Dao Son

I have mixed feelings about this place, which bills itself as a Southeast Asian (mainly Vietnamese)-Japanese fusion. That alone is a little confusing, because Vietnamese and Japanese foods are opposites in terms of flavor and style. On one hand, the stir-fries are really good and has the taste and texture of a dish made with good wok hei. On the other hand, the soups are pedestrian: bland and uninspiring. My first visit, the soup was basically bouillon and water with noodles in it. It didn't necessarily taste bad, but I don't want to pay $5-6 for a bowl of hot water and bouillon. Figuring I had ordered poorly, I wanted to give Dao Son another chance.

We started with the fried spring rolls. They weren't bad at all. I prefer rice paper as a wrapper versus the flour-based wrappers, which are thicker. The greens were sparse, but fresh.

D.'s stir-fried rice noodle with chicken was really good. The noodles were perfectly done and the flavor was rich with onions, garlic, and pepper. The bean sprouts, Napa cabbage, peanuts, and carrots gave it a nice crunch. Wok hei is almost impossible to describe. Per the Wikipedia article, it truly is an "essence" and this dish was chock-full of it.

My shrimp tempura ramen was underwhelming. The ramen was a little undercooked, but I'd rather it be undercooked than overcooked and mushy. I believe the broth is supposed to be shoyu and mushroom-based, but it was somewhat bland.

The tempura were almost inedible. For one thing, they were almost 2-inches thick. Here's a cross-section. Talk about breading...

D. suggested the thicker tempura was made that way to absorb the soup, but when the breading became soggy, it was extremely mushy with a mouthfeel that borderlined on nauseating.

If I do go back, I'm definitely getting some fried noodles. They had a catfish and eggplant dish that also looked very intriguing. No more soup noodle dishes.