Late Night Vietnamese in Dallas, Texas.
Situated off Fitzhugh and 75 in Dallas, DaLat Vietnamese Restaurant and Bar offers up a unique menu until 2am. I dragged along a dining partner to try some of their offerings.
Among the list of strange sounding, seemingly stoner inspired items offered at DaLat are Spicy Pork Shooters. Atop the eye-catching orange coconut curry, a chunk of meaty pork rests doused in pepper. Served in shot glasses, these are the inspiration for a chorus of hushed “What are those?“. While the menu and website state that these are served with a quartered meatball, I am almost certain ours contained a lightly-seared morsel of pork belly. I’m hoping that the menu is out of date, because the fatty chunk with its seared side that sticks to your teeth when you bite into it is just fantastic for a pork lover like myself. The curry is not too sweet, but not particularly flavorful. However it is supported by the large amount of pepper sprinkled over the surface. While I am a seasoned shot taker, my dining partner remarked that it was strange to both take a shot and chew on something.
Our second appetizer is the self-titled DaLat Rolls. The promise is simple, a pork egg roll wrapped in a spring roll, served with peanut sauce. The execution: a little rough. The DaLat Roll’s value as a not super healthy, not super unhealthy snack? Superb. While the pair we were presented proved themselves unwieldy, the crispiness of a fried egg roll surrounded by snappy veggies and a soft rice paper is a texture masterpiece. The accompanying peanut sauce is nothing to write home about, but does its job of being a sauce made from peanuts perfectly fine.
For my main I ordered the beef pho, but I subbed out the noodles for ribboned cabbage. My dining partner ordered the same, sans substitution. Other upgrades include adding an egg (of course), as well as making it dirrrty[sic], where the protein is pan seared to produce extra dark bits of flavor (Note: this is not suggested for the thinly sliced beef which is cooked by the heat of the broth). The bowl of soup is generous, and the accoutrement fresh. The broth is fatty, and seasoned decently well before adding Siracha and Hoisin, but also far from the best pho I had ever had. The DaLat pho does get big points from me for the cabbage, which I considered a fantastic way to spend a buck fifty.
DaLat’s food is not super authentic. And to be clear, its good, but its far from the best I have ever had. But for a spot open late and serving easily accessible appetizers and drunken snacks, it hits the mark. I find it hard to believe that many people could be upset chomping into a DaLat Roll, or slamming back a Spicy Pork Shooter.
