The Gossiping Gourmet: Pho Lantern offers fresh, flavorful choices

Westminster has the second-largest population of Vietnamese people in the world and many wonderful restaurants as well, but we are lucky that several very good Vietnamese eateries can be found closer to home.

My dining companion and I recently discovered Pho Lantern Café, just off 17th Street and Newport Boulevard in Costa Mesa. It is in a small strip mall near a real butcher shop (The Butchery) and a Growers Direct market.

The restaurant features an extensive menu that includes a dozen vegetarian dishes as well as a kid’s menu. The place is small and pleasant looking. A pass-through window is adorned with lanterns and bamboo, and a faux bamboo plant can be seen at the rear. We found the servers to be very friendly and happy to make recommendations.

It was hard to choose from among the 17 appetizers, but our waiter suggested the shrimp spring rolls — two fat, stuffed rice paper rolls with fresh lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, scallions and sweet shrimp. Under the transparent skin was a long strip of thinly sliced sausage. They were delicious and crunchy and served with a slightly warm, sweet dipping sauce. The garlic butter chicken wings sounded delicious too, but we will save them for another visit.

Of course, we had to try a noodle soup. We selected the war wanton. Diners have their choice of egg or rice noodles. I am a lover of the rice variety. The big bowl was full of vegetables — carrots, broccoli, bean sprouts, cabbage and bok choy — thin slices of barbecue pork, large fresh shrimp and bits of crunchy fried leeks, all swimming in a wonderful chicken broth and topped with fried wontons. We couldn’t finish it and took half home, not wanting to lose one bit of it. The restaurant even gave us extra broth.

Our next dish, which was from the clay pot list, was another big bowl filled with Vietnamese-style rice cooked in a clay pot with chicken, shrimp, calamari, thin slices of pork, slightly sweet sausage and veggies — this time black mushrooms, peas, carrots and baby corn. It can be ordered wet or dry, meaning with broth or without. We chose the latter.

On the side was a plate of condiments including Thai basil, lemon, sprouts, and jalapenos. This was another great dish with so many flavors and textures, and once again we couldn’t finish it and took the rest home.

The cafe has a number of salads, some of which are entrée size. They feature 13 versions of beef pho (soup) and 12 kinds of chicken noodle soup. Each soup has many different ingredients, ranging from meatballs to calamari to fish cakes, vegetables and more. The restaurant has a number of vermicelli rice noodles dishes and stir-fried noodles, as well as seafood, pork, beef and chicken entrees.

Vegetarians might like the tofu, carrot, cabbage and bean thread, served with lime chili soy sauce; or the mixed chopped vegetables with coconut milk curry in a clay pot; or vegetarian crispy rolls and vermicelli noodles served with green leaves, bean sprouts, carrots and cucumbers and topped with peanuts and chili lime sauce.

On the table was a selection of condiments allowing us to douse our food with the amount of heat we could tolerate.

As expected, desserts are not a big feature, but Pho Lantern Café has green tea ice cream, deep fried bananas with ice cream, a mixed fruit cocktail in coconut milk and grass jelly with mung bean in coconut milk. The place was out of all of these except the bananas, so we skipped dessert.

We are looking forward to returning because there is so much to choose from and the food is just great.

TERRY MARKOWITZ was in the gourmet food and catering business for 20 years. She can be reached for comments or questions at [email protected].

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IF YOU GO

WHAT: Pho Lantern Café

WHERE: 103 E. 17th St., Costa Mesa

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily

PRICES:

Appetizers: $4.95 to $8.50

Entrees: $6.95 to $12.95

Desserts:

WINE:

Bottles: $15

Glass: $4.50