A little while back, I visited a unique Vietnamese restaurant called
Mr. Red Cafe for brunch after hearing lots of great things about the place. Located on Hastings street in the Sunrise East Village Neighborhood, Mr. Red is an authentic Vietnamese restaurant that offers various traditional noodles, sandwiches, and sticky rice plates. To check out what I ate, click.......
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| Fried Crab Meat Rolls |
For appetizers, we ordered some fried crab meat rolls and spicy fried chicken wings. I couldn't taste much of the crab in the rolls, but the outside is super crispy and the vermicelli and carrots have a nice combined texture. The fried chicken wings, on the other hand, are super meaty. Drenched in a buttery spicy sauce, the tender wings have just the right amount of heat.
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| Spicy Fried Chicken Wings |
For the entrees, we ordered the special sticky rice with chicken and pate and the chicken banh mi sandwich. This is the first time I've tried a sticky rice dish like this and the texture is quite intriguing. The rice is very sticky and chunky but the chicken is quite dry. Interestingly, though, the combination of the pate, chicken, and sticky rice makes for a unique experience. The flavors are slightly lacking but the textures made up for the blandness.
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| Sticky Rice with Chicken and Pate |
The banh mi sandwich was pretty standard. The flavors are nice and the cucumber, carrots, and daikon are fresh-tasting, but it overall wasn't really a standout dish.
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| Chicken Banh Mi |
I really enjoyed the chicken wings and the crab rolls. The sticky rice dish is certainly very unique, but I think it lacked some serious flavor. The banh mi sandwich tasted super fresh, but it's not outstanding. With that said though, I'd definitely return to order some more crab rolls and chicken wings!
