Dining Days of Summer

Vietnam Café

Dining Days is a great week that occurs in University City in the month of July. It offers pre-fix menus for either $15, $25 or $35. I recently went to Vietnam Café with my good friend Sarah and her friends and housemates. I've never been, but they thought it'd be a great place to go eat, especially for Dining Days and at $15 for three courses!

Vietnam Cafe is a family run restaurant that offers traditional Vietnamese cuisine. The menu is full of great options to expand your horizon of Vietnamese fare and specialty cocktails.

To start, I had the crispy vegetable spring rolls which included: mixed veggies, lettuce, pickled daikon, mint leaves served with a chili vinegar dipping sauce. The mint leaves added a nice twist to your typical spring rolls.

For my second course, I got the Grilled Chicken Vermicelli. I never had vermicelli before so I was excited to try it. Vermicelli is a signature Vietnamese dish of thin noodles and vegetables with a protein. My entrée included: marinated sliced chicken breast, lettuce, bean sprouts, cucumber, vermicelli noodles, pickled daikon and crushed peanuts in a chili vinegar sauce. It was a very comforting and filling meal!

For dessert, there was a choice of that vanilla, red bean or green tea ice cream. I had vanilla but now I wish I tried green tea!

Overall Vietnamese Café was a great experience! Between the company, food and atmosphere, I would definitely return!

Pho

Sang Kee Noodle House

My sister, Catherine and I recently went to SangKee Noodle House in University City because we have been dying to go and because I had purchased a Groupon.

SangKee Noodle House is an Asian Bistro a part of the SangKee Restaurant Group. It offers a modern menu with the traditional Asian Cuisine. I already knew what I wanted to order prior to arriving to then restaurant: Pho!

Pho is a Vietnamese soup made of beef stock, spices, thinly slice noodles and meat such as beef or chicken. 

I got the Well Done Beef Brisket Noodle Soup which included: well done brisket, bean sprout, jalapeno, red onion and thinly sliced noodles served in beef broth. It was very comforting having being served in a big bowl and having it on the first day of Autumn.

Catherine ordered the Shanghai Noodle Dish which included: udon noodle, shredded pork shitake mushroom, bean sprout, napa, scallion and carrot. Catherine loved the combination of the noodles and different type of vegetables.

I will definitely return to SangKee Noodle House again. The food was delicious and the service was up to standards between the friendly staff and quick time deliverance of the food.