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!

Affordable Restaurant for the Twenty-Somethings

Le Viet 

If you’re young and either going out with your friends or trying to impress your significant other, Le Viet is where it’s at! Le Viet showcases traditional Vietnamese food with a modern twist through its sleek atmosphere and decor.

My sister, Catherine who is 27 and I came here right after a hard day at work. We’ve been looking forward to this wonderful meal. Of course looking at the menu beforehand, we came hungry and was excited to indulge in this experience!

We couldn’t believe there were over 80 menu items to choose from! (84 to be exact)! After a tough decision, we had our eyes set on a few key dishes and were super excited to try them.

Of course we started with some drinks, oh and an appetizer.  ;-) Catherine got red wine and I got a pineapple mojito.  Ah, there go all the troubles from the day.  To pair off our drinks, we got the ‘Le Viet Sliders’ which include a steamed bun with carrots, scallion, cucumber and hoisin sauce with beef. I did not know what to expect, but the combination of these ingredients is perfection!

For dinner, I got the Xừơn Ram which is braised spare ribs with onions caramelized in traditional sauce served with rice. Between the sweetness of the caramelized onions and the juices from the meat, my mouth was watering!

My sister got the Tôm Thịt Kho Tàu which is shrimp and pork caramelized in a red traditional sauce served with rice. She especially loved the sauce. She thought it made the dish!

Catherine and I chose these items because they are served in clay pots and this is what Le Viet is known for! The presentation of the clay pot was very original removing the lid to see the food steaming right in front of your eyes!

Other than presentation of the food, was our waiter.  He was very knowledgeable and accommodating to our needs. He gave great suggestions and knew some much about the menu.   It just makes me feel more comfortable making a menu selection at a new restaurant when the waiter knows the menu really well and is excited about helping pick out something that I’ll love.

Le Viet has won my sister and I over and we will definitely be back again!