RollPlay: Viet Food That Loves You! — Restaurant in Arlington

Happy Eatery is a modern Asian food hall incorporating restaurants from the Happy Endings Restaurant Group. I honestly didn't realize that until I got home from my trip. I had this eatery bookmarked even before I left Tampa. I thought the menu items were just broken up by categories: Chasin' Tails, Roll Play, Pho Play, Lei'd, and Teas'n You. Nope, guess again. These are the 5 restaurants that are all under the Happy Endings Hospitality Group. I would have never known that because it doesn't look like your traditional food hall. It just looks like a modern meeting place where you socialize and have drinks.

There is a kiosk when you first enter the building which I believe is for takeout. The note on the terminal says to order at the table if you're dining in. There is one kitchen as you walk up the steps to the 2nd level dining area. There is an elevator as well. You won't see separate counters for each restaurant. You just find a table or seat along the window area and then scan the QR code which brings up the Toast app. You place your order via the app and give it any specialized instructions. It's just that simple. The payment is contactless. You can keep the tab open, or close it out and pay right away. It's up to you. It's a cool concept.

Anyway, it was a very difficult decision for me. I wanted so many different things, but I only had one stomach to feed. I knew I wanted the oxtail pho from Pho Play, but didn't want it to be the spicy oxtail one so I chose the BYO option. I got the oxtail beef bone broth with the shirataki (or low carb) noodles and oxtail meat. There are no bones in this pho. It's just the meat which is kind of nice because you're getting a very generous portion of meat. I also got just about every topping except white onions and jalapenos. I also got the magnum roll with caramelized pork belly from Roll Play, and the fusion fruit tea from Teas'n You. I thought I was being smart and not ordering too much. I was wrong. That bowl of pho was huge when it came to the table and filled to the brim. I think that's my only negative comment. I wish there were bowl sizes here. I would have ordered a baby or small pho. Instead I only ate half of it. It was so tasty. The meat was tender and the broth was rich, comforting, and hot. The noodles were perfectly cooked. It's everything I'd want in a bowl of pho. The magnum roll was just as wonderful. It's your own creation, so you get whatever filling you want and pick your own sauce. I chose the sweet chili sauce and never even touched it. The roll was perfect by itself. The fusion fruit tea from Teas'n You is described as a strawberry passion fruit tea topped with lychee, strawberries and lychee jelly. It was refreshing and delicious. I'd get all 3 items again in a heartbeat.

The service was also great. They bring the food right out to your table, and they know exactly where you are by the QR code. The server was so nice and helpful. The whole layout of the dining area is aesthetically pleasing, and there is a great view of the streets of Rosslyn. The Zen area is very peaceful. There are many Instagram moments to be had here. I totally recommend this place to anyone who loves Asian food and wants a little of everything. It's close to the Rosslyn Metro Station. The entrance is on Moore Street near the corner of 19th Street. It's very close to the Rosslyn Metro Station. Check it our if you happen to...

A lovely Asian food hall with delicious food, incredibly friendly staff, and cute decor! After being told a million times that I HAD to try out Happy Eatery, I finally made my way here for a weekday dinner with a friend, and it absolutely lived up to the hype! When I first entered the shop, I was immediately greeted by an incredibly kind and helpful staff member at the boba counter downstairs and a really vibrant, upbeat atmosphere from the music and decor. We were dining in, so we were directed upstairs, where they had a few tables for two, a line of high-tops along the windows (which provided a ton of natural lighting and were a great way to look over Rosslyn), and a cute seating area for large parties in the very back. My friend and I settled down at one of the tables for two, and we each ordered a pho.

He opted for the beef pho and I went for the vegetarian pho with shirataki noodles. First of all, huge props to Happy Eatery for offering shirataki noodles at all! It was super exciting to see on the menu, and although shirataki can be a bit difficult to prepare because of its slightly slimy texture of fishy smell, Happy Eatery did a great job of eliminating those slightly off-putting qualities of the wonderful low-carb noodles.

The vegetarian broth was delightfully refreshing, with a good amount of flavor, although I do admit that I'm a bit of a spice fiend and ended up loading up the sriracha. While they had full-size bottles of hoisin sauce at the tables, they only had tiny, single-serving packets of sriracha, which I can't imagine is the most environmentally friendly.

I was also surprised that they served the pho with the bean sprouts, jalapenos, and cilantro inside of the soup, since I'm accustomed to it coming on the side so that I can add it at my own pace, but I didn't mind too much. If you're someone that's extremely adamant about having your bean sprouts at a particular level of crunch or want more control over the amount of the aromatics that you're adding (or just want a more traditional Vietnamese pho experience), I would recommend asking them to put all of the toppings on the side.

The only slightly disappointing part of the meal was the tofu -- I'm not entirely sure how to describe it, but the tofu was not the texture that I was expecting. It was firm tofu, but it disintegrated when I touched it in the way that soft or silken tofu might, and some pieces almost felt grainy? I'm usually a huge fan of tofu, but I just wasn't the world's biggest fan of Happy Eatery's.

All in all, while there were certainly some ups and downs, I had a really solid experience at Happy Eatery! The staff was incredibly kind, the service quick and efficient, and the menu solid. I would love to come back to try out some of their other menu items, like their Instagram-worthy magnum rolls and their boba, but I will probably steer clear of their pho from now on. And, honestly, Happy Eatery is worth the visit for just the immaculate...

The concept here is an asian food hall, but to be honest the H-Mart in Fairfax by I-66 and The Block in Annandale executed the idea a lot better. Here they ended up grouping everything on one menu so it became just a standard restuarant style location opposed to food hall. I do give them points for location (conveniently located by the metro and you get to eat by the window looking down at the traffic and people walking by) and decorations (it is well lit and the light fixtures are different. They also have an interesting seat/table set up in the back. See the picture attached.).

Now the most important part is the food. This place takes from the other restaurants under their brand, Happy Ending Hospatality (They seem to be missing items from Chasin' Tails and Leid). The pho wasn't as flavorful as what I am use to. It was flavorful in the sense that there was a decent amount of salt but the spices were missing from the broth. I talked to an asian couple next to me and they agreed with me about the broth. If you want to know what I'm talking about, go to Pho 75 down the street and you will notice a difference. The meat in the pho was overcooked to the point it was dry. Chewing the meat made my mouth dry out. There was a decent portion of meat though. The tea also wasnt great. I'm use to getting tea from Teasin' You at Tysons but this here was just bad. The tea is completely different even though it's from the same brand. Though this was a new experience, I'm not sure I would come back to this location. I would go back to each separate location (Roll Play, Teasin' You, Leid, etc.). But this location would have to be...