Haley Nguyen of Xanh Bistro to Pop Up This Sunday, June 24, at Mesa

By Dave Lieberman Fri., Jun. 22 2012 at 5:00 PM

It was a sad day when Xanh Bistro, a date-friendly Vietnamese restaurant with a cursed location, closed. Xanh was a place where you could take people who might be afraid of the brusque service and untranslated menus of Little Saigon, where the flavor punches were never pulled in the name of accessibility.

If you miss Xanh Bistro, you may want to attend chef Haley Nguyen's wine dinner at Mesa Restaurant this Sunday, June 24, at 6:30 p.m. Cost, which includes tax and gratuity, is $65 per person. Proceeds benefit the Orange Public Library Foundation. You'll be eating four courses of homestyle Vietnamese cooking, including dessert, each with a wine pairing. To reserve your spot--10 remain as of this writing--email Chef Nguyen.

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Location Info

Venue

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Mesa

725 Baker St., Costa Mesa, CA

Category: Restaurant

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Riley

The reason it closed wasn't because of the location; the problem was the food. If the food was very good, then more Vietnamese people would have dined at this place. Instead, the place was almost near empty, and the only customers were almost always non-Asian. The decor and setting was better than the food, but it wasn't even that nice with their chipped Ikea dishes. And, I don't see the relevance that white people who ate there later started to dine in Little Saigon. I could also make a similar point about Panda Express, how it is an accessible gateway for Chinese food but that doesn't mean that the food at Panda Express is that good.

Dave Lieberman

The food was very good, the setting was far nicer than in the holes-in-the-wall in Little Saigon, and yes, the clientele was mostly not Vietnamese, but it made Vietnamese food accessible. I personally know a dozen or two people who ate at Xanh based on reviews they'd read, who then started eating in Little Saigon.

Carrion Fairy

Pfff, Xanh was pretty damn tasty.

Riley

Xanh's Bistro was way over-rated, and I'm not surprised it closed. It was a place for white people who were afraid of eating in a hole-in-the wall Vietnamese place. The food was never that good, and that's why you didn't see Vietnamese diners support this place. If this place was going to attract more Asian diners, it needed to focus more on the food than the decor.