A staple at the downtown North Market, Lan Viet Market is now open at the Bridge Park location in Dublin. Lan Viet is celebrating its first two months in its new premises with great success.
“It’s been fantastic and we’ve extremely busy here,” says Khanh Le, co-owner of Lan Viet.
Lan Viet serves a range of authentic Northern Vietnamese dishes from steaming 24 broth noodle soup decorated with scallions and cilantro – also known as pho – and crispy sandwiches on French bread stuffed with veggies – banh mi – to mouthwatering rice bowls served with sweet chili sauce and topped with beansprouts, cucumber and nuac cham.
Its appetizers are nothing to gloss over, either. Choose from refreshing eggrolls, a shrimp summer roll, beansprout salad, chicken wings or garlic noodles.
“Definitely my favorite dish right now is one of the appetizers, the head-on salt and pepper shrimp,” says Le. “The whole thing is edible head to tail and it’s cool teaching people how to eat it because people are used to peeled shrimp a lot of times.”
The food is made to order with fresh ingredients combined to make sweet, savory and spicy dishes. Each of the main dishes has vegetarian options with substitutes of tofu or soy ham.
The Le family has been serving their cuisine with Lan Vien Market since 2010 at the downtown North Market. They were motivated by a desire to bring their Vietnamese culture to the Columbus community.
Celebrating the Lunar New Year
Feb. 12 marks the new year in the Vietnamese lunar calendar with a holiday known as Tết. Celebrate by learning more about Vietnamese culture and enjoy the authentic and mouthwatering meals served at Lan Viet.
The Bridge Park location is rolling out a few new dishes to celebrate and share its culture with customers.
“Two items coming out next week exclusive to our Dublin location for the lunar new year are the short rib pho, which is a bone-in short rib served in our pho, and then were also going to be having the braised pork belly over rice, a common dish for people to eat over the lunar new year,” says Le. “It’s super luxurious and very decadent.”
In addition to new menu items, Lan Viet is collaborating with local businesses to hand out lucky red envelopes to customers whose orders exceed $40.
“In Asian cultures around the lunar new year, parents and relatives will give children envelopes of lucky money as a sign of wealth and prosperity in the future,” says Le. “Here, customers will get vouchers for free appetizer, free phos or free sandwiches.”
To tie in the small business collaboration, local shops like Jolie Occasions in the Short North are providing envelopes with vouchers for a percentage off sales.
“It will not only drive more business our way, but also towards other local businesses in town,” says Le.
So, what are you waiting for? Visit your closest North Market location and dig into a delicious dish today.
Sarah Grace Smith is an editorial assistant. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
