Muoi Tieu — Restaurant in Takoma Park

As a family, we enjoy eating Vietnamese food on a regular basis- but I had never had a favorite Vietnamese restaurant until Muoi Tieu opened in January in the space that was formerly long-time neighborhood favorite Mark's Kitchen. MT continues the legacy of outstanding and creative cuisine in this space - but with a different twist. I have eaten at MT four times, and as a vegetarian, I am thrilled that some of my favorite veggie Vietnamese dishes are on MT's menu - including goi cuon (spring rolls) with shitake mushrooms (delicious!), banh xeo (sizzling crepes) also with mushrooms as well as fresh greens, pickled radish and carrots (so savory!) and bun (rice vermicelli bowl) with lemongrass tofu and a vegetarian "fish" sauce (tangy and very satisfying!). They also have vegan pho (noodle soup) which I'm looking forward to trying. For meat and seafood lovers - there are plenty of options as well which other members of the family have raved about. Another favorite of ours is the "Banh Beo" appetizer - a petite and scrumptious, light rice cake topped with shrimp or vegetables and tofu and that comes with a savory sauce to drizzle over. The owner, Thuy-Tu, whose mother is the head cook, has mentioned that Banh Beo was a childhood favorite of hers. Thuy-Tu often makes the rounds around the cozy and elegantly-decorated dining room and chats with guests, sharing her passion for the food on her carefully-crafted menu, pointing out with pride that every dish is freshly-made and immediately plated. We are thrilled to now have a favorite Vietnamese restaurant which we plan to keep on coming back to and bringing along more family and friends.

Full disclosure: My daughter has been working as a server at MT for the past 4 months, so of course I’m biased about the service, but I say in earnest that the service is prompt, efficient and friendly - and that goes for the whole floor staff. I highly recommend making Muoi Tieu your go-to place for creative and wholly-satisfying...

Awful experience last night… we had a table booking at 7pm with invited guest coming (with two expecting mothers) . We came at 7:03pm expecting our table is ready, however they said that all table is full and we need to wait around 15’ because the table booking before us came late. So since when we need to wait for our table because of others came late?unfortunately at that moment we cannot move to another restaurant. And yes our guest came and we ended up waiting together, thats really embarrassing for us. The restaurant doesn’t have good ventilation, you can see a very deep smoke around the restaurant all the time & all of us couldn’t breath and came home with all the grilled pork smell on our clothes & hair! The food doesn’t worth the hype, we tried 5 different dishes and only the banh xeo is ok and is very pricey comparing with other vietnamese restaurant in town. For the services and food it doesn’t worth coming back. I would give 1 star but they give the appetiser ...

We came in the night before but they said the wait was 2+ hours, so we returned the next day to dine in. Aim to make reservations as the place is often packed and expect to wait a few minutes even with a reservation. The atmosphere is lively and cute yet casual. Personally id rate the food a 3.5 out of 5.

Their gỏi cuốn is unique, tasting like a cross between the traditional dish and bò bía. The bánh xèo is crispy and comes with an abundance of fresh herbs, though it was a bit too oily for my taste. The thịt kho is decent and had complementary sides. However, the pork had too much fat and was overly salty. The gỏi dish was good but slightly too sweet. The flan was a nice, sweet way to end the meal.

The server we had was very welcoming, had a bright smile, and was attentive to customers. Her shadow also did an excellent job. However, both nights we came in the woman at the front had a rather reserved manner, not...