Usually Saturdays are “date days” for Chris and I. Last weekend we went to All Good Bakers for a lunch date, and then this past Saturday we went to the movies at the Spectrum (we saw The Descendents, very good!) followed by dinner.

We tossed around the idea of going next door to New World Bistro, but were turned away at 5:30 pm because they were no seats for 2 until 9:30pm. We should have known better, but just wanted to check for the heck of it.

Enter My Linh, the Vietnamese restaurant that we never think to go to, only a few steps away from the Spectrum on Delaware Avenue.

I ordered a glass of wine and Chris and I split an appetizer, the Bi Cuon Chay, which were “vegetarian summer rolls filled seasoned tofu and braised gluten, rice vermicelli noodles, lettuce, mint, cucumber, and bean sprouts. Served with vegetarian sauce.”

I couldn’t really taste the “braised gluten”, but the sauce I dipped them in was very tasty! Not sure if I would order them again.

For my meal I decided to go with the Mi Can Ram Xa, “strips of braised gluten, seasoned with lemongrass, sauteed in vegetarian sauce, accompanied by perfumed rice.”

If I didn’t know any better I would have said this looked like beef! But for those wondering,  gluten is a meat substitute, sometimes called seitan.

The gluten itself was very flavorful and when mixed with the rice the dish was really tasty. But the last few bites of it were very salty, which is common in faux-meat dishes. The dish was good, but not amazing.

Chris ended up going with the entree sized Pho Bo, since he had never had Pho before! The Pho was described as “Sliced sirloin beef and rice noodles in a beef broth. Served with fresh bean sprouts, basil, lime, and jalapeno peppers.”

I thought it was really neat that they brought the uncooked sliced meat out and dropped it in broth for you and it actually cooks in the broth, pretty cool.

Overall, our experience at My Linh was good! The service was excellent. You can really tell they care about their customers here. I overheard the table next to us say they didn’t like their drinks and the server gave them the option to swap them out for something else. Pretty nice of them in my opinion!