Stopped by for lunch in Falls Church the other day. Ordered Cha Gio/Spring Roll and Xian Xao Cua/Cellophane noodles with crab meat and an iced Vietnamese coffee. The coffee was hand shaken at the bar which is not the way I like to see it done. At Pho 75 they set the old fashioned steel pour-over device right on top of a coffee cup that has a layer of condensed milk on the bottom. Then they just pour the coffee and however much condensed milk you like over the ice in a glass. Anyway, the iced coffee tasted more like chai than coffee and wasn't that great.
So I tied into the the Cha Gio, which were a bit over fried and fairly bland. Two strikes against my meal so far.
Finally the Xian Xao Cua came out looking pretty good in a "bowl" of cabbage. It tasted good but not great, kind of bland. When the waiter came back I asked for and got some Nuoc Mam and chili paste and that gave it a little flavor. It was a good sized meal but lacked in the layered flavors that I remember here in years past.
Not a great meal unfortunately.
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