Review: GAO Elevates Vietnamese Classics
Photo by Elizabeth Velasquez
GAO is a modern-looking restaurant that aims to modernize the Vietnamese dishes it serves. The dining room is sleeker than the Lambos you see in this part of South Beach, but it’s the covered outdoor garden where it’s at. Call Me Gaby owner Cathy Arrighi opened GAO to tap in her Vietnamese roots. But as dazzling as the space is, I gave it four out of five stars because it’s just simply not inviting or unique, and the prices might make even those Lamborghini owners question things. Overall, GAO’s dishes are well executed and, like the steamed ravioli above, as pretty as the surroundings.
Dim Sum, $24-$35
★★★★☆
The kitchen was nice enough to send us a sampler of the dim sum section that starts the menu. It includes: wagyu and cilantro buns, har gow shrimp, mushroom potstickers, vegetable fangu with shitake, pork buns with mushrooms, and a sea bass dumpling shaped into a goldfish. While Vietnamese dim sum may be new me, based on this plate, let’s hope it becomes a thing.
Beef Salad, $42
★★★★☆
You might be able to guess the headliner of this simply named beef salad. The beef here is perfectly pink and rare, sliced thinner than a Publix deli pro, mixed with shallots, romaine, fresh herbs, and sticky rice powder. It’s all fairly lightly seasoned but would also make for an everyday lunch.
Tiger’s Pride, $52
★★★☆☆
Straddling the border on the menu between apps and entrees, this is essentially a two-ingredient dish, albeit both of them done very well. The beef is tender and well seared, while the tangy-sweet sauce is full of lemongrass and garlic, thick enough to coat dipped pieces of steak. It’s tasty but also a hefty price, in need a side of rice to become an entree
Baby Back Ribs, $29
★★★☆☆
These ribs come sticky with a lemongrass sauce that you might, like my dining companion, find way too sweet. Still, the flavor is good and the meat super tender, the kind of dish you want somebody else at the table to order. Yes, you’ll be licking the sauce off your fingers, and yes this restaurant may be too fancy to be doing that.
Steamed Seabass, $56
★★★★☆
This is a well done baseball-sized hunk of flaky seabass, the kind of prep that that they can do in a restaurant kitchen and never repeated at your home (how exactly did they cook this just right when it’s so thick?). But the real star here is the sauce, gingery and caramel-like, a nice richness to go with the light fish.
Banana Flambée, $16
★★★★☆
Lit table side, this is a dramatic dessert with well caramelized banana pieces reminiscent of Cuban maduros. It’s a fairly straightforward dish, with a scoop of simple sorbet on top, but it’s also a fiery way to end the meal.
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