In Little Saigon, a revitalized dining scene

And lately, those changes have been remarkable.

Fresh energy and style-savvy creativity are flowing through the Vietnamese restaurant community. The sweet-salty heat-tinged complexity of the cuisine is showing up in classier preparations than we've ever seen in Southern California as owners and chefs insist on higher-quality ingredients and improve their cooking standards as well as the likability of their restaurants.

Many of the Vietnamese restaurants that have opened recently in Westminster and surrounding communities seem more connected to today's world than to the past. For example, Grand in Garden Grove, a classy boîte specializing in chicken dishes, uses only free-range birds. Fountain Valley's Aysya promises fusion food and Le V, in the same town, boasts a wall of wines that bisects its bistro-Moderne dining room.

These trend-conscious ventures resemble the old-fashioned minimalist pho shops and sandwich joints of the immigrant community's early years about as much as Wolfgang Puck's edgy new Red Seven resembles Musso & Frank Grill.

"People's expectations are different now," says Cecilia Le, a former financial analyst who owns 6-month-old Le V Cuisine. Her customers tend to be business professionals who enjoy wines with her menu of Vietnamese and fusion dishes and shareable small plates such as small spring lamb chops arranged on blue cheese-spiked potato "fondue" or salmon carpaccio sprinkled with crispy capers and chives. They're not averse to culinary experimentation, Le says.

Contemporary chic

OTHER restaurateurs must share her perception that restaurant-goers will support ambitious, pricier places in Little Saigon. In 2006 the Dang family, which has had great success with its casual cafe, Brodard Nem Nuong, went for the big time, opening Brodard Château, a beautifully appointed, bi-level, 8,000-square-foot restaurant with a full bar, fireplace and Euro-Asian menu.