Le Soleil has become a Richmond standby. The spot is strategically located at the easternmost end of Clement's mighty chain of Asian restaurant delights, and so probably draws a number of customers from newcomers to the neighborhood who've strolled too far in one direction and are too hungry to walk back to the car, which they left on 16th, without sustenance. Then, once these people have discovered a restaurant in the Richmond they love, they keep coming back. Le Soleil isn't necessarily the best Vietnamese in the city, but it's close to the top, and memorable enough to stand out.
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133 Clement (at Second Avenue), 668-4848. Open every day from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Reservations not necessary. Parking: difficult. Muni: 1, 2, 38 (on Geary). Noise level: mild
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The menu at Le Soleil is extensive -- the dinner menu's numbered dishes go up to 74 -- and every dish is different: This isn't one of those places at which five kinds of meat multiplied by seven different techniques yield -- let's see -- 35 dishes: chicken xao lan, beef xao lan, vegetable xao lan, etc. The lunch menu offers a condensed version of the dinner options, smaller portions with rice or noodles for about a dollar less.
And lunch also brings a wider selection of excellent soups. The bun bo hue ($5.25) is a wonderful take on the classic beef noodle soup, red, tart, and deeply meat-flavored, with an intense, though delayed, spiciness to round out the broth. An abundance of tender rice noodles makes it clear that this soup is not an appetizer. The pho is also excellent: $5.50 gets you a large bowl of thick, beefy broth, tasting less of lemongrass and more of brown flavors like onion, garlic, and star anise. It, too, is filled with rice noodles and topped with delicate, thin slices of steak, and melty, gelatinous beef tendon. (For $4.95, they'll hold the tendon.) Pho is one of the world's most comforting food, traditionally eaten at breakfast, but good any time.
At dinner it's a good idea to eat family style: There are so many big platters of intense flavors that everybody's going to want to try everything. The Vietnamese pot stickers ($5.95) are a good place to start. Despite what you may picture when you read the words "pot stickers," these are deep-fried rice balls, golden and crunchily spiky on the outside, with a filling of juicy pork, shrimp, and mushrooms. The flavor, and the texture contrast, is very good. A Vietnamese crepe ($6.95) is more eggy, and more crisp, than many of its ilk. The large wrapper embraces a filling of bean sprouts, chicken, and shrimp, though the crepe is also available in a vegetarian edition, with mushrooms replacing the meat, and a soy-based dipping sauce instead of a fish-based one. Other appetizers include steamed clams, served over a flame, barbecue pork balls, and top-notch imperial rolls and spring rolls. The former ($5.95; $5.75 vegetarian) are beautifully fresh and clean-flavored, crisp but without a hint of greasiness. The latter ($5.75; $5.45 vegetarian) are plump and blander, with a salty bean sauce for dipping. Although the rolls are not made to order, they don't taste as though they've been sitting around.
Moving on: The squid salad ($6.45) brings with it to the table the distinct odor that heralds a product of the sea. The salad is light, consisting of mostly shredded cabbage, tossed with mint and crushed peanuts, and adorned with several slices of perfectly tender white squid. The purity of the flavor gives an aura of grace to the dish. Not so the "Hai San Sizzling" ($10.95), a big, hot plate containing squid, shrimp, clams, and catfish chunks, sizzling with oil and strongly flavored with peppers and garlic -- it makes a powerful impact on all the senses simultaneously. The catfish clay pot ($8.45) impresses as well. Large chunks of the pale fish caramelize sweetly in the pot with fish sauce. Catfish is a good choice for a dish like this, as its distinctive flavor is not lost; the catfish can also be had here in the form of a ginger-sautéed fillet.
It would be a truly heroic review that addressed more than a fraction of the food at Le Soleil. Still, one does one's best. If you want chicken, you can't do better than the five-spice roast chicken ($7.45). The spicing is delicate and intriguingly sweet, and the chicken is succulent. Of the beef options, the best include the grilled-at-the-table sliced variety ($10.95), which is served with rice-paper wrappers and lettuce in which to roll it up, and fish sauce for dipping; and the lemongrass beef ($7.45), which is simply fried with green beans and strongly flavored with chile, onion, garlic, and, of course, lemongrass. The vegetarian section of the menu is also sizable -- the coconut-yellow curry tofu and vegetable plate ($6.25) is mild-flavored but satisfying, and the eggplant with garlic sauce ($6.25) is intense and sweet, with velvety eggplant smoothness.
Dessert options are limited to flan, fried banana, and deep-fried coconut ice cream with a coconut crust (all $2.95). Of these, the banana is the most in harmony with the rest of a Le Soleil meal. (It is strongly tempting to dash across the street and have dessert -- specifically the incredible pain perdu -- at Clementine, but this is not encouraged by either establishment.)
The flavors of Le Soleil are brilliant, fresh and scintillating and light. Each dish seems refined, purified, so that key notes sing loudly and distinctly, and the background noise of unnecessary flavors is minimal. It is difficult to have an unsatisfactory meal at Le Soleil -- but the pricing means you can try as often as you like.
