Trang Viet Cuisine, Tampa, FL

At least once a year, I fly into Tampa on my way to Zephyrhills. By the time Chris and I arrived, we were hungry -- really hungry. So, we headed to Loving Hut. Unfortunately, though, Loving Hut was closed this day and I really wanted a vegan meal before heading to a non-vegan-friendly place. We hit Yelp and found Trang Viet Cuisine and I'm so glad we did!

Trang Viet Cuisine is a family-owned Vietnamese restaurant that has been in business for nearly 20 years. It is not a 100% vegan restaurant, but it is incredibly vegan friendly boasting four pages of vegan options to choose from! I was so excited. The walls of the dining room are adorned with pictures of flowers and beautiful green trees are placed throughout the dining room. It is a very casual place that you could feel comfortable wearing whatever.

The vegetarian menu clearly indicates if items are vegan and our waiter was able to answer any questions we had. I found it so hard to choose! With 11 vegan appetizers, eight vegan salads, nine vegan soups, and over 20 vegan entrees, it is like a vegan paradise.

We started with an order of the spring rolls, which were filled with imitation meat and sweet potatoes fried in a spring roll shell. They were delicious. We also tried the Southern Vietnamese Rolls filled with shredded tofu, potatoes and imitation pork wrapped with fresh herbs in rice paper. These rolls had so much flavor and were so much better than the typical spring roll you'd get in a regular Vietnamese restaurant. I was very impressed.

For my entree, I ordered the V35 -- Vegan Lemongrass Beef Noodles (Bun Bo Sa Ot), but instead of noodles, I had rice.  This was vegan beef sauteed with lemongrass and onions served over rice. I also requested that they add other vegetables so they added some broccoli for me. The vegan beef had a nice texture and the sauce was very good. They also made it super spicy for me.

That said, Chris' entree was my favorite of the night. He ordered the V48 -- Vegan Central Vietnamese Noodles (Mi Quang). We didn't realize that this was basically an entree-sized soup, but regardless, it was amazing. The yellow rice noodles were topped with imitation meats, rice crackers, peanuts, and scallions. The broth was incredible as there was so much flavor.

Unfortunately, we did not have room for dessert as we were very full by the end of the meal. The service was great, the food was fantastic, and the prices were extremely low at only $9.50 for each entree. I can see why Trang Viet Cuisine has been in business for so long. I can't wait to come back for more. Thanks for a great experience!

Trang Viet Cuisine
1524 East Fowler Avenue
Tampa, FL 33612
(813) 979-1464