Reviews

Dining Out

Thu, 1 Mar 2007 23:18:58 -0800

I don’t know exactly when it happened, but the quantity and quality of the food on Oakland’s Piedmont Avenue has been giving Berkeley’s better-known Gourmet Ghetto neighborhood stiff competition for some time now. From one end of the street to the other, the strip is loaded with a growing number of good restaurants, markets and cafes. In fact, the street needs a nickname to highlight its multitude of culinary delights. How about Gourmet Gulch?
    Visually, the contemporary Vietnamese restaurant is a stunner. The dining room oozes hip urban swank. The long wooden slats and light panels running along the ceiling and one wall give the room a soft, den-like warmth.
    There’s an elegant, minimalist aesthetic set off by two gnarled sections of 100-year old Indonesian vine and eye-catching, origami-like chandeliers hanging above the bar. The earthy red and pale green colors on the walls make the restaurant feel both exotic and comforting.
    Exotic and comforting describe the food as well. Xyclo’s menu is rooted in classic Vietnamese cuisine but has a stylish, western sensibility. The contemporary Vietnamese restaurant concept is not a new one in the Bay Area. San Francisco’s Slanted Door is probably the best-known purveyor of the cuisine. While purists may scoff at the westernization of Vietnamese food, these restaurants offer an entry into one of the world’s great cuisines to those who might not otherwise be exposed to it.
    Xyclo, which takes its name from the pedi-cabs that carry passengers around Vietnamese cities, is a partnership between 27-year-old executive chef Vy Lieou; her mother, Loan Dinh, and sisters Keng Lieou and Jinh Lieou. Vy Lieou, who was born near Saigon and says she’s wanted her own restaurant since she was in the fifth grade, graduated from the California Culinary Academy in 2002 and worked as a line cook at Postrio in San Francisco before opening Xyclo in July. The restaurant is a fusion of her culinary sensibilities and the recipes she learned from her mother, who works in the kitchen alongside her.
    Xyclo’s selection of rice paper rolls is a great place to start. Fresh or fried, the rolls are one of Vietnam’s signature dishes. Many of the rolls are less than traditional, but the goi coun roll ($7) comes closest. Tender poached shrimp, thin rice noodles, green apple, lettuce, mint and cilantro make this a delicious hand-held salad. Only the addition of green apple marks this as less than traditional. The tao roll ($7) combines crumbled tofu, shiitake mushrooms, lettuce, jicama and shredded carrots. The fresh ingredients sparkle on their own but really shine when rolled together. Although the accompanying peanut-hoisin dipping sauce is good, first take a bite without it to really taste the roll.
    Although it sounds simple, the green bean salad ($9) was the best dish I tried during my two visits. Snappy, fresh green beans are tossed with perfectly poached shrimp, paper-thin red onion, Thai basil and nutty fried shallots. But it’s the tangy, electric garlic lime vinaigrette that really makes this dish delicious. I had to restrain myself from tipping the plate to my mouth.
    Seven elements ($10) is like a deconstructed version of a roll, but instead of rice paper, the dish requires

diners to roll up the seven ingredients (shredded coconut, cashews, tiny dried shrimp, chili peppers, diced fresh ginger, red onion and tiny triangles of diced limes) in a leaf of lettuce. Looking like carefully weighed-out jewels, the little mounds of ingredients take on new life when combined together and dipped in the great dried shrimp-coconut-chili sauce.
    Sweet and sour dill soup ($6) is a fairly traditional rendition of a classic southern Vietnamese dish called canh chua ca. The sweet and sour flavors are subdued, but the chunks of pineapple and tomato give this soup a lively acidity that balances out the richness of the fish.
    Five-spice chicken ($12) was the only dish that was just OK. Tender chunks of grilled leg and thigh meat are dusted with the aromatic, subtly fennel-like flavor of five-spice seasoning and served along side garlic-herb rice pilaf. It’s a good, but not particularly unique, dish.
    Far better choices are the fantastic bun cha Hanoi ($14), grilled pork and shrimp in a great fish sauce vinaigrette with rice noodles; and the Xyclo chili ribs, plump pork ribs encrusted in a white and black sesame seed and herb glaze. This dish verges on too sweet and so might be better shared, but it’s unique, flavorful and a perfect match for one of Xyclo’s lively white wines or premium sakes.


