Is Le Viet’s Beauty More than Skin Deep?

Adam Erace checks out the attractive Le Viet at 11th and Washington but wonders if there’s any depth to its beauty.

Sinh’s food is beautiful, adequate in taste but exquisite in presentation. It comes festooned with edible garnishes as ornately whittled as an armoire from the Lester Freamon Dollhouse Collection. Bowls like inverted Mayan pyramids brimmed with wispy vermicelli, shredded crab and a simmered-all-day broth that, unfortunately, only had simmered-15-minutes depth. More rice noodles came in bowls like upside-down turbans, these topped with a lot of pork, but not a lot of herbs. There were grand sundae glasses of rainbow ice overstuffed with green jello and red beans and a frosty soursop shake, which came with the surprise addition of black tapioca pearls—not unwanted, unlike the shake’s toothache sweetness. Fried bananas with coconut-doused ice cream were fine, in a P.F. Chang’s sort of way.

Le Viet [Philadelphia Weekly]
Le Viet [Official Site]