TESTIMONIALS

Brand new restaurant in Capitol Hill, replacing Tangerine Tree. Located above QFC at the parking lot plaza - Opened since 7/1. 50% off entire order as grand opening, lasts until 7/15 - Offers dine-in, pickup, or delivery options. Grand opening promo applies immediately for dine-in, requires promo code on checkout for pickup and delivery (listed on their website popup) - Hours of operation Mon-Sat 11am-8pm, Sunday closed - IG is @landingcranes. Check their website for full information of menu, etc at the moment (you can search it up) - Fast casual format: order at the front, bus your own table after - Food is 4 stars, but the overwhelming positive vibes and friendliness of the owner (Chap) make this a 5 star experience I somehow got notified of this restaurant on Yelp, even though I struggled to find any information about it (it did not even show up on Google Maps!) Hopefully this review will give sufficient information to try this place out yourself. I personally got the combo pho (steak + brisket) with beef broth ($15), as well as the shrimp spring roll ($7). A regular pho is $12 for one option, so overall pricing is pretty good. This is before the 50% off discount, so with the discount, I ended up paying a little over $12 including tax - I could potentially just eat here daily for really well priced meals, though sadly work and other plans will not allow me to have that time as this place is quite far. Portion sizes are perfect - although a little smaller than a typical restaurant, you feel decently full and satisfied afterwards, especially since the owner mentioned he uses organic ingredients. Hence, these two things got me pretty full at the end, without any guilt to the diet. Pho here is decent, with very clear and mild (beef) broth. Do not be alarmed if it tastes bland, due to the nature of the broth. There is a slight hint of sweetness to it, purely from the sugars, rock sugar, brown sugar. Noodles are cooked well, a little bit on the softer side. The pho is served with the usual fixings, such as bean sprouts, basil, etc though I wished they added just a little bit more of those on the side. Brisket has a solid meat to fat ratio. Steak was a little bit overcooked. Presentation-wise, the closest association I have is Vinason Pho near the SLU/Denny Triangle area. Shrimp spring roll: the shrimp is slightly sweet and super fresh. There is a crazy amount of greens (lettuce, mint, etc) for that crunch. Peanut sauce was just okay - it would be nice to have a bit more sauce as the rolls are huge. Another issue is that the spring roll skin sticks to the paper a bit too much, so it was hard to pick up, but the overall structure is still intact once I got the spring roll out of the paper. The owner was generous and wanted me to check out the marinated pork and chicken that he uses for the banh mi and vermicelli dishes, to ask for feedback. He gave me a sizable amount to sample actually, which was great - as I ordered a lot of food, it will be a nice savory snack on the go. They are marinated very well, a little bit salty but very flavorful. Unlike a lot of Vietnamese restaurants that have these grilled meats, these meats are not burnt or overcooked, and there is not much fat in it, tying back to his intention to make this a relatively healthy restaurant. Overall, the food is good but nothing too memorable. I ended up having a conversation with the owner and he is super friendly and enthusiastic about the opening of his restaurant. As I was snapping some pictures after getting the food, he asked me if I was a food influencer. I mean, maybe, but I don't have that many followers on Yelp or Instagram, but he still treated me like a celebrity because he is excited to see someone coming here and sharing about this place (which I am doing right now haha). He says he needs to do a bit more of marketing but there is so much on his plate - this is a family run restaurant and he has children that is taking care of the website and marketing with the social media, etc. He mentioned that he has a lot of things to experiment in the upcoming months, while waiting for some deliveries such as a new sign, etc. to bring this place to the full potential. His vision of the restaurant is to provide quick service as the location caters to the hospitals and universities, who may not have a lot of time for lunch break, to provide an inclusive space, and to focus more on the food and reduce overhead to maintain efficiency and fair prices. He emphasized that the food is intended to just be the average, above average stuff and is not meant to be a place where people will make a journey to go to, and to design the restaurant as transparent as possible - hence, you can see when you walk up to the restaurant to order, you can see very clearly what is happening behind the scenes in the kitchen.