Review: Mi Linh in Rock Hill

MI LINH
9737 Manchester Road, Rock Hill, 314.918.8868, milinh.net

How does one judge a new Vietnamese restaurant in a city touting more than 30 restaurants featuring the same cuisine? What makes a new place better than the rest when they all offer pretty much the same dishes? Is it fair to judge a restaurant by just one dish?

Maybe Dee Dee Tran and her brother Nelson Tran pondered these questions when they opened Mi Linh, their 5-month-old Vietnamese restaurant in Rock Hill (She’s the general manager; he runs the kitchen.). However, with Nelson’s 20-year tenure in the restaurant industry (working in kitchens from New York to Seattle) and Dee Dee’s experience in running other businesses, the Trans certainly don’t have to prove themselves.

But oh, how they do! And for good measure – again and again.

Noodles, oodles of them – egg, rice, clear, wheat, thin, thick – filled bowls of steaming bun (vermicelli bowls) and pho (soup), which passed by my table like an endless train of little choo-choos emitting puffs of fragrant steam throughout the restaurant. Noodle soup is so central to Mi Linh that the Trans named their restaurant after mi, a southern Vietnamese soup made with clear pork broth (while Linh is a family name).

But it was Bun Bo Hue, a spicy beef noodle soup from the menu’s Chef’s Special section, that intrigued my senses: Thick rice noodles in a beefy broth made from beef bones and beef shank simmered with lemongrass. True to the cooking style of the Hue region in central Vietnam, the soup was seasoned with a thick, assertively flavored fermented shrimp paste, adding yet another layer to savor. Toss in some cilantro, green and white onions, purple cabbage, mint, sweet perilla leaf, sliced jalapeno, Thai basil and bean sprouts to your liking. To further arouse your palate, squeeze a lime and drizzle in a bit of chile oil from the tabletop condiment jar. Order the soup with beef shank and Vietnamese pork ham, as I did, or take the plunge and go the more traditional route by adding pig knuckles and cubes of congealed pig’s blood.

A tangle of thin, yellow egg noodles served as the base for Mi Vit Tiem, a deeply flavored yet surprisingly subtle soup that combined a roasted duck thigh and steamed baby bok choy. The flavors of the heady, hearty broth unfolded slowly, revealing a sweet, spicy and savory mélange of Chinese five-spice, mushrooms and plum. It was a soothing, satisfying meal in itself, reinforcing the meaning of the word pho, “one’s own bowl.” And, as with all pho, slurping is never impolite.

Other dishes were competent, just less distinctive. Mi Xao Mem Thap Cam, soft egg noodles (crispy noodles are another option) stir-fried with seafood and mixed vegetables, was full of shrimp, squid and small scallops, but the crab with a “K” (aka, imitation crab) should be stricken from all menus. Com Bo Xao Cari Xa Ot ­– beef sauteed with curry, lemongrass and chiles served with rice, cucumber and the requisite vegetables – lacked the spicy-warm punch I crave from curry.

Among the Com Tam (broken rice platters), there’s Dac Biet, a combination pork plate that included a thin, grilled chop topped with an over-easy egg and paired with a paste egg cake and a crispy, little triangle of fried bean curd skin wrapped around shrimp paste. Also on the plate was what I initially took to be a clump of noodles but, in fact, was the “shredded pork” advertised on the menu: boiled and finely sliced pig skin to be precise. Cold and chewy, it was what we in the food-crit biz call “an acquired taste.”

While little things – like mixing its own fish sauce (using a squid base rather than the common anchovy liquid) and infusing vodka with flavors like lychee, green tea and lemongrass-ginger – make Mi Linh notable, it’s the Canh Ga Chien that makes this new restaurant truly stand apart from the 30 some-odd others. These “fried butter garlic chicken wings” were lightly breaded with rice flour and corn starch and then deep-fried before being sauteed with butter, red pepper flakes, garlic, and diced green and white onions. Eat the first wing without dipping it into the accompanying sweet and sour hot sauce. Notice how the sublime, light and crispy coating cracks with the first bite; how juicy and garlicky the meat is; how the gentle heat warms your lips; how your fingers glisten with butter and oil; how good the bits of fried onion taste; how you wish you could eat these wings every night for the rest of your life. Now go ahead and adorn the second one with the sauce. Like everyone else I know who has fallen victim, these wings will certainly be on my list of top dishes this year.

If asked to answer my opening three questions after polishing off a plate of those wings, I’d say: wings, wings and yes. With a bit more reflection (after the spell of the Canh Ga Chien wore off), I’d say Mi Linh fits well within the established mold of St. Louis Vietnamese cuisine, but it is distinguished by its pho and lack of a separate Chinese menu that many restaurants feel is necessary for the uninitiated. Now, may I have more wings, please?

Don’t Miss Dishes
Canh Ga Chien, Mi Vit Tiem, Bun Bo Hue, Com Dui Ga Chien Nuoc Mam

Vibe
Formerly the China Inn, Mi Linh has been remodeled with hanging red light fixtures and dark burgundy walls, exuding a cozy feel. There’s a separate bar area with two televisions.

Entree Prices
$8 to $21.50

Where
Mi Linh, 9737 Manchester Road, Rock Hill, 314.918.8868, milinh.net

When
Sun., Mon., Wed. and Thu. – 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Fri. and Sat. – 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.