Chao XO Opens in National City With Asian and Latin Flavors | Eater San Diego

"In National City's Bay Plaza, I discovered Chao XO, a new restaurant where owner Leslie Dang makes her first breakout venture by infusing Vietnamese staples with Mexican and other Latin influences. Dang starts with classics that reflect her Vietnamese heritage — pho and bo luc lac — and reworks them into hybrid dishes like a pho-birria noodle soup that pairs rice noodles and pickled brassicas with beef slow-cooked with chilies in a rich consomme. The menu also features a Peruvian lomo saltado–Vietnamese shaking beef fusion, riffs on Thai tom yum noodles and Malaysian nasi goreng, and snacks such as elote con sriracha and sweet-and-spicy cheese habanero wings, with plans to add tacos, sopes, and Filipino takes like kare kare. At the bar they serve margaritas and cucumber mojitos alongside drinks that incorporate Asian ingredients — Vietnamese coffee topped with ube foam and horchata flavored with pandan. Dang previously worked at her family's Louisiana seafood spot Crab Fever a few doors down in the same plaza (which also houses Mad for Cheesecake, Bonchon, Seafood City, and Goldilocks), and her family also operates Pho PCH in Redondo Beach." - Helen I. Hwang