My Linh

It was a cold day I was hungry I wasn’t sure what I wanted and for some reason I was driving up Jackson St. I remember seeing the Grand Opening sign at My Linh while dining at The Lemongrass a while back and decided I’d pull over and give them a try.
I’m in there between the lunch and dinner rush so the place is only a third full, I’m seated right away and provided a menu, some water and tea. The menu had way to many items I’m not going to lie I was bit overwhelmed I didn’t know what to get a bun, a crêpe or phở, decisions, decisions.
Oh wow they have curry goat stew and barbeque quail and pork liver & intestine congee and broken rice. What to order, what to order!!! OK I chickened out and went for an order of the egg rolls to start and a small phở ga. I wasn’t feeling very adventurous this day.
First to arrive were, what I like to call, the phở accessories. They looked fresh but upon further inspection the bean sprouts look a little limp and they were limp to the bite but the basil and jalapeos and lime were fresh and fine. Next came my egg rolls. The egg rolls while heat hot were awesome not greasy and filled with just enough meat and spices and served with salad and pickled carrots to enjoy with then the order came with 2 each cut into 4 pieces so a dish to share, I ate one full roll and thought about the second but was too full.
My small huge bowl of phở ga arrives and on first look the phở looked good and there was a lot of phở than I saw the grease circles floating on top and the chicken I could tell it was fresh chicken as the skin was still on it. I noticed right away they used green onions instead of white which I liked and they had lots of cilantro in there which I love. I dressed my bowl up and took my first sip like the egg rolls were heat hot but also full of flavor. I added more siracha sauce and dug head first into my bowl. It was good but I can’t lie I had issues with the skin on the chicken I did my best to take it off but with chopsticks and a soup spoon it got hard my fingers got messy so I gave up and stopped eating the chicken. Seeing bumpy skin floating around in there turned me off. The rest of the soup had nice flavors and if I closed my eyes and ate it I was ok but the bumpy chicken skin was a visual turn off for me.
I will comment that the place was clean though the floors could have be swept but I did get there right after the lunch hour so maybe they had not gotten around to it. But I over looked the trash on the floor because of the soothing, what I assume to be, Vietnamese music playing in the background which added to the experience and the bumpy chicken skin. Even with the dirty floor and chicken skin I liked it better than The Lemongrass and will definitely be back soon.

Sign does say Grand Opening.
Service was nice but took a while for the food to come up…
For any VC virgins, here are the standard protocol.
1) Waiter is ready with pen & paper before you can even settle down in your chair.
2) Food comes up before you can even strike a conversation
3) Décor is very minimalistic
3.5) You know it’s authentic when the guy lights up right in front of the ‘no smoking’ sign
4) Wipe down chopsticks & spoon
5) Pay at the counter — otherwise, you’ll be waiting for a while
6) Get the f out ASAP before the gangsters show up
Enough digression, food was tasty but not so authentic. I would wait a few months and hope they’re still around then will retry.