Mai’s Kitchen - Westminster, CA

** sorry about the blurry pictures. I was with hangry people and I value my life.

A friend of mine mentioned Mai's Kitchen to me once. I am always excited for good comfort food and it seems like Mai's would be the place to be, even though it's cash only.

The wait can be long since the restaurant was small, but luckily we only waited for 15 minutes before it was our turn. We had 4 people in our party so naturally we ordered the family meal for 4. It included 1 soup, 2 meat dishes, 2 veggie dishes, and 4 bowls of rice. Extra rice is $2.



 

 

The family meal menu was in Vietnamese and I couldn't read it, so I let my friend decided on what we would be eating. We ended up with the sweet and sour soup with catfish, caramelized braised catfish, sauteed thin pork belly with shrimp, sauteed water spinach with garlic. We also got steamed rice with chopped shrimp and spring rolls as starter.

Steamed rice with chopped shrimp was good, especially with fish sauce. Spring rolls could add a little more work to it, especially the dipping sauce.

Steamed rice with chopped shrimp and pork

Spring rolls

Both of the catfish dishes were delicious and a must order in my opinion. The soup was very flavorful and hearty. The braised catfish was the perfect rice mate with its heavy taste.

Sweet and sour soup with catfish

Caramelized braised catfish

The pork belly and shrimp wasn't bad and it's decent with rice with good seasonings.

Sauteed thin pork belly and shrimp

Unfortunately, the two veggie dishes were bland with no taste at all. Especially the water spinach, it came with a lot of garlic and I was expecting the garlicky salty taste, but nothing. I truly believe a little more salt would have done the trick.

Bland water spinach with garlic

Bland squid with veggies

The damage for 4 people

Service was great, we had staff coming over to see how we were doing from the beginning to the end. I almost forgot I was in an Asian restaurant. Very pleasant experience. I am sure with the family meal menu, I am pretty sure it's OK if you don't understand Vietnamese because they would help you to figure out what to order. Check it out.