Dai Nguyen is the owner of Hue Thai's, Mr. Sandwich, and Anime Ramen restaurants in Las Vegas. After escaping Vietnam to the Philippines by boat, he was sent to the United States and joined our family as a minor refugee foster child with his brother, Dat. A few years ago, Dai had the opportunity to purchase his first restaurant and jumped in without knowing anything about the business. Even though he may have run into a few bumps along the road, he was able to open up two more restaurants.
Catering to a variety of diners is the key to success. Having many options on a menu opens up the chance for everyone to find something they will really enjoy. Even my dad who is on an extreme, no-sodium, diet was able to order an amazingly delicious spring roll. My mom who can't have any sugar found a tasty meal of pork, egg rice dish. So despite these dietary concerns, this restaurant was easily able to accommodate them.
Maggie, Robert and I all decided to go with Pho. Mine was a combo beef noodle soup which included beef ball, tripe, steak, brisket, tendon, flank, plate and lao veggies. Like most Pho, it is a light beef broth, but what makes this exceptional is the hint of nutmeg I tasted in the the broth. This is one dish that will fill you up so come hungry and don't be afraid to add the fresh mint leaves. It gives it a little extra zip along with the green chilis.
Patti went with Dai's suggestion of one of the restaurant's favorite meals, the combination flower roll. The menu doesn't describe everything that was included so we enjoyed guessing what each flavorful bite was. Dai did clue us in on some of the ingredients such as the green beans inside the bread rolls, the powdered crushed shrimp in the rice noodle rolls. But we also guessed the pork sausage in some of the rice noodles, the deep fried shrimp with shredded yams, and the very yummy white pork on top of the bean sprouts. She was not surprised that this would definitely be a favorite meal for those who come to dine here.
Most of the time, I think of rice as a side dish, more like a meal filler rather than the meal itself. My nephew, Will, proved me wrong when he ordered the fried rice. His dish included shrimp, pork, peas, carrots, green beans, and egg just to name a few. This is not any ordinary side dish. By the looks of it, the plate of rice was the size of his head.The other must try at this restaurant is the Bubble drinks. These are fruit smoothies with pea size "boba's". For those who have not tried a "boba", it is a large tapioca pearl. It is not only very delicious but it is also fun to eat/drink.
There are so many restaurants in the Asian District of Las Vegas that it would be difficult to choose just one. There are options of Korean BBQ, Thai food, Chinese food, Japanese food and many other Asian cuisines. In fact there are so many choices that sometimes you need a gimmick to catch people's attention and make you stand out from the rest. Dai's other restaurant called Anime Ramen has such a gimmick. This is a Japanese style restaurant with an Anime theme. The place was decorated with Anime posters and on the big screen tv's they played Anime cartoons and even the waitresses were dressed as Anime characters.
Right off the bat at a Japanese restaurant, I must try the sushi option. The Anime presentation of the sushi rivaled the atmosphere for fun! My first choice was the Anime Lasagna. Which was actually one of my favorites here. I was impressed that they wrote "Anime" in eel sauce but dotted the "I" with wasabi. Another artistic mood in keeping with the Anime theme was the "Hello Kitty" roll. This is as fun to look at as it was to eat.
I was even impressed that the typical dragon roll had evidence that the chef had taken extra care to make sure it looked like a dragon.
Robert and my sister Maggie are not big seafood eaters so they went with the trademark meal here which of course was ramen. These are served in very large bowls, filled to the brim with a light beef broth and plenty of noodles. When ordering, my Mom was concerned that she would be left with too much broth so she asked the waitress about the portions. The server immediately replied that there were plenty of noodles but that she would be happy to bring her more if she needed throughout the meal. As it turned out, Mom did not need any more noodles as the broth and noodles were well balanced.
One of the dangerous pitfalls of bringing children to Anime Ramen is that they tend to get too engrossed in the cartoons playing and forget to interact with others at the table. James was a perfect example of this and Uncle Frank couldn't get his attention to find out how his food was. James and Will both ordered the teriyaki chicken and seemed to enjoy it.
Patti started off with the seaweed salad followed by the Tuna Poke Salad, which was cleverly animated in the menu with a bubble caption stating "Let's all do the Hokey Pokey". She shared the seaweed salad with all who were willing to try it and found many who were surprised at how incredibly tasty this appetizer is.
A perfect way to end a delicious meal is the fried banana. This tasty treat is a deep fried, rolled in coconut banana served with vanilla ice cream, drizzled with chocolate sauce and topped with a cherry.
So when you are out eating with family it is always an adventure; especially if a family member owns restaurants. There are many many MANY choices of places to eat in Las Vegas. Sometimes it is best to get off the Strip and try one of Dai's restaurants. Because if you haven't tried "Hue Thai" then try it now!
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