Gao Viet Kitchen

Cuisine	Vietnamese
Price	$$$ (31-50)
Rating	5/10
Last Visit	April 14, 2023
Location	SFBA: San Francisco: West

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General Notes

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Gao is a very popular, upscale Vietnamese restaurant with two locations -- one in the Sunset and one in San Mateo. You may have seen some of their most popular dishes on social media before, like the Bo Ne or the Big Gao Pho. Overall, the food is pretty tasty (although to be fair, when you use filet mignon for a stir-fried beef dish, it'd be pretty disappointing if it were actually bad). However, the flavors leave a bit to be desired. The combination of components in many dishes feels sloppy and not really well thought out. I do want to return to try their Big Gao Pho, but overall I'd suggest looking elsewhere -- you could probably get similar quality food for much cheaper.

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Dishes Tasted

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• ★★☆☆ Turmeric Fish & Dill -- Hanoi turmeric grilled fish, loaded with onion & dill, served with a side of fresh vegetables & vermicelli, and dipped with a shrimp paste sauce. The fish itself is cooked really well -- super tender. I'm personally not a fan of the shrimp paste sauce. Wrapping the fish + vermicelli + vegetables in a lettuce leaf is pretty cool, though.
• ★★☆☆ Shaking Beef -- Bo Luc Lac -- wok tossed filet mignon served with fresh watercress and tomato salad, + garlic noodles. The beef is pretty damn tender (it is filet, after all). The composition of the dish leaves a bit to be desired though. The watercress feels a bit out of place. The garlic noodles are OK but not my favorite -- the garlic flavor is way too strong and it was a bit overcooked.
• ★★★☆ Marrow Cracker -- crispy coconut sticky rice & pork belly, marrow, grilled & spring onion, drops of au jus sauce of love. Great flavor, so intensely savory. Absolutely delicious. The only thing I would change is for the rice to be a bit less sticky -- I think that would give it a slightly better texture / mouth feel.