Minh Anh
5428 Detroit Road
Cleveland, Ohio 44102
216-961-9671
Thirty-two years ago the Vietnam War ended as America withdrew the last of its troops from the embattled country. Today, two Caucasian Americans eat in a Vietnamese restaurant for the first time so they have shit to write about on their website. What those two have to do with each other I don’t know, but what I do know is that the Vietnamese food at Minh Anh is freakin’ awesome. They do however has the suckiest website ever. By the way, I also know that I put the Asian in Caucasian.
Picture taken by Matt Roloff
Neither Jason nor myself has ever eaten Vietnamese food so we were both looking forward to visiting Minh Anh on the near West side of Cleveland. I was personally very excited to have my first bowl of Pho. Which by the way I found out is pronounced Fuh. Therefore the following phrases are now hilarious:
- Go Pho Yourself
- Pho Me Running
- Pho You in the Ass
- I don’t give a flying Pho
- I just Pho’d a uncooked chicken breast in your fridge.
We arrived at Minh Anh just before noon and there was only one other customer in the place. We seated ourselves at a table in the middle of the restaurant and awaited the feast. A waitress quickly arrived taking our drink order as we perused the menu. I started my meal with the Saigon Pho which is also known as Cinnamon Rare Beef with Rice noodles ($4.75). Thank the good lord that I ordered the small because it was like a hot damn punch bowl. It was pretty neat though because they brought out all of these condiments you are supposed to eat with your Pho like bean sprouts, hot oil, lemon, and hoisin sauce.
Let me tell you, it was a nice Pho.
I had to ask the waitress what I should be doing with everything and she was kind enough to direct me through the process. Here is how it goes: You dip your meat in the hot oil and eat it, then you grab some noodles with your chopsticks pour on a little hoisin sauce and eat those, and you finish it off by sucking down the steaming broth. It is quite the system.
The soup was delicious, especially with all of the condiments working their magic. The broth was salty and rich with beef flavor, the inclusion of rice noodles was also a nice change. The only thing I didn’t like about the soup was the cilantro floating across the top. I don’t know why, but it was extremely bitter and completely inedible. Believe me, I tried, but it ruined every single bite.
After eating all of that soup I felt like a real moron ordering a full lunch plate, but it was too late at that point. For my main dish I ordered the Chicken Crepe ($9.50) and it had some really cool Vietnamese name, but they didn’t put that shit on the take-out menu so I’m at a loss. I had an expectation that the crepe would be similar to a french crepe, but it was more like an omelet.
The lovely dishes are available at the Vietnamese market next door.
The huge crepe was filled with chicken, mushroom and bean sprouts which were pouring out when it arrived at the table. None of the ingredients in the crepe were overly seasoned so I did use some of the sauces we were served to add some flavor, but overall I thought the dish was great. Definitely something different.
Not pigeon, chicken.
I will visit Minh Anh again, if for no other reason to try some of the other unique Vietnamese dishes they offer. The food was great and the service was very good. The portions at this place are just enormous which makes me wonder why Vietnamese people are so tiny. Maybe they are just trying to fatten us up so they can attack from within! Bastards! Sorry, flashback.
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