WHY Starry Kitchen spices up the Downtown lunch scene with a modern, irreverent approach to Vietnamese-influenced cooking. WHAT California Plaza is a little less corporate with the success of freewheeling Starry Kitchen, which started as an underground restaurant in the owner’s apartment. You pick a protein (free-range lemongrass chicken, the famed crispy tofu balls, spicy [...]
April 29, 2012 | Posted in
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WHY Echo Park mixes it up with a winning combo of reasonable prices and modern Vietnamese food that incorporates a nod to the neighborhood’s Latin American roots. WHAT Tacos get a burst of rich flavor from pho-style beef, while dishes like Vietnamese crèpes, mi quang (a rice noodle dish with shrimp and pork) and banh [...]
March 9, 2012 | Posted in
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WHY To check out SoCal’s first Vietnamese-American gastropub. WHAT Happy-hour specials and a half-dozen brews on tap pair with beer-friendly food that mirrors the everyday flavors most Vietnamese-American kids grow up eating—with a slightly creative twist. Good examples include the grilled mini skewers of curry-marinated chicken or beef and the sliders on Hawaiian buns (pulled [...]
November 17, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY Vietnamese fusion restaurants have exploded in recent years, but Red Medicine is no ordinary pho-taco joint. WHAT Jordan Kahn’s painterly riffs on Vietnamese flavors are under the radar—he’s doing some of the city’s most creative cooking right now. The chic, industrial polished-concrete space makes a neutral backdrop for eye-popping compositions. Unusual ingredients—rose marmalade, smoked [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY The perfect place for a Downtown dinner date, where modern Vietnamese food meets seldom-seen Singaporean specialties in the middle of Little Tokyo. WHAT A vintage brick building has been transformed into two rooms of rustic style, with filament bulbs in Vietnamese birdcages in the dining room and a buzzing bar scene up front. The [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY Some of the San Gabriel Valley’s best Vietnamese sandwiches come out of this tiny Alhambra mini-mall deli. WHAT A to-go operation with friendly counter service, Banh Mi My Tho packs a lot into a minuscule storefront: a half-dozen types of banh mi sandwiches, hot Vietnamese broken-rice and noodle-based meals, snacks like meatballs on a [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY Vietnamese-American comfort food in a stylishly barren Highland Park café. WHAT Why a place calls itself a dinette and chooses not to serve lunch during the week is beyond us, especially because the Grandma’s Pho, pork baguette sandwich, spicy fries and delicious curry chicken pot pie are great lunch dishes. Oh well, we’re happy [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY Upscaled Vietnamese cuisine with an eye for authenticity. WHAT Stashed in a strip mall that butts up against the Orange County border, Benley is one of Long Beach’s most consistent restaurants. That’s because it has a very clear handle on the kitchen, which turns out refined and thoughtful Vietnamese cuisine: great bowls of pho [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY A glistening mountain of lobster, sautéed with lots of garlic, scallions and ginger. Superb giant clams, too. WHAT Occupying a bright former coffee shop, Newport is handsome enough to attract business lunchers by day and upscale celebrators by night. And because the house specialties are four- to six-pound lobsters, as well as crab and [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY The it spot of the moment for pho, crisp spring rolls and a hugely portioned and delicious seven-course beef dinner. WHAT The result of a squabble in the family that owns the famed Golden Deli and Vietnam House led to two members of the family—including the former Vietnam House cook—splitting off to open this [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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