I hear that Song Linh Restaurant makes pretty good banh xeo – translated into various terms: Vietnamese pancakes, crepes, or as you might like to call it, “Vietnamese tacos.” 😛 Banh xeo is a type of crispy crepe made of rice flour, water, stuffed with pieces of fatty pork, shrimp, green onions, and bean sprouts. It is then served with large leafy veggies so you can wrap it inside, dipped in sweet spicy fish sauce. They serve banh xeo as an appetizer – one portion comes with 2 decent sized pieces that will certainly fill you up.
If you love banh xeo as much as I do, you want it cooked the best way. It’s only good when the pork and shrimp are stir fried till golden before getting stuffed inside the crepe to give it a smoky flavor. And the pork and shrimp should be stuck to the inside of the crepe; that’s how you know everything is being cooked together to share the same great flavor. But it seemed this place only boiled the pork and shrimp individually, and then tossed inside the crepe so when you eat it, they fall all over the place. However, I do like that the crepe itself is pretty golden and crispy. So overall, it did not fail me 100%. 🙂
I also tried their hoanh thanh soup, or wonton soup, which is also an appetizer so it’s a small bowl with maybe 7 or 8 wontons inside. It was good and I like that the meatball wrapped inside the wonton skin is a decent size.
