Little Saigon

As I have said before you really can’t go wrong when dining on North Broadway, unless of course you suffer a momentary lapse of reason and wind up in the Spangles drive-thru. Little Saigon is a newer addition to the street and is located just down the block from the venerable grandaddy of Vietnamese restaurants, Saigon.

The owners of Little Saigon have done a nice job of updating the interior with plenty of seating and a clean dining room. Unlike several of the Vietnamese restaurants in town, Little Saigon features a full service bar with daily specials.

Doughy Pork Goodness

The menu covers all the essential dishes expected at Vietnamese restaurants including several varieties of Pho, noodle dishes, and rice bowls. There are also some Chinese and Korean dishes as well as exotic smoothie flavors. On our visit one of the daily specials were steamed pork dumplings and being a person that finds it hard to pass up any pork containing food, we ordered some. For our main course I went with a Banh Mi sandwich and Steph ordered a noodle bowl with shrimp.

The pork dumplings were a doughy treat. Served with a sweet dipping sauce, they were quickly consumed. My Banh Mi was filled with thinly

The Banh Mi

sliced pork, cucumbers, cilantro and julienned carrot and was served on a generous half loaf of French bread. The meat was tender and well seasoned, while the veggies were crisp and fresh. My only complaint  was it seemed there could have been more sandwich fillings to compete with the thick loaf of bread. The noodle bowl was filled with thin rice noodles, stir fried veggies, and shrimp with crushed peanuts and a sweet and savory sauce topping it all off. The dish was simple yet satisfying, which is something that the Vietnamese cuisine excels at.

Noodle Bowl with Shrimp

Little Saigon is a solid and acceptable addition to the North Broadway dining scene. Since they are open seven days a week you can get your Vietnamese fix any time.

Pho Hien

There is nothing like a big bowl of steaming Pho to take the chill off on a winter’s day. Thankfully Wichita is blessed with a bevy a places that you can get a good authentic bowl of this delicious Vietnamese soup.

Our destination this day was  Pho Hien, located at Broadway and 17th St. On a side note, this particular stretch of Broadway is a “Murder’s Row” of great local places to check out, there is everything from a classic steak joint, to Mexican food trucks, to great Vietnamese and Asian venues.

Pho-king Amazing Pho

Pho Hien has a large and open dining room with plenty of seating for busy lunch time crowds. The menu consists of Pho, Pho, and more Pho. For those of you unfamiliar, Pho is a broth based Vietnamese rice noodle soup that features a protein(typically beef of some sort), onion, and garnishes of bean sprouts, basil, lime wedges, jalapeño,  hoisin, and hot sauce. There are several different variations of meat offered with the Pho. You can choose between thinly sliced steak, brisket, tendon, tripe, as well as pork balls, and some seafood variations. Feeling a bit bold I ordered my Pho with tendon, tripe, and thinly sliced steak. Looking around I noticed that some of the bowls coming out appeared to be about the size of a 10 gallon aquarium, so I wisely went with a medium/regular bowl. Less than 5 minutes after our order was placed we had good sized bowls of steaming Pho sitting at our table.

Our service was so fast that the thinly sliced steak was still medium rare in the middle as it came to the table. The meat was tender and unlike some Pho places, had its excess fat trimmed off. Due to some nice slow braising the tendon and tripe were both tender and did not require much chewing. The Pho broth had a wonderfully rich and complex flavor. With a little Hoisin and Sriracha it was some of the best I have had in Wichita.

If you are in the mood for some authentic Pho look for further than Pho Hien. Their high quality food is Pho-king delicious (its funny if you know how to pronounce Pho)  and at $7 for a medium bowl is a solid value as well. Make sure you bring some cold hard cash though, because none of that plastic stuff is taken here.