Sunday, August 1, 2010

Restaurant Review: Hue

This doesn't happen too often, but I happened to dine at Hue, a new Vietnamese restaurant in Bay View, twice in a week and a half. As you can tell, it's a good place!


On a Wednesday evening, my ethnic dining group checked it out for our July meal. We started with bahn pate chaud, which was puff pastry bites with pork filling, served with a garlic soy sauce.
We each got something different (check out the menu here), and everything seemed to be good and fresh. Sun got the "shaking beef," which was sirloin over a mixed green salad with a vinaigrette and jasmine rice.

Leah got one of the appetizers, the fresh spring rolls with tofu and a peanut sauce. She also got a side of the fried rice, which had shrimp and pork in it.



I got one of the specialities: bahn xeo, a Vietnamese "crepe" filled with pork, shrimp, onions, bean sprouts and mushrooms. It was very tasty, but it needed to have the peanut dipping sauce and a traditional fish sauce, nouc mam. I, of course, had to add Sriracha, too.



Then last Friday, Nate and I went to dinner there with our friends Ann and Craig. We all had something different than we did during ethnic dining night.

Ann had the lemongrass beef, served with noodles and an egg roll.


Craig had the marinated sweet pork sausage, also served with noodles and an egg roll.


Nate had one of the specialities, the "kitchen sink" meal with Chinese sausage, BBQ pork, shrimp and vegetables, served with rice. Nate let me have a bite, and it was really, really good.


I had the chicken pho (which is also what Lisa had our first time there--I forgot to take a picture of it then). It was good--I like being able to add what I want to it (basil, bean sprouts, sauces, etc.)--but the chicken was a little dry. Sounds kind of weird that chicken in a soup could be dry, but it was. That was the only downside to the meal.

All in all, our meals and experiences at Hue were very good. I've only been disappointed that they didn't have nightly specials (just for more options) the two times I was there and they don't yet have bahn mi sandwiches (I had one in New York last summer--it was the best sandwich I've ever had!). I'll definitely go back when bahn mi is on the menu.

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