Sit down at Stephanie Dinh's upscale Vietnamese dining room in an outlying building of the Westminster Mall, and you'll be given three menus: the food menu, the wine list and the tea list. Ask for a fourth. There is a separate vegetarian menu of surprising length and creativity, full of foods such as an outstanding lotus-root salad with Vietnamese mint and tofu, deep-fried vegetable spring rolls, and mock fish bathed in a light coconut curry. The main menu features family-style specialties far removed from the corner pho shop. Oc nhoi are periwinkles and pork steamed in banana leaves; thit kho trung cut is pork loin and quail eggs braised in caramel and black pepper. Even the children's menu is an upgrade from mac and cheese: Fried wonton purses of pork and shrimp or grilled boneless short ribs with jasmine rice and a cucumber salad are comforting enough for the little tykes. The service is excellent by anyone's standards, a refreshing change from the sullen glares of the counter help at the county's bánh mì shops.
