Hoang’s Grill & Sushi Bar offers a good compromise for groups of diners divided between a Vietnamese, Thai, and Japanese dining experience.
Hoang’s Grill & Sushi Bar offers a good compromise for groups of diners divided between a Vietnamese, Thai, and Japanese dining experience.
The Falls Church restaurant, located in the Broadway Building on West Broad Street, offers an Asian fusion menu focusing on Vietnamese cuisine. Entrees range from $10-$15, with chef’s special entrees coming in at $14.50, up to the $22.50 Chilean sea bass. Along with this dinner menu, the restaurant offers an affordable $10-range lunch menu and happy hour specials between 4 and 7 p.m., where diners can take advantage of $1 nigiri sushi and $2 appetizers.
The restaurant, which bills itself as a place for “upscale casual dining,” does not disappoint with décor. Diners enjoy the Asian-inspired art that decorates the facility. From above clothed, candlelit tables, square lanterns cast an elegant glow on mustard-colored walls. Upon immediately entering the restaurant, guests see a display of bottles which serves to pique an interest satisfied by an extensive wine list.
The appetizers are predictable Asian fare – egg and spring rolls, tempura, edamame – save for the surprising Vietnamese stuffed escargot. This dish is not for the faint of heart as the escargot, stuffed with pork and mushroom and seasoned with ginger and lemongrass, are served in their shell. Presented atop a bed of lettuce and accompanied by a ginger-lemon fish sauce the dish hardly needed, the escargot were delicious. Their texture, due to the pork and mushroom accompaniment, was reminiscent of a meatball, though the ginger and lemongrass brought the dish close enough into the Asian cuisine realm to offer a reasonable introduction to the fusion meal.
Not to be forgotten amidst a menu of creative fusion options is the sushi menu, which offers the standard nigiri and makimono rolls, with some surprises to be found in the limited makisushi rolls, such as the gator roll (tuna, mayo, hot pepper, and scallion) and the tofu teriyaki roll (fried tofu, cucumber, scallion, and hot pepper). With standard rolls priced in the $5-$7 range, Hoang’s excellent and affordable sushi is not to be missed. The fish was very fresh and served in ample proportion to the rice that accompanied it.
The menu’s entrée offerings are ample, featuring noodle soups and salads as well as wok, fried rice, vegetarian, and grill items, but the most enticing dishes can be found in the chef’s specials, which present the restaurant’s best in seafood, beef, pork, and chicken. The stand-out dish on this menu was the turmeric catfish. The dish offers two skewered pieces of grilled catfish seasoned with turmeric and served beneath an ample heap of dill, red onion, and scallion. The dish is served on a hot plate, with an additional plate of lettuce, rice noodles, herbs, and fish sauce to season the meal. The fish was well cooked, flaky and buttery, though not overwhelmingly flavorful, which allowed the variety of accompaniments to accent the fish. Combining pieces of fish with the herbs, wrapping it in lettuce, and spinning it in rice noodles allowed for a number of light, flavorful taste creations.
While there are many restaurants in Falls Church that can satisfy a craving for Thai, Vietnamese, and Japanese, finding a restaurant that can do all three, and do all three well, is a rarity that makes Hoang’s Grill & Sushi Bar an ideal spot for a group of diners with differing palates.
502 W. Broad St. #5, Falls Church
703-536-7777
hoangcuisine.com
Monday – Thursday: 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Friday – Saturday: 11 a.m. – 10:30 p.m.
Sunday: 11:30 a.m. – 9:30 p.m.