Slanted Door’s “shaking beef” has become an oft-imitated classic of modern Vietnamese food. Xyclo’s version is called tumbling dice ($18), and it’s arguably better than the original. Tender cubes of still-pink filet mignon are tossed with onion and garlic in a dark, savory glaze and topped with a refreshing watercress, red onion and shredded cabbage salad. It’s outstanding.
    As exciting as most of the menu is, desserts ($4) don’t evoke quite the same thrill. All the usual suspects are here: fried banana, fried ice cream. I did like the Vietnamese rice pudding of sweet, almost-disintegrating rice and black-eyed peas cooked in sweetened coconut milk.But with or without dessert, Xyclo is still one of Piedmont Avenue’s bright lights.

OPENING PAGE: Xyclo’s meaty-but-sweet chili ribs pair well with sake. OPPOSITE PAGE: The goi con roll adds green apple to an otherwise traditional rice paper roll at Xyclo, where an urban swank vibe prevails. THIS PAGE: Our reviewer proclaimed the simple green bean salad (above) the best dish he sampled on two visits.

Smorgasbord

Thu, 2 Nov 2006 13:50:27 -0800

At last there’s a Vietnamese restaurant on Piedmont,” said an excited friend who lives just off the avenue and regards the length of it as her dining room.
“We completely redid the place,” chuckles Xyclo manager Adrian Hoang. “We spent eight months getting ready to open because as a family, we wanted consensus on everything. That wall, for instance—we must have tried nine colors before we found one everyone decided they liked!”
In the kitchen at family-run Xyclo is Vy Lieou, who trained at the California Culinary Academy and cooks “modern Vietnamese.” Chili ribs, a signature dish, come crispy with peanut, sesame seed and mixed herb glaze. The Vietnamese carpaccio, says Hoang, is a traditional dish, as is the Bun Cha Hanoi (with pork, shrimp and grilled sausage) and the Goi Cuon Roll (with poached shrimp and rice noodles). The $10 lunch menu offers a choice of starters and entrées, plus soup or salad, and the bar serves a creative selection of cocktails, most made with a sake or soju base.
Xyclo, 4218 Piedmont Ave. Open seven days a week. 11 a.m.-2.30 p.m. lunch and 5 p.m.-10 p.m. dinner. (510) 654-2681.
—Wanda Hennig

The New Gourmet Ghetto

Wed, 1 Nov 2006 16:12:50 -0800

Review: www.xyclorestaurant.com. Vietnamese goes urban chic at this restaurant and lounge, where techno pulses on the stereo and lengths of twisted wood in lit wall niches decorate the room. Food here is both creative and delicious. Lettuce leaves peek out of fresh rice paper rolls like treetops, garlic noodles get a rich twist from a sprinkling of parmesan cheese, and sweet-and-sour dill soup is the Vietnamese equivalent of borscht. If you like meat, don’t miss the tumbling dice, decadently large cubes of New York steak gently sautéed and served with watercress. On our visit, the waiter’s insistent explanations grated at times, but we forgave him after we tasted the FBI-fried banana with ice cream-made with divine coconut ice cream from Tucker’s in Alameda. Lunch and dinner daily.

Saigon says: Take two steps toward the future

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 01:28:00 -0700

UNTIL A FEW years ago, Vietnamese restaurants were like quiet old neighbors. They had just enough visitors to keep you from worrying, but not enough activity to pique much curiosity. Now, a fresh generation of contemporary Vietnamese restaurants is bringing some verve to the neighborhood. Slanted Door, which moved to San Francisco's Ferry Building in 2004, set the local standard for this trend, but now the competition is growing like lemon grass...

On Oakland's Piedmont Avenue, Xyclo opened in June. This is the first restaurant for young chef and co-owner Vy Lieou, who took over the space from Cafe Valerian. The dining room has a soft, elegant design, marked by thin cedar planks lining the ceiling. Xyclo showcases the "modern flavors of Vietnam," and its slim menu plays to this. Seven rolls top the menu, starting with the Xyclo roll with chicken, mushroom, taro, glass noodle, fresh lettuce, cilantro, mint and nuoc cham (Vietnamese dipping sauce). According to manager and designer Trung Nguyen, the most popular entrees so far are Vietnamese Carpaccio, Tumbling Dice (shaken beef) and Tamarind Jumbo Prawns.

