Still-new Le Pho in downtown Las Vegas nails both style and substance

For a place whose name evokes pleasant images of steaming soup, Le Pho Vietnamese Kitchen can be awfully chilly. It was so cold in the downtown Las Vegas eatery on a mid-December afternoon that a reviewer and four dining partners marveled that it felt warmer outside on a cloudy day with temperatures in the low 60s.

Fortunately, the 8-month-old restaurant’s chic decor and quality ingredients leave a much better impression. Many Vietnamese restaurants in the valley offer tasty food and spartan atmosphere, but Le Pho dazzles by comparison with its polished-wood fixtures, array of lights dangling at various lengths from the ceiling, art-festooned walls and three big-screen TVs behind a bar area. (For those interested, two TVs showed sports programming, while a third was tuned to Fox News.)

The menu isn’t long or complicated, but the important Vietnamese staples — banh mi, or baguette sandwiches, and pho — are present. Pho comes in oxtail, chicken, ribeye and house special varieties; the latter includes ribeye, flavorful meatballs, tripe (yep, cow stomach) and tendon. At $9, the chicken pho offers the best bang for the buck, while the oxtail pho at $14 is the most indulgent and perhaps tastiest. Extra ingredients such as a vegetable mix and a fried chicken egg can be added to the soup for fees ranging from $2 to $6.

At least 10 of Le Pho’s menu items are billed as gluten-free or gluten-free optional, and that doesn’t include the pho, all of which is gluten-free. It’s a nice bonus for a cuisine that’s naturally healthful.

The dishes aren’t spicy, but one can quickly change that with a few squirts of the Sriracha sauce that’s provided. There’s a separate menu for alcohol, as the full bar allows for an array of drink options and offers a 21-and-older section where one can sip and stare at the aforementioned televisions.

Le Pho is between downtown and the Arts District, two blocks west of Las Vegas Boulevard. Despite the presence of multiple bail-bonds businesses nearby, the neighborhood’s urban buzz is a pleasant diversion for those who don’t spend most of their time downtown. The only downside of that is parking, which can sometimes be difficult to find near Le Pho at lunchtime.

Le Pho opened in spring and is a sister restaurant to the more established Le Thai, about a half-mile to the northwest on Fremont Street. Look for a review of that eatery next week.