Restaurant in Review: Ngự Bình Restaurant

Ngự Bình Restaurant

 

Address:

14072 Magnolia St
Westminster, CA 92683

Hello folks, I know you have been wondering if this guy is a straight vegan or vegetarian since I have been posting lots of meat free content. I do eat meat actually believe it or not. Anyway, today I will be reviewing Ngu Binh, a popular Vietnamese restaurant in Orange County, known for its beef noodle soup Hue style called, “Bún bò Huế” (pronounced like “boon-baw-way”). Bun bo Hue is similar to pho, a very popular noodle soup served all over the world with different variations. Bún bò Huế is known for its impacted level of spiciness, dominant amount of lemon grass flavors, and should assemble a balance of salty, savory, sweet, and sour. The word “bún” usually means noodles in Vietnamese; in this case, thick rice vermicelli noodles. “Bò” means beef, and “Huế” refers to the city this dish derives from and the cooking style. The beef noodle soup can be improvised to make it to your suiting such as spicy vs. non-spicy, vegetarian vs. traditional quality tender beef cuts, or experimenting with the flavors in the broth.

As a native and exposure to bun bo Hue, I know what to expect and how it should taste. My mom makes it numerous times, and I’ve been to many Vietnamese restaurants in the West Coast to try this particular and famous dish. Thus, why did I decide to go to Ngu Binh? Well, after being hammered by my cousins, relatives, and a few friends in Santa Ana, CA, I guess I “had” to go and try it myself.

Since I did not read the comments on Yelp or RoundTable, I was punished with a 90 minute wait time on a Saturday during lunch hour. Parking wasn’t fun either. Yay for me… I went with my mom and her friend to try this out. All I was thinking to myself, “this better worth the wait”. Playing musical tables at a Vietnamese restaurant seems to be annoying if it happened to me twice, but getting onto the food—that’s what I am here for!

There were other menu items, but really… the bun bo hue is really the only thing I wanted to try. I ordered non-spicy, of course, every Vietnamese person out there will look at you crazy and will make your soup mild spicy (the spice will build up, eventually). The traditional bun bo hue has the beef on the bone, but for the ease and hassle-free, the restaurant served the beef bone free. On several notes, I was really desolated when I found out that the beef shanks were not as tender and flavorful. The beef broth was diluted with water. Who wants to have water based soup? It probably explained why the soup was cheap by comparison to most places I’ve tried. The “thick” rice vermicelli noodles were under done, when that happens; the noodles tend to be sturdier, texture and taste are insufficient, and won’t sink down to your bowl. This was a major issue with me when I was trying to pick the noodles up with my plastic chopsticks. Luckily, there was a small side veggie plate to replace the unforgiving cooked noodles. The veggie plate had sliced banana flower (which is hard to find), Chinese parsley, bean sprouts, romaine lettuce, culantro (a stronger version of cilantro and looks like a GMOed leaf), lime wedges, basil, perilla (looks like purple-green mint), Vietnamese cilantro, and jalapeño peppers.

Despite the ups and downs at Ngu Binh, especially with their most widely known dish, the bun bo Hue, there were some executions that made the “bun bo Hue” more legitimate. I appreciated that there were some congealed pork blood cubes presented in the soup. Yes, congealed, it doesn’t sound nor fun to read, but if you did not know what it was at first, you would like it. It has a silky texture like soften tofu with a liver texture look which tastes very mild and subtle to beef liver. Oh, I also had a fish fillet addition to my bun bo hue which was sort of misleading since the traditional bun bo Hue does not contain fish of any kind, other than shrimp. Thanks to the addition of the extra veggies and banana flowers (which has a crunchy, fresh, and faint bitterness), complimented well with the lack of flavors from the broth.

Restaurant in Review: Papagayos Grill & Cantina

Papagayos Grill & Cantina (Formerly known as “Alejandro’s)

Address: 2220 Otay Lakes Rd Suite 505, Chula Vista, California

Hello everyone. I apologize for my long overdue reviews. I have been occupied with school. I went to Papagayos on October 18^th, and I realized that the restaurant was formerly known as “Alejandro’s”. The only difference is the name change; everything else stayed the same including the food and service. There was a slight Halloween décor transition which does not make this restaurant appear Mexican themed at all. However, what makes Papagayos exceptional? It’s just a local Mexican restaurant that specializes in seafood, specialty handmade tortillas, and Happy Hour drinking bar specials.

