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East Wind is In
By Michael Anderson and Anthony Lowenberg
We here at the Law Reviewers know our readers, being like us, have two nagging questions on their minds: why don’t bands named after continents like Europe and Asia ever make it, and where am I going to take all those summer clerks for lunch? Well, we don’t have the answer to that first question (apparently, the “The Final Countdown” was just that), but we do have a humble suggestion to help you out with where to take those poor, innocent lambs being led to the slaughter: East Wind is a Vietnamese place that recently moved from Deep Ellum to the Quadrangle and offers lunch entrees with a choice of soup or salad, an egg roll and a dessert all for $10 or less. For those of you whose firms or offices don’t get to reap the benefit of a summer clerk’s cheap labor, go to a friend’s firm that does hire summers around 11:30 and pretend you are one for the next two hours. What could possibly go wrong?
East Wind’s layout is simple and nice without being too formal, so if you left your tie at work you won’t feel out of place. The service is friendly, but it was a little slow on our visit, so if you’re trying to pull the eager-associate, just-take-a-quick-lunch-and-get-back-to-billing routine, then this may not be your place, and you may be heading for an ulcer. The complimentary edamame (steamed soy beans) was a nice touch. Contrary to one of our lunch companions who thought the edamame was on the house because management was impressed with our saffron fair, as the French say, every table gets some. We did get something the other tables didn’t – that look – but we’re used to it by now. In addition to the lunch menu, East Wind offers sushi. We tried the yellowfin tuna roll, which was good enough to satisfy a craving but no fresher than any other high-end sushi place in town. We also tried both the soup and the salad. The wonton soup consisted of a delicate broth and a pot sticker-like wonton. It was flavorful without being too filling. The salad was graced with spicy vinegar dressing, peanuts and small slivers of chicken. Our dressing can be graceful too, but only when our wives tell us what to wear, nyuk, nyuk!
One of the most popular entrees comes with lemon grass, vermicelli, peanuts, lettuce and fish sauce served with your choice of meat. We tried both the pork and chicken versions and it was delicious. The dishes come with plenty of spicy chili sauce, which also goes well with the egg rolls, to add to the vermicelli noodles. The sauce gives the dish some nice zing to go with the tanginess of the cilantro.
Less successful was a shrimp dish, which was a little light on the shrimp. We counted four shrimp, but an archeological dig through the adjoining rice brought out a fifth. Encouraged, we dug around some more, but, alas, there were no shrimp to be found in the jar of mints on the hostess stand, or in the flower pots in front of the restaurant across the street. A dish of sliced beef in garlic and chili sauce was better, and is recommended if the vermicelli noodle dish is not your bag. Dessert was a tasty slice of carrot cake with creamy icing. Overall, while not the perfect lunch experience, East Wind is a great deal and should impress even the most jaded summer clerk, or your friend who’s pretending to be a jaded summer clerk. Eager summer clerks may enjoy it as well. Having never met any, we wouldn’t know. On our beechwood-aged five-gavel scale, we give East Wind three gavels. Case closed.
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