After hearing about the place from a friend, we tried a newish (4 months old) Hue style restaurant in San Jose called Huynh Dining. It’s in the same plaza as the very-established Hue Restaurant, plus many other Vietnamese businesses.
We had the following:
Bánh Bèo - very good, with a nice crispy piece of pork skin atop each one.
Gỏi Cuốn Tôm - shrimp spring rolls, good but nothing out of the ordinary
Bánh Ram Ít - the item I was most excited about, since it’s not super common, especially up in Oakland area where I live. This version was fresh and very good. The shrimps inside were dyed bright red, and the fried part had a good crunch without being greasy, and had a nice shrimp flavor. This was a very solid version.
Bún Bò Giò Heo - A good version of bún bò. It was a nice spice level for me (not very spicy) and actually tasted a bit undersalted. When I added a bit of the nuoc mam (which had come with the appetizers) I thought it was greatly improved. But I’m not complaining, because it’s very easy to adjust undersalted food compared to oversalted. A lot of BBH is in the latter category, so this was nice. Worth a try.
Mì Quảng - A generous serving, served dry style. Lots of tender pork pieces, plus the other usual ingredients (shrimp, chả lụa, etc.). Noodles were extremely yellow, even compared to most versions of this dish. I wondered where they got them. Also arrived slightly underseasoned, but a bit more fish sauce fixed that problem.
Both noodle dishes were served with a standard plate of bean sprouts/cabbage/banana blossom/lime/mint/chili.
Service was friendly and quick, it’s not a huge place, but worth checking out!
Afterwards, bought some fresh dragonfruit and jackfruit at the nearby tropical fruit store, and also some soft tofu and other sweet treats at Duc Phuong Tofu in the same plaza.
Link to their website. https://www.huynhdining.com/