[Just a fun fact, my friend is a native to Mexican cuisine, so I factored some of their opinions into my blog as well.]

Appetizer:

“Queso fundido” served with handmade flour tortillas and corn tortilla chips-

Think of a Mexican version of a chili cheese. There’s a generous amount of Oaxaca cheese with a dollop of pork chorizo. As the plating appears, it is indeed oily and fatty, but it was also a literal hands-on meal. The cheese kept stretching and you need to use a spoon to break the cheese apart. Using your fingers, knife or fork would leave you hopeless for your hungry appetite. Despite the mess, it is actually delicious. Like mozzarella cheese, Oaxaca cheese has a subtle and mildly salted cheese flavor which is popular with children, has a texture to Monterey Jack cheese, and very flexible to work with[1].

The corn tortillas were store bought, unfortunately. Luckily, there were some handmade flour tortillas where they make on site which pairs well with this interactive appetizer. I just wished that the flour tortillas were cooked a bit longer to give more of that tenderness when you eat it.

Entrées:

“Carnitas” with beans, guac, and pico de gallo-

The typical carnitas are derived from pork’s shoulders. It is usually braised or roasted for several hours to as long as a few days depending how tender you want it[2]. Living in San Diego for over a decade, there are different variations of cooking carnitas and flavoring them. So, you can see there is a major competition of who makes the best carnitas. It is quite disappointing if you’re a Mexican restaurant that is struggling with making carnitas taste like home. That’s the exact case where my friend and I bumped into in the positions of the restaurant quality here. Carnitas are usually tender, flavorful with usage of lard, moderate amount of chiles and spices, and quality of the meat. Furthermore, we were saddened with the refried beans, guacamole, rice, and pico de gallo.

Do the refried beans look appetizing to you? Not really. It reminded me of how my high school cafeteria served them to the students. These refried beans do not taste fresh, I was better off not eating it at first sight. The guacamole felt like it was either store bought or has been sitting around for days. I felt like eating a browned avocado with a bunch of wilted tomatoes and overpowering amount of raw onions. The Mexican-style rice is usually mixed with tomato based sauce and a few add-ons like corn, cilantro, green beans, or carrots for extra color, flavor, and texture; however, at this restaurant, it is tasteless. Finally the pico de gallo, a side salad of chopped tomatoes, diced onions, cilantro, jalapeño or serrano peppers, pinch of salt and a squeeze of lime over it. This Mexican salad at this restaurant does not taste garden-fresh; you cannot taste the dominant balance of sour, salty or crunch, but bland and semi-liquid vegetables.

“Lengua en salsa verde” served with rice and beans-

Lengua is Spanish for beef tongue. Now, I know what you are thinking…”That’s gross!” I’ve tried it in a Vietnamese crock pot cooking dinner. If it is prepared correctly, it should be very tender, moist, and the meat should fall right off the bone. Papagayos did exactly what I described. The salsa verde was truly unnecessary. I felt like the mild spicy salsa masked the succulent, delicate beef tongue and seasonings. The dish felt like more of a stew than a pile of cow tongue in a small stack. As for my rice and beans – you already got my point. I received a “side salad” which was a sliced of tomato on top of chopped iceberg lettuce. I guess you can throw anything in and call it a “salad” at Papagayos.

I adore the true Mexican cuisine flare as it offers a unique style of cooking which differs from Asian, Italian, Greek, American, etc. Mexican food is known for using fresh ingredients, tasting the soul and love placed into the cookery, spice distinctions, and varying techniques. Nonetheless, Papagayos Grill & Cantina did not make the cut for authentic Mexican with its lack of quality, freshness, and for my palate. I cannot be selective with my choices. Any Mexican would agree that the food in Mexico is ten times better because of the local and seasonal ingredients that their families are accustomed to create for many centuries.

As for the service, it was alright. My servers were attentive at first, and then gradually slowed down, but when it came to the bill—they were quick on it. Don’t you love that attention at the end? For these reasons, my friend and I agreed our overall experience here were 2 ½ stars.

Thank you for taking your time. I know it's been a while, but I am going to get on track!

By the way, I caught something that would make your wallets happy. Everything on the kid's menu is $.699. (It's a typo, but I still find it funny.)

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[1] http://www.cheese.com/oaxaca/

[2] http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-carnitas.htm#didyouknowout