Darrin's Dining Guide : Asian : Vietnamese
Cyclo Vietnamese Cuisine
review by Darrin Chandler — August 1, 2005
Address: 1919 W Chandler Blvd, Chandler AZ 85224
Phone: 480-963-4490
Links: [Web Site] [Menu]
After reading about Cyclo on Jack's Brain and Chowhound's Southwest Message Board for a while I finally made it there. It's yet another unassuming strip mall restaurant. Peeking inside, about half the diners were Asian, and all the diners seemed happy. Good omens.
Once inside we had some trouble getting seated since nobody paid us any attention and there were no signs telling us to wait to be seated or seat ourselves. Finally we got a table and settled in to wait for someone to take out drink order. We waited, then we waited some more. Someone came out and plopped two glasses of water on the table and rushed away again. More waiting. Finally someone came to take orders. Oops, it's BYOB. Could we place orders and then run out to buy a bottle of wine? Sure thing! We returned a few minutes later to find our water gone, but our first dish on the table.
Our first dish was green beans with chili and spices. It looked and smelled wonderful, and tasted marvelous. It's definately spicy enough to make you want to sip of water. Getting more water turned out to be a chore, though. We had to flag someone down, since they all fly out of the kitchen trying not to make eye contact and return to the back as quickly as possible. After flagging someone down we continued with the green beans. We made quite a dent in them and still no water.
They brought out our next dish, mint chicken served over jasmine rice. We asked again for water and glasses for our brought-in libations. The mint chicken was very tasty, with great seasoning balance and a fair amount of spiciness, but the mint was not chopped to you either got none or a mouthful. Still, it was very good.
Our last dish, Lat Na, came out followed shortly by water (yeah!) and glasses (yeah!). Lat Na is a noodle dish with veggies, chicken and shrimp. It had some spiciness to it, but wasn't quite as flavorful as the mint chicken. While I enjoyed it I probably won't order it again.
Since it's BYOB you expect the meal to be less expensive, but I was surprised that the check was only $22.00. I'm conflicted about Cyclo. The food was surely worth returning for, but the service was dreadful. I'm going to give them another chance, since it ain't easy to find such good Vietnamese fare in this part of town.
Darrin's Dining Guide : Asian : Vietnamese
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