Xanh Bistro – The Review

For Father’s day, I wanted to take Dad and Mike to Xanh Bistro in Fountain Valley, California. I read about it in a OC blog about hidden gems. I continued my research by looking up reviews on Yelp and in all, it did pretty good. I emailed Mom and we made plans to eat here for lunch for Father’s Day.

What makes Xanh Bistro different than any other new Vietnamese joint in Little Saigon? From what I know, this is the first restaurant opened by an actual, trained chef! That’s enough to get Mike very excited.

Chef Haley Nguyen has taught at the Art Institute of Los Angeles in Santa Monica where she created the Asian Culinary curriculum. She has also taught at the Art Institute of Orange County.

We started with the Rice Flake Shrimp appetizer. The shrimps were huge and delicious! It was served with a sweet and tangy plum sauce that was good to eat with just a bowl of white rice. LOL.

Rice Flake Shrimp

Our entrees came out and being that we’re Ngos (plus Mike who eats at the speed of a Ngo now) we dug in THEN remembered after eating half of it to take pictures. Oh well. Everything was delicious. I’m going to list the entrees here from my favorite to my least:

• Cá Chiên xoài xanh / Orange Roughy fillet & green mango
• Đậu hũ rim xả / Sautéed lemongrass tofu
• Mike ordered a fish dish that was their Father’s Day special…it goes here.
• Bò lúc lắc / Sautéed lemongrass beef cubes

For dessert, we ordered two. The bread pudding with tamarind sauce and the sticky rice with mocha mousse covered with a spicy dark chocolate sauce. The sticky rice dessert is so unique and so good. Worth a trip back to get this and the toasted rice soy milk alone!

Toasted rice soy milk – Horchata goes Vietnamese and super delicious!

Sticky rice and mocha mousse with a spicy dark chocolate sauce

Xanh Bistro
16161 Brookhurst St.
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
714-531-2030

Lunch: 11am – 2:30pm
Dinner: 5pm – 10pm
Closed Tuesdays

“Urbanspoon rocks” AND “Hi Kate!” :)