Alex J.
Yelp
SUMMARY: Very 90's Vietnamese. Chef may have desensitized sweet taste buds. Portions generous given location. Quality of taste takes priority over quantity in sharing experiences dining out, so I'll give this a pass.
FIRST IMPRESSION: I haven't been to a place this Vietnamese since leaving Little Saigon, the largest Vietnamese expatriate community worldwide. Wall decor, music, menu, logo, even wall paint color choices - every detail screams 90's Vietnamese establishment to my eyes and ears. I'm amused, though from a marketing standpoint, I also see their branding creating a challenge in reaching beyond the Vietnamese community - thank goodness for Yelp!
ORDERS: Goi cuon + bun ga nuong cha gio + bun bo xao (spring rolls + grilled chicken over vermicelli with fried egg roll + sautéed beef over vermicelli)
APPETIZER: The spring rolls arrive quickly, and they're fat - except they look big in part because they're loosely rolled. The cut ends on the rice paper flare outwards where a tightly-rolled spring roll wouldn't be able to. You may find yourself maintaining a firm grip and a keen eye on the the roll to keep it from falling apart. On the bright side, the ingredients are fresh and decently fill the rolls if not to the extent the rolls imply at first glance.
The sauce, though, was oddly thick and coated the roll too much even in a quick test dip. We both took our first bite and immediately understood why: The sauce was a barely-diluted concentration of hoisin sauce, the main ingredient in the most basic spring roll dip. A component far too sweet for the mild spring roll on its own.
We added a soupspoon full of water to the small bowl. Not enough. One and a half? Better, but still. Two? Better, and we should stop there. The sauce had already become quite watery from the two spoonfuls alone. Still too sweet, but it's basically generic store-bought hoisin thinned into a dip now. Far better than the straight-from-the-jar hoisin "Hello!" we started out with.
ENVIRONMENT: As we munch on our spring rolls and wait for our entrées, the owner is easy to spot, flitting from table to table with a warm, excited grin as she welcomes each new table of Vietnamese patrons. And every single table is indeed Vietnamese.
The only non-Vietnamese individuals in sight are my Irishman and an older Caucasian couple part of a 12-person family table. I catch multiple mentions in conversations that this table and that had heard of the two-week-old establishment through other members of the local Vietnamese community. It's exactly what I expected of the eatery's starting point given the impression the branding gave when I first walked in.
ENTRÉES: The entrées arrive, and I hear Yelpers stating it's a lot of food compared to other Vietnamese restaurants. Compared to my favorite Vietnamese joint in the Twin Cities, however, the bowls fall short in quantity while charging more. For being in this area of town, though, I give it points for being more generous than its neighbors.
Vietnamese noodle salad bowls comprise of vermicelli and salad greens with fresh and picked veggies, herbs, and a protein element. I'd never encountered an American salad mix in such a bowl - until today. That was very odd.
My sautéed beef was a bit heavy on the lemongrass, which has a very strong flavor that can easily overwhelm a dish given slightly off-balance ratios. The sauce we both received for our dishes was also imbalanced, and it feels as though flavor imbalances at this place favors a sweet profile - the sugar note is again riding right up front. I get sick of eating things quickly when they're too sweet, and sure enough, I started eating more and more slowly as I got more sick of the sweet note.
My Irishman is plenty used to overly salted and sugary foods though, and wolfed his noodle salad down fast, stopping only to ask for a fork when the slippery noodles made all the more so from the sauce made chopsticks more of a challenge than usual for the guy.
The egg roll in his order was massive and looked well-made, full and golden crisp, though the meal filled him up enough that he took my suggestion to have it as a snack later. Besides his untouched egg roll, the balance of protein versus salad components in my bowl fell in favor of the beef, so a chunk of that got packed up after I finished my salad as well.
THOUGHTS: Not a bad place, lots of recipe tweaking to do, though I definitely get more for less at my favorite Vietnamese Twin Cities place, and with what I feel is a far better balance of flavors than any Vietnamese restaurant I've tried in the cities. With this being one of three new Vietnamese places to pop up in this immediate area alone and plenty of established Vietnamese contenders to try still, I doubt I'll be back.
In getting up to pay and leave, I see that the dining area is full of Vietnamese groups and families now. Would be great for the customer base to grow more diverse as people discover the eatery. I wish them good luck!
