Ben Thanh North

Mein Street, Where Different is a Good Thing...

On the day that my girlfriend and I visited this restaurant, the reason was simply because we couldn't find the restaurant that we were looking for, so we went to this one because it was new and different. My first thoughts about the place were that it looked expensive and it felt a lot like a moxies atmosphere when you enter (if you've ever been to a moxies you know what I mean... expensive looking). I also thought "uh oh... this is gunna cost me some money", which I'm not terribly used to because I'm all about trying to find the tastiest food for the least amount of money. We were seated in an area with a bar and many booths and soon greeted by a very pleasant waiter who asked us if we'd ever been there and proceeded to explain how the restaurant worked. The way the restaurant works is that it's all about sharing. You get large portions and two sharing plates already on the table so you can take food out of a main bowl and place it onto plates. The waiter also explained that everything is made fresh when ordered, so because of that everything comes out when it comes out, and not necessarily at the same time as everything else (keep this in mind when dining in large groups...and don't go there if you're in a rush). After his explanation he proceeded to take our drink orders while we looked at the menu. Out of the sake of cost, we both ordered pop and nothing fancy (a diet coke for me, and a gingerale for my girlfriend). We then looked through the menu (and our drinks came quick, but he gave us time to continue looking and was a great server, however he was the only one serving the entire room which could be a problem on a busier day). The menu was pretty pricey as i assumed it would be, but the menu was full of things i had never seen before. It was very interesting. I ended up ordering the beef chow mein (which was full of interesting stuff that i can't remember haha, and beef even though i don't usually order it), and my girlfriend ordered the asian chicken lollipops (i secretly think this is because she found the name amusing). My dish came first after a very short wait. It was served in an interesting looking bowl, and it looked pretty fancy. My first impression was that it didn't look like as much as I thought it would be (especially for sharing), but the bowl was deeper than it looked and we both quite enjoyed sharing and talking about how good it tasted. The vegetables were very fresh tasting, and the beef was surprisingly tender (was more like a tenderloin than anything, and totally worth the price). My girlfriend's dish came halfway through the sharing of the first dish. The chicken lollipops (another word for the drumstick-like bit of a chicken wing) were very big and full of meat. They were also very tasty. The plate came with 6 of them on it which was plenty, and we shared them, but it should have come with some sort of side (chicken is a little silly and unhealthy to eat by itself). All in all it was an expensive meal, but it was a very interesting and fun (although unauthentic) interpretation of asian dining. The service was very good and so was the food and it was a calm and peaceful meal. We might go back for special occasions.

Different style of dining - sharing dishes with a group, more "family" style, with staggered delivery times, so do be aware of that! Had the calamari, various noodle dishes and the beef rolls. Nicely prepared and very tasty, am planning to return soon!