates as the kind of mom-and-pop spot where regulars have been coming for generations.
The menu centers on a choice of noodle — wide or thin egg, wide or thin rice, glass, or vermicelli — served in soup or dry, topped with options like the house special combination of minced pork, sliced pork, shrimp, fish cake, char siu, and chicken, or the braised duck leg, cooked until it falls off the bone and served with pickled vegetables. Free-range chicken shows up both in the noodle bowls and in the Hainan chicken rice, which comes with a homemade garlic-ginger-chili sauce. Noodles are made fresh in house.
The dining room is bigger than the storefront suggests, with archways and hanging orchids, and stays busy through the day with neighbors, double dates, and solo diners. The egg noodles have a firm, chewy texture, and a bún bò huế made with rice noodles is also on offer alongside the house's stronger coffee.
The menu centers on a choice of noodle — wide or thin egg, wide or thin rice, glass, or vermicelli — served in soup or dry, topped with options like the house special combination of minced pork, sliced pork, shrimp, fish cake, char siu, and chicken, or the braised duck leg, cooked until it falls off the bone and served with pickled vegetables. Free-range chicken shows up both in the noodle bowls and in the Hainan chicken rice, which comes with a homemade garlic-ginger-chili sauce. Noodles are made fresh in house.
The dining room is bigger than the storefront suggests, with archways and hanging orchids, and stays busy through the day with neighbors, double dates, and solo diners. The egg noodles have a firm, chewy texture, and a bún bò huế made with rice noodles is also on offer alongside the house's stronger coffee.