My Green Kitchen, Park Ridge

In a somewhat inadvertent celebration of the LTH anniversary, we wound up at a Vietnamese place we hadn't visited before on Friday. I was intrigued by the name and the location. Vietnamese restaurants are scarce outside of Uptown.

It turned out to be a little family-run storefront, very plain, that's been open about a year. Green walls, wooden chairs, Formica-topped tables, a few booths -- it could have been any diner.

We started our order with goi cuon, rice-paper rolls, a shrimp version and a ham one. The waitress said they no longer had ham, so we had grilled pork. The rolls were serviceable, plump with noodles and reasonable amounts of seafood and meat but rather scanty in vegetables and herbs: No mint and a scant amount of cilantro, so they were a bit bland, though the accompanying nuoc cham dipping sauce was very flavorful and the pork tasted as if it had been grilled over charcoal.

We also tried to order banh xeo, crispy Vietnamese pancake, but our waitress very earnestly explained that they no longer offered that. They are revising the menu and removing things that no one orders, she says. We ordered a grilled beef salad instead.

I was surprised when our waitress returned after a bit and offered our choice of dressings: Caesar, ranch, French.... "It's an American salad," she said. We received a plateful of perfectly good greens, mainly romaine, topped with excellent grilled beef, thinly sliced; thinly sliced cucumbers; and a few pieces of pallid tomato. The dressing, served on the side, tasted like it came out of a bottle. When my entree came, with a bowl of nuoc nam fish sauce, I put that on the salad instead. Should we visit again, I'll ask for that instead of salad dressing.

I had the pork chops, two thin, marinated chops served over rice with nuoc nam fish sauce for pouring over. Absent the last, and change rice for potatoes, and you could get something similar at any greasy spoon. Himself fared better with a bun noodle dish, topped with pork and crispy spring roll (in place of another choice that they also no longer serve). They do offer pho, che desserts and a few Thai items, which we neither sampled nor asked about. We had very nice, freshly made lemon sodas alongside.

I was thinking that this was a good enough place considering the other choices in its neighborhood but certainly not worth a trip for, even as little out-of-the-way as it was for us. We were wishing we had gone to the tried-and-true Nam Viet, far better and a little closer to our route, instead, when I decided to have a fruit smoothie for dessert. They have a fairly long list of these, with or without tapioca bubbles. Fabulous! We tried the watermelon, truly luscious, and the tart-sweet lime, very refreshing. These alone make My Green Kitchen worth visiting for anyone who finds Park Ridge a more convenient destination than, say, Joy Yee's.

(I must admit that I adore frozen fruit drinks. Today I enjoyed the peach smoothie at the Cheesecake Factory, though it wasn't nearly as fresh tasting as the drinks at My Green Kitchen.)

My Green Kitchen
847/698-1168
712 Higgins Road
Park Ridge
Lunch, Dinner, 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m. M-Th; -9 p.m. Su

Nam Viet
773/763-0307
6731 N. Northwest Highway
Chicago

Joy Yee's Noodle
312/328-0001
Chinatown Square Mall,
2159 S. China Place
Chicago
(also Evanston and Naperville)

The Cheesecake Factory
847/329-8077
374 Old Orchard Shopping Center
Skokie
(also Streeterville and Schaumburg)

Thanks for solving a mystery for me-- I had a project last year which involved exiting on Cumberland and driving past the soon-to-be-opened My Green Kitchen a few times a week for a couple of months, but since it wasn't opened yet I wound up grabbing quick bites at the dismal likes of Giordano's, Panda Express, Baja Fresh, etc. etc. while dreaming of the day I would finally have that as an option. Of course, just about when it would have opened, the project was over....

By the way, anyone know about an upscale restaurant up that way with what I think has to be one of the saddest names of any restaurant-- Bistro 90? A name that simultaneously evokes the streets of Montmartre and the self-serve island at a Citgo station...