The exterior of the building where this Vietnamese Cuisine restaurant is located leaves much to be desired. It has no fancy restaurant front, no fancy landscaping, no nice trimmed green grass, and the two handrails of the three cement steps going up to the entrance door are rusted and almost falling down. Yet the small parking lot in front of the place is often full of cars during lunch and dinner time. But since it is often these hole in the wall restaurants that have the best ethnic foods, I decided today to go try it out.
Just above the restaurant's building one can see the beautiful Mill Mountain in all its splendor with the green color of the Spring and above it, the Roanoke Star, highlighted by a beautiful blue sky high above it. You can appreciate this more by viewing my photographs that accompany this review.
After I entered the restaurant through two simple glass doors, the inside of the restaurant was clean, with its walls painted white, its floor tiles nice and shiny, and its decor in the minimalist style with only nice looking furniture and nice original paintings and artworks evenly spread around the walls of the restaurant. It had large windows in the front that brought in bright light. Next to the windows and walls were dark red color booths and in the middle of the dining room were tables and chairs.
As soon as I entered I was warmly greeted by a young man behind the host's station, who welcomed me with a big smile, handed me a copy of the menu, and asked me to take a seat at the table of my choice. After walking around I went and sat at a table that I not only could feel comfortable, but was situated in a central location with good light so I could observe the restaurant well and be able to take well lit photographs of the food items as soon as I was served and while enjoying my dining experience.
The same host doubled as my server, and came by my table with a happy smile to see if I was ready to order. To drink I ordered the CAFE SU ADA, a Vietnamese Iced Coffee with Condensed Milk. As appetizer I ordered Ha Cao, Deep Fried Pork Dumplings served with mixed fish sauce. I also ordered their Goi Cuon Tom 2 Cuon, a shrimp, lettuce, and noddle rolled up with a rice paper, and served with peanut butter sauce. As the main course I ordered their Com Suon, Steamed Jasmine Rice with a Grilled Pork Chop. While ordering I talked with the server and he told me that this was a family owned and run business, together with the AA Asian Market that was inside the same building with an entrance from the restaurant. His mother seemed to be the cook, and his father in charge of running the Market. Through my experience I have found that this is very tipical in many ethnic groups restaurant businesses.
The food all came out at once, even though I told my server that I would like my appetizers first. So I would recommend you order the appetizer first and after you're done eating it then order your main course, so the second doesn't get cold and you have more time to enjoy both while conversing with your guests. Everything was delicious: the dumplings, the pork, and the shrimp roll, although I found the rice paper a bit too thick and sticky, making it a bit difficult to handle. The sauces accompanying the food were also extremely good tasting.
When I asked what they had for dessert, my server walked to the Market and brought me one of their popular desserts. Not knowing what it was, I ate it anyway. The sweet sauce was good but I didn't care much for the pieces of some type of pieces of a vegetable it had inside.
In conclusion, I would definitely recommend this restaurant for a wonderful Vietnamese Cuisine dining experience. Both the food and the service were great. So much so that I feel in the process I got to learn more about their culture as well. read more