DiscoverSYR: Mai's House
A little slice of Vietnam in Central NY
By Jillian D’Onfro
<MAI LAN VIETNAMESE RESTAURANT
505 North State St., Syracuse, N.Y.
315.471.6740
My friends and I slogged through a Friday night downpour, nearly walking past the small, unobtrusive sign that marked our destination. From outside, Mai Lan Vietnamese Restaurant didn’t look like much.
The space is small—only eight tables total—with an interesting and rather amusing assortment of decorations. The layout was apparently designed by someone with patriotic fervor for both her native and adopted countries. Each wall is accented with postcards, paper fans, and pictures of smiling Asian women proudly standing alongside various sights in Vietnam.
On the back wall hangs my personal favorite: a large, shiny map of the United States upon which a herd of pearly white stallions stampede majestically down from Wisconsin and around to the West Coast. Now that’s the America I know and love.
While the décor may be of questionable taste, the food certainly was not. Each meal was carefully prepared and beautifully arranged. Everything tasted as amazing as it looked, from the saigon pancake—a crispy crepe stuffed with shrimp and vegetables—to the pho ga—a rice noodle soup with chicken.
Although I butchered the pronunciation when ordering the hu tieu ga (next time, I’ll just stick with the rice noodles with chicken, please), I shed all embarrassment after the first bite. All I could think of was the food.
“The sauces are delicate,” said Mark Field, a Syracuse University alumnus and frequent Mai Lan patron. “They let the food come through, but the seasoning is really exotic.” Field, who has enjoyed food from many different Vietnamese restaurants during his travels, said that Mai Lan’s dishes taste authentic. It should, since the owner, Dien T. Mai, was born and raised in Vietnam.
Despite the language barrier (our conversation comprised mainly of repeated questions and confused but enthusiastic nods), Dien smiled broadly when I asked her what meal she recommended most.
“The whole menu,” she said.
Originally, the menu offered 200 different items, but the owners only kept the best, most popular meals. “That’s why we can say everything here [is] very good.”
Photography by Megan O'Malley