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| - The best of very best!
During my recent four day visit to Las Vegas, I got to visit here four times! Two lunches and two dinners.
A little background... before the owner Ricky and his family moved to Vegas to opened this restaurant last year, he owned a #1 rated Vietnamese restaurant in Charlotte, NC. I frequented there at least once a week for 5 1/2 years. I almost always ordered the same thing- pho with chicken, veggies, egg noodles and beef broth- oh it was the best! I sipped up to the last dips of soup in the bowl every time! Yes, it's that good! In Charlotte, Ricky was brand new against a couple of same street incumbent competitions but overtook both of them and dozens of others across town. He built business exclusively based on word of mouth, never advertised, never Groupons!
I've been dying to come see Ricky and his lovely family and eat at his new Vegas restaurant for a long time. First impressions- the food is even better in Vegas than the Charlotte's and the prices are lower! How is that possible? I was amazed with the chicken broth based soup which was so flavorful and tasty yet without MSG. FYI there is no MSG in any food served here. Ricky is a perfectionist who personally picks day's ingredients himself every morning before opening the store. To make the broth, he follows his secret recipe cooking all the items over about 6 hours to make the day's batch. His soups are always freshly made. I got to try pho with both beef broth which is his trademark classic and newly introduced chicken. Both are amazing! The grilled dishes with meats, broken rice and fresh veggies never disappoint me. I recommend getting a sandwich to go for night snack or lunch which I did on two visits. I love the perfect blend of meat (I had pork on one and chicken on another), veggies and jalapeƱo on the sandwich. So happy to learn that Ricky's #1 rated (Charlotte) Vietnamese food is very much alive in Sin City.
Another thing to note is the super cleanness of this place which is rather unusual especially compared to the Vietnamese restaurant peers. Personality wise, Ricky and his wife Kim are super friendly. The servers are equally friendly.
Las Vegas, you're so lucky to have Ricky over!
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