Number Nine succumbs to style

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Number Nine echoes like an empty gallery, a long and lean place that bounces every sound back down to your table. Light doesn’t escape, either. It gets gathered up by walls painted the purest white and sent toward a ceiling that seems to rise up forever. It’s an [...]

Along with Au Lac’s other tofu-based staples (“beef” with watercress, tofu and bamboo shoots with lemon grass), the Vietnamese plates at Au Lac have driven the place to vegetarian fame. But just recently Au Lac has grown beyond that, adding an entire second menu full of raw vegan eats so good they could easily be [...]

Two menus make Au Lac twice as healthy

PHOTO by RICK POON
It isn’t because of a struggle with the English language. It isn’t a preview of some soylent future, either. No, Au Lac’s so-called “humanese cuisine” is something all its own: It’s a plan for humanity, a proclamation of the restaurant’s dedication to good health and [...]

Probably the most recognizable dish on Benley’s menu is pho, an aromatic Vietnamese noodle soup. The restaurant serves its pho in four varieties: steak, brisket, meatball and chicken. The steak is arguably the best—slices of beef so thin they’re almost translucent—but all of the varieties come similarly dressed: cilantro, scallions and onions hang near the [...]

Grab hold of Benley’s subdued charm

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Benley’s surroundings are a bit bleak: a nail salon, a pet groomer, some no-name rent-a-car company—it’s the kind of location that usually kills restaurants one after another. So whenever I introduce someone to Benley, I’m always met with a certain shock, a genuine surprise that the place [...]