Mekong Plaza restaurant guide: Every dining option in Arizona's largest Asian food court
Located inside a former Target in west Mesa, Mekong Plaza serves as a hub for Asian businesses and culture, from beauty salons and gift shops to stores selling tea and Asian jerky to the namesake Mekong Market grocery store, which is located at the center of the plaza. But the main appeal of Mekong Plaza is the dining scene, which offers the largest selection of Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino and Taiwanese restaurants under one roof in the Valley.
A number of new eateries have opened in the dining hub within the past year, including Master Jianbing and Sizzling House, with more on the way, including Coconut Jelly King. And that's likely just the beginning, as Mekong Plaza is undergoing a $10 million, 35,000-square-foot expansion to make room for even more dining and drinking options.
Until then, there's plenty to explore and taste at the iconic dining hub. Here's your guide to all of the restaurants currently open at Mekong Plaza.
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AA Ozzy Bakery
Despite being directly across from the entrance to the Mekong supermarket, the entrance to this little Taiwanese bakery is almost hidden but worth looking for. AA Ozzy offers hodo cakes, taro bread, sponge cake and red bean bread, but the real star of the menu is the pork and hot dog buns.
Details: 480-733-5539, aaozzy.com.
Coconut Jelly King (Coming soon)
Coconut Jelly King, an Asian dessert concept with locations in four states, is set to make its Arizona debut at Mekong Plaza in the summer of 2023. The shop sells over a dozen flavors of coconut jelly topped with fresh fruits, plus boba tea, crepes and egg waffles.
Details: coconutjellyking.com.
Com Tam Thuan Kieu
Com Tam Thuan Kieu has an extensive menu of Vietnamese rice and egg noodle soups, noodle salad bowls, broken rice dishes and salad wraps with rice noodle patties. Highlights include the fish cake and shrimp udon soup and pork sausage spring rolls.
Details: 480-668-5959, facebook.com/cttkmesaaz.
Happy Baos
Located near the food court, this Chinese restaurant is known for its handmade baos, hence the name. Baos come in xiao long, seafood xiao long, pork sheng jian, vegetable sheng jian, chicken sheng jian or roujiamo. In addition to the bao, the restaurant also serves handmade noodles and rice plates such as the cold liang pi noodles, hot and sour noodle soup, yang zhou fried rice and beef chow fun noodles.
Details: 480-912-1207, happybaos.com.
Heng’s Kitchen
Heng's Kitchen is a quick and easy spot to get Chinese fried rice and chow mein dishes. They also have wontons and dumplings, though the highlights are the noodle dishes such as the beef chow mein and pork and vegetables with bean sauce.
I recommend the kimchi fried rice, but be warned, the portions are huge.
Details: 480-256-0638, hengskitchenmesaaz.com.
Hue Gourmet
Former Republic food critic Dominic Armato said Hue Gourmet has "some of the best and most interesting Vietnamese food in town." The restaurant offers bun thit nuong, a pork vermicelli noodle dish; bánh canh cua, which is Vietnamese crab soup; petite-filled rice cakes called bánh bèo; and bánh kh?t, or tiny Vietnamese pancakes.
Details: 480-251-7429, huegourmetmesa.com.
Master Jianbing
Located at the food court inside Mekong Plaza, Master Jianbing is one of the newer restaurants. It serves jianbing, which is a Chinese street food similar to a savory crepe that's made with wheat and grain flour batter, eggs and jianbing sauce. The food originated in northern China and is traditionally enjoyed as a breakfast item, but they are available all day at Master Jianbing with options including barbecue pork, Peking duck, hot and sour shredded potatoes and Spam, king sausage, tempura shrimp and original.
Details: @master_jianbing on Instagram.
Mekong Palace
The highlight of Mekong Plaza is its namesake restaurant, Mekong Palace. The restaurant offers full-range dim sum from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends, plus dinner and featured dim sum from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. every day. If you're not in the mood for dim sum, the all-day menu offers Chinese favorites like Mongolian beef and kung pao chicken, sizzling plates of steak and seafood or, if you're with a big group, a whole roasted pig.
