hue - visit 2

hue vietnamese restaurant
3600 kirby dr #h @ richmond

see 6/21/08 hue review

went back to hue recently with a girlfriend on a tuesday night. there was only one other table in the restaurant but it was 9:30. i learned that the restaurant name is pronounced hwet with a silent t and it's a province in vietnam.

i ordered a green tea mojito which was perfect. she ordered a saigon breeze which was too sweet.

we split 3 apps: (1) hue spring rolls - excellent. the "tiger" shrimp was grilled, rolled, and still warm when it hit the table. i wanted to ask for more sambal or sriracha in our peanut sauce, but i finished before the waiter came back. 3 medium sized rolls to an order. $7

(2) vietnamese sweet and sour soup w/ red snapper, calamari, shrimp, okra, mushrooms, bean sprouts. it was pretty good and the seafood was cooked perfectly, but both mai's and kim son's versions are far superior. note, there was no pineapple in it which is usually standard. $8


(3) banh xeo (crispy crepe) - wow, this thing was tiny. we split it in half and we were each able to put our whole half in a deveined leaf of green leaf lettuce. banh xeo is usually huge with lots of stuffing (big enough for me to order as a meal in fact). the stuffing of chicken, shrimp, crab, and bean sprouts was almost non-existent. $8

we still had a nice meal, but it was a little hard to swallow (pun intended) paying $8 for a banh xeo that was so minute. i could still tell from this visit that the quality of ingredients is fantastic. if i remind myself that the service here is much better than the churlish waiters at mai's i feel better.