Mekong Grill
“Besides the soups, their shaken beef is quite good, despite the lack of delicious cilantro.”
“My review from Chowhound:
My dude and I are big fan's of Mekong's Sister restaurant "The Vietnam" in Spring Valley, NY.”
“The half hen with sticky rice (mixed with egg, pork, and some other things) is delicious, one of the best variations I have seen.”
Mekong Grill
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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Check my previous reviews for extra dishes.
The half hen with sticky rice (mixed with egg, pork, and some other things) is delicious, one of the best variations I have seen. I'd order the sticky rice again in a heartbeat.
Good papaya salad maybe needs a bit more spice, maybe. The one with anchovies is delicious though.
Pumpkin cake is delicious also, nice little lobes of taro.
To be honest, Mekong Grill wasn't my bowl of pho. (heh)
I believe that you can get a good bowl of Pho without the need for fancy atmosphere, as I believe a lot of great authentic restaurants (especially Asian ones) have crappy atmosphere (let's be honest) but satisfying, tasty food.
Ultimately, whether you like a place or not comes down to the food though. For me, I didn't find any all-star, highly recommend dishes out of the ones I tried, especially at the higher price point expected from a place with a better vibe.
Here are some gripes:
1. Summer Rolls:
The summer rolls that we ordered were dinky, pre-made, refrigerated summer rolls. I came right when lunch started so that means those rolls were probably made the day before, if we are being optimistic. I really felt nickel-and-dimed at $5.00 for those sad two tiny rolls.
2. Pho:
Eh, just pass on the pho.
The broth was a stereotypical bouillon cube/pre-made base, with that lingering MSG taste. Big cuts of onion thrown in to try to (literally) spice up the soup but it will leave you with onion breath, so beware.
3. Dessert:
They seem to put a lot of thought into their dessert menu so dessert lovers, you can have your cake and eat it too.
…but do you really want to eat a piece of chocolate cake after a bowl of pho? Because to me, that is just really weird.
Ah, I know that it's nice to have a "safe" Asian restaurant to go to for those who just want an occasional bite of something slightly out of their comfort zone. But if I took my Vietnamese friends here, they would laugh at me and ask me why we came here.
Ridgewood is not really known for their authentic Asian food. That being said, Mekong Grill is a decent option but is more of a "Vietnamese American" restaurant.
I've been here a couple times and enjoyed the soft shell crab special, deep fried and sautéed in a sweet/savory soy based sauce. This is not always offered, but they do have the soft shell crab roll appetizer which is on the menu. It's accompanied with avocado, cucumber, vermicelli noodles and wrapped in rice paper. It's a favorite of the family's. Another good app is the fried spring rolls which are filled with TARO, pork, and noodles. Bonus points for the taro, but negative points for only including 4 rolls. C'mon, why so skimpy.
At my last visit I went with the grilled pork chop with rice, a classic dish. The marinate was good and grilled well, but again the portion was tiny. I was still hungry. If i'm still scrounging for food after my entree especially at an Asian restaurant, that is not a good thing. I was literally eating extra rice and finishing up my toddler's soup that I brought for him!
With such small portions, the prices are not justified. The service was standard and on the sloooow side. I was willing to order more food but I didn't want to wait. Being in Ridgewood, the ambiance is more "upscale" then the typical vietnamese restaurant. Because I have family close by, we'll probably come here again but it wouldn't be my top choice.
Yum, yum and yum!
First off the food is delicious. My boyfriend and I shared a bowl of Pho, 'dac biet', which was medium rare eye round beef, flanks, tendon, tripe and meat ball. I added some brown sauce and sirracha, tasty tasty. We shared two main courses. Lettuce Wraps with Honey Braised Chicken. The chicken was flavorful, but the whole lettuce wrap concept wasn't really there. There wasn't much else to put on the wrap besides the chicken, so essentially I was eating chicken and three leafs of lettuce. Regardless, it was yummy. The best was the rice and grilled meat dish we ordered, WOW. This is a must, 'mekong dac biet', which consisted of grilled pork chop, lemongrass flank steak, meat pattie, Chinese sausage and fried egg.
For dessert we ordered the 'most authentic menu item' said the waitress, which was fried banana wrapped in sticky rice and covered in this creamy coconut goo. To be honest it looked very unappetizing, but I enjoyed the flavor. My date did not approve though. Oh and I really liked their thai iced tea because it was super creamy, it tasted light and refreshing.
Something important to point out is this place is very authentic. They don't douse anything in grease or make anything too rich. Everything was flavorful and light, which is so great! Even the fried rice tasted balanced and didn't weigh me down.
The atmosphere and service was decent. Overall I really liked this place and would totally go back.
Anyone who has reviewed my page knows that I am a major pho aficionado so it's no surprise that my boyfriend brought me here for our NYE lunch. The space, like most pho joints, is small but very clean. The service is very good as well. I had the pho tom and it was pretty good except there weren't many pieces of shrimp and also not many noodles but it was a lunch portion so maybe that's why. My boyfriend had the pho ga and really liked it. This was his first time trying pho and he was definitely a fan which is awesome. We also had their jasmine tea which was really good and definitely hit the spot in this cold weather.
Best papaya salad in town. It's sweet and fresh. Sometimes I wish they had a spicier option, but I'm being nitpicky.
Pho is standard. Good and filling.
Funny tidbit, we are regulars. We know what we want; so stop trying to up sell us!
Came here for lunch last weekend. We were seated quickly. One sign you're not in the best Vietnamese place, there are no Asian people eating there. It's overpriced, over $10 for a bowl of pho unless you catch a weekday lunch special. But then again, it's Ridgewood, the prices are always jacked up.
Service was slow. I had the bun bo nuong, which is noodles served at room temperature with grilled marinated flank steak. It was pretty good, but the noodles were cut into very short pieces, making it difficult to wrap them around a fork or pick them up with chopsticks. The fried wonton appetizer was average.
I wouldn't avoid coming here, but I wouldn't go out of my way to visit either.
The food here is actually quite good. I and one of the lunch specials, with grilled pork and fried rice. The pork tasted more Korean than Vietnamese but it was very tasty, with a hint of sweetness to it. The pickled carrots and other veggies on the side were really good as well and so was the fried rice.
My issue though is with the portions/prices. Prices are definitely higher than other Vietnamese restaurants I've been to and that
is understandable because of the location and also nice ambience. However my $9 dish ($10 actually because I got fried rice) had maybe 5-6 really small pieces of pork. They were tiny. For the price, it definitely needed more meat. Dinner prices are $5+ more. I'm fine with paying a little more than usual because the food is good and the restaurant is nice but I just feel the portions of the meat at least- should be a bit bigger.
Service was very good although the food did take a little while to come out. I actually took that as a good sign though as everything was clearly fresh and hot.