Shemuellio

I attended a dinner sponsored by Menuism.com that allowed a tasting of 13 dishes. How great, right?

When I entered Phong Dinh, the first thing that struck me was that while the place was pretty full, there were more Caucasian than Asian diners. It’s kind of a red flag for me that I learned as a kid that if you want great Asian food, you have to eat where the Asians are eating.

I am not an expert on Vietnamese food, although at the few restaurants I’ve been to, the food was much lighter. Phong Dinh employs more Chinese cooking techniques and so the food tastes like Chinese food.

And while this restaurant has garnered the nick name “The Zoo” for all the exotic meats they serve, there are only a few dishes that I ate that I’d order again: the Whole Catfish and the curried boar and chicken. Mainly because everything that is stir-fried, while flavorful, was extremely greasy and overpowered by the taste of burnt oil. Some of my dinner companions enjoyed that flavor and you may too, but it did not seem intentional.

Another issue was the order in which the items were served. With 12 dishes of varying depths of flavors and heat, they would be best served to build flavors on the palate. There did not appear to be any strategy to the order of service as the gamey snake roll was served right after the delicate catfish, and might have been more enjoyable if served after a curry. And serving a simple chicken curry at the end of the meal, while delicious, was certainly anti-climactic.

The staff is very friendly and attentive and they even gave us gifts when leaving (pens). And there’s plenty of parking in back. So if you stay away from the stir-fried dishes (unless you like the smokey flavor) you’re sure to have a perfect meal.