Las Vegas Weekly

8820 S Eastern Ave, Las Vegas, 89123
Directions
Phone: 702-463-1300
http://lemongrasscafe-vegas.com/

The menu here goes well beyond pho and the beef fest. Cha gio is a must at a good Vietnamese restaurant, and these are a good example—crunchy, cigar-shaped and dangerously hot when they first come to table. The filling uses minced pork, crab and rice noodles to create a dense, delicious treat.

For a different type of eggroll, not deep-fried, choose bi cuon, rice-paper rolls filled with vegetables and sliced pork, served with a peanut sauce.

There are so many more dishes worth trying, I wouldn’t know where to begin. One is an amazingly addictive rice plate with cubed tofu tossed in chili and lemongrass. Another is a terrific stuffed calamari, which uses a filling similar to the cha gio.

Lemongrass Café is a comfortable place. It’s housed in an all-chrome building that was once called Vegas Diner and later morphed into Asian Gourmet, the letters of which are still emblazoned near the roof, in red plastic. Sit at the nine-stool counter or in one of the beige leatherette booths, flanked by bamboo plants and brass elephants.