Details: 480-962-0493, mekongpalace.com.
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Mekong Sandwiches
The ultimate banh mi sandwich joint is accessible from the outside of the plaza and offers 14 sandwich options. The Mekong special comes with steamed pork, ham, head cheese and pork belly. Other options include jambon, barbecue pork, cold cuts, pork meatball, grilled beef, sardine and omelet.
Details: 480-964-7999, facebook.com/mesasandwiches.
Roll Avenue Ice Cream
After lunch, I always need something sweet, and before I spotted the rolled ice cream counter, I'd already ordered a strawberry zang zang latte from Roll Avenue. The latte was great, floating with yummy fresh strawberries, but rolled ice cream is a particular favorite of mine, so I got right back in line. The rolled ice cream comes in over a dozen flavors, including mango, mint chip, taro, s'mores, choco-mania and berry blast and it's as good as it looks.
Details: 480-245-7892, facebook.com/rollavenuemesa.
Sizzling House
Immediately upon entering Mekong Plaza, you'll be hit with the appetizing smell of freshly cooked noodles and beef wafting from the newest restaurant, Sizzling House. The namesake sizzling plate options include beef, shrimp, salmon and chicken. Sizzling House also offers a large selection of ramen, including vegetable miso, tonkotsu, miso and spicy chicken. Go with the wagyu beef and rice sizzling plate, which comes with complimentary miso soup. The beef, rice and vegetables will arrive still sizzling, but smelling too good to resist. Just be careful not to burn your fingers or tongue.
Details: @sizzlinghouse.arizona on Instagram.
Tasty Pot
Rather than choosing ingredients to dip into hot broth yourself, this unique hot pot restaurant gives you a set list of steaming bowls to choose from and then puts them together for you. Choose your spiciness level and any number of meat and veggies to add to hot soup options like stinky tofu, kimchi dumpling, Sichuan, lobster, lamb and cheesy milk.
Details: 480-809-6780, tastypotusa.com.
Tea Snow
Tea Snow serves wildly colorful boba drinks that will make you want to post a photo on Instagram before your first bite. The red bean coconut cream comes with a big dollop of stewed red beans, sweet coconut milk and strings of grass jelly. Or there's the five-color dessert, made with smashed mung bean, taro, red bean, coconut cream, red tapioca and pandan jelly. Perhaps the most curious menu item? Smashed avocado tea.
Details: 480-834-2303, teasnow.com.
Thai Spices
The interior of Thai Spices is decorated with intricate murals of Thailand. The large menu includes barbecue pork and chicken, fried rice, chang mai sausage, curry noodles, pad Thai and plenty of wok stir fry. Vegan and gluten-free options are labeled on the menu.
Details: 480-649-9777, thaispicesmesa.com.
Unphogettable
This approachable Vietnamese restaurant serves pho, vermicelli dishes and banh mi sandwiches made with beef brisket, Hu Tieu or pho-flavored chicken. Other menu items include regional specialty dishes such as Bánh Canh Cua made with udon noodles, crab meat, shrimp, homemade shrimp balls and pork shank or the Bún Bò Hu? spicy beef-based noodle soup with flank, brisket, tendon and pork shank.
Details: 480-835-2298, unphogettable.com.
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Wholly Grill
Located at the Mekong Plaza food court, this Filipino grill serves longsilog sausage, pancit bihon and pork adobo. But the main draw is the lechon made from boiled and fried pork belly.
Details: 480-567-4992.
Visit Mekong Plaza
Hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
Location: 66 S. Dobson Road, Mesa.
Website: mekongplaza.com.
Reach the reporter at [email protected]. Follow @EndiaFontanez on Twitter.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Mekong Plaza guide: Asian restaurants to try at the Mesa food court
