DooWee & Rice Somerville

DooWee & Rice in Somerville is not a traditional Vietnamese restaurant. "We specialize in fusion cuisine borrowing techniques, ingredients, and ideas from around the world". It has got really good reviews on the web so I decided to try it for lunch today. It's fairly close to 93, take Rte 16 into Somerville and it's near the big rotary.

It's very small with about 4 tables and the food is brought out to the table by the newly hired counter girl (Her first day today). Be careful where you sit, on a cold day like today you get hit by an icy blast of cold air when the door open and closes if you are in the wrong spot. I was.

The Spring Rolls ($1 each) were nice with a tasty filling (shrimp, pork, carrots, jicama, vermicelli, garlic, and spices) and I really liked the homemade garlic and chili sauce. Check out the cool picture on the table.

The Bao Baos was an extremely soft bun with a porky filling (Slow braised tender pork, sweet sauce, scallions, crispy shallots, garlic chili sauce). You get 2 per order ($5) and they were good. Can't wait to taste the Medium Rare Steak ones.

DooWee's Chicken and rice (Secret marinated chicken, seasoned rice, topped with great white sauce, side of salad, pita bread, and hot sauce) ($7) was nicely cooked dark meat chicken and their own white sauce with plenty of rice. Not sure what the white sauce contains but other have speculated that it's a mayonnaise/yogurt based sauce with some lemon and vinegar. Calling a few leaves of lettuce a salad might be overdoing it a bit ;-). Overall very nice and filling. Also looking forward to trying the Char Grilled Steak and rice. The menu states "cooked medium rare unless otherwise requested" and I think that sums it up. This guy understands food.