Hue Kitchen

Immediately next to Little Saigon in Santa Ana, construction was long underway in a small lot that once held central Vietnamese restaurant An Cuu Hue. After what felt like years, a mini-plaza emerged with multiple tenants, notably including the second local appearance of Vietnamese coffee giant Trung Ngyuen in a coffee shop, and a brand new central Vietnamese restaurant named Hue Kitchen.

Obviously fresh shrimp differentiates Hue Kitchen’s dishes from the non-trivial and growing number of central Vietnamese restaurants in Orange County. At many such places – Quan Mii and Quan Hy just to name a couple – shrimp are commonly minced up and cooked enough that they’re hard to tell from fresh and sometimes not obviously seafood. But at Hue Kitchen, you can taste their flavor in every bite across multiple dishes. It feels like a newcomer is just trying harder to stand out from well-established rivals.