Yahoo! - washingtonian

Best Bargain Restaurants: Galaxy Restaurant

Best Bargain Listing | Best Bargain by Cuisine | Best Bargain by Location

Galaxy Restaurant
Falls Church

A wonderful mound of chopped baby clams and minced pork, shot with ginger, onion, peanuts, mint, and chilies, is reason enough to drop by this former cafeteria turned Vietnamese restaurant. Paired with oversized rice-flour wafers encrusted with black sesame seeds, this sensually pleasing starter is indicative of what's in store.

Galaxy has an extensive menu spanning dozens of gentler, more traditional noodle dishes and soups. Along the way, though, are diversions that set Galaxy apart from the run-of-the-mill Vietnamese dining room.

Seafood--whether crabs in the shell sautéed with salt, squid with pickled mustard greens, or steamed whole tilapia with a light, gingery fish sauce--is superb. Other standouts are beef wrapped in grape leaves with anchovy sauce; thin, crispy, fried egg noodles with beef, pork, chicken, seafood, and vegetables; seared cubes of marinated beef with crunchy Chinese broccoli; and banh xeo, the puffy rice pancake that spills over with onions, bean sprouts, scallions, pork, and shrimp.

Highlights among the starters include skewers of pork and beef, several kinds of Vietnamese sausage, raw shrimp marinated in fresh lemon juice, and a wealth of spring rolls, the most unusual of which is filled with spicy pork sausage and vegetables and paired with hoisin sauce with a swirl of red-pepper sauce. The green-papaya salad with beef jerky is perhaps the best available locally.

If you haven't tried them, order one of the Vietnamese drinks--fresh young coconut juice, soybean milk, or salty lemonade--that easily can become an acquired taste.

Galaxy Restaurant , 155 Hillwood Avenue, Falls Church; 703/534-5450. Open daily, except Tuesday, 11:30 am to 11 pm. MapIt!

QUALITY: ****Excellent; *** Superior; **Very Good; * Good
PRICE RANGE: $$$= Very Expensive; $$ Expensive; $=Moderate; ¢=Inexpensive

Return to Restaurant & Entertaining Directory