Xyclo puts a new spin on Vietnamese cuisine

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 01:20:20 -0700

Modern meets the Mekong at Xyclo, a 3-month-old restaurant and lounge on Oakland's Piedmont Avenue, and, for the most part, it works. Habitues of the old Cafe Valerian pasta and pizza restaurant wouldn’t recognize the place now, except for its odd L shape.

Young Emeryville designer Trung Nguyen spent months lining the walls and ceiling with long, sleek tongues of wood. More long, sleek shapes -- white sculptures that are backlit and set into one wall -- add a gallery look. All the hard surfaces can make the 40-seat space noisy at times.

Around the corner is the lounge, where 27-year-old chef and co-owner Vy Lieou hopes eventually to lure a nighttime crowd to linger over her sister's lychee tea martinis and mango mojitos, both made with soju.

Xyclo is Lieou's first restaurant, after growing up in Oakland, training at the California Culinary Academy and working the line in Postrio's kitchen. It's a family affair involving two of her three sisters and their mother, who raised her family on the cooking from back home after arriving from Vietnam in 1985.

Lieou's menu, worked out with her mother, takes classic Vietnamese dishes in a modern direction, much in the way Tamarindo, in downtown Oakland, updates and restyles Mexican cooking.

The beef carpaccio ($8) arrives on a frosty thick glass plate. The beef is doused with the usual lime juice and fish sauce, basil and fried shallots, but capers add a salty pungency that's all new, and chopped cashews bring their own sweet note. It's irresistible.

Another classic, bun (rice noodles) with shrimp, sausage and grilled pork ($14) has all the familiar flavors. But it arrives deconstructed on a plate, with piles of noodles and herbs and a bowl with the chewy pork tossed in the nuoc cham lime sauce, which takes on the caramelized taste of the meat.

It's a big serving, great for sharing; you customize your own mix in the small bowls provided. Four of us wolfed it down and wished we could lick the plate.

The menu starts with seven choices of rolls, both fried and fresh. The crispy shrimp roll ($8) wraps a dense but bland shrimp and taro paste in a narrow tube that's fried to the perfect shattering consistency.

A better choice is the Double Surprise roll ($9 for six fat pieces), which is a crisp fried roll wrapped again in fresh rice paper with frilly lettuce, mint, cilantro and green apple. One bite delivers crunchy fried bits and bursts of herbs, too.

Other lighter offerings are salads, including a fresh and zippy version made from green beans ($9) with Thai basil, red onion and fried shallots in a garlic lime vinaigrette with two halved, poached shrimp on top.

Lieou also offers four small plates, including the carpaccio. Salt and pepper tofu ($7) comes in crisp cubes, soft inside, the blandness of the tofu balancing the intense salt and pepper on the outside.

Seven Elements ($10), another classic, is fun finger food that delivers an explosion of Southeast Asian flavors in one bite. Among the nine large plates, the best was the Tumbling Dice ($18), Xyclo's version of shaking beef. Elsewhere, this dish can be bland or dry, but here it rocks. Lieou uses filet mignon cubes, browned on the outside, still pink inside, tossed with lots of softened red peppers, garlic and onions, plus greens dressed with an intense vinaigrette.

The chile ribs ($14), three meaty chunks, are also good, not too sweet, with a coating of sesame seeds.

One of the modern twists that fails is the shrimp trio ($20). Shrimp paste wrapped around sugar cane is standard fare, and fine, though it needs a snappier sauce.

But the other two-thirds of the trio were flashbacks to 1960s cocktail canapes -- shrimp toast is a mayonnaise-y spread on French bread, and mushroom caps stuffed with cheesy shrimp come floating in an out-of-place white wine broth.

Likewise, a side of garlic noodles ($6) gets a dusting of Parmesan -- it's not bad, but it doesn't fit the concept.

Desserts ($4-$8) are standards, sticky rice and mango, fried bananas and fried ice cream, but well done -- if you still have room.

Lieou says the menu is still a work in progress. In the meantime, she's created a welcoming space, where you can taste the flavors of Vietnam in a pretty room with a soju or sake cocktail or a glass of wine from the serviceable selection.

It's not cheap -- and there's no sriracha bottle on the table. But Xyclo is another plus for Piedmont Avenue's burgeoning food scene.