{"id":129646,"date":"2026-02-11T02:56:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T02:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/129646\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T02:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T02:56:15","slug":"rio-authentic-vietnamese-steak-house-opens-in-mineola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/129646\/","title":{"rendered":"Rio Authentic Vietnamese & Steak House opens in Mineola"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes one dish can tell you whether a place is legit or not. For Vietnamese food, that dish is\u00a0b\u00e1nh x\u00e8o, the showstopping\u00a0crispy yellow crepe\u00a0that you tuck into fresh lettuce with a bundle of\u00a0herbs. Often served as an appetizer, b\u00e1nh x\u00e8o is\u00a0popular in Vietnamese cuisine yet somehow gets left off most menus around here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Vietnamese<\/p>\n

Vietnamese crispy shrimp crepes are a must-order at Rio in Mineola. Credit: Newsday\/Andi Berlin<\/p>\n

Luckily, the new\u00a0Rio Authentic Vietnamese & Steak House in Mineola has it (listed with a vague English descriptor, “Vietnamese crispy shrimp crepes”). So you have to do some digging. The menu also has\u00a0items named\u00a0Vietnamese beef stew, crispy tilapia in black bean sauce, stir-fried quails and something called pork dumpling pho, which turned out to be b\u00fan ri\u00eau, a crab meatball soup.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rio is hedging its bets for a non-Vietnamese audience, but the fact is, this place goes beyond the ubiquitous pho seen everywhere else. In fact, don’t order soup at all here. The impressive range of hard-to-find soups doesn’t compare to the other savory items available here.<\/p>\n

\"Rio,<\/p>\n

Rio, a full-service Mineola restaurant from banh mi specialist Billy Dang. Credit: Newsday\/Andi Berlin<\/p>\n

Owner Billy Dang, who hails from the\u00a0Vietnam’s capital city, Hanoi, previously ran the\u00a0legendary banh mi shop\u00a0Nicky\u2019s Vietnamese Sandwiches in Manhattan’s Chinatown.\u00a0He eventually decamped to Long Island with a now-closed banh mi spot,\u00a0Ha Long Bay<\/a> in New Hyde Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The name\u00a0Rio\u00a0is a reference to Dang’s son, who also likes to eat steak. “He’s\u00a0gonna bankrupt me, he\u2019s eating all my profits,” Dang said.<\/p>\n

Rio serves steaks in the Vietnamese way, alongside pat\u00e9 and bread with a\u00a0fried egg and french\u00a0fries. It also makes a solid\u00a0b\u00e1nh x\u00e8o ($28.95), the crispy shrimp crepes that look like an omelet but taste more like crunchy pancakes stuffed with tender shrimp. Fork off a bit and stuff it into the fresh lettuce with some fragrant herbs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The roasted duck banh mi ($14.50) is among the top Vietnamese sandwiches\u00a0on Long Island. Much of this has\u00a0to do with the duck itself, combined with mayo to become a savory poultry powerhouse. One visit barely\u00a0scratches\u00a0the surface at Rio.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rio Authentic Vietnamese & Steak House,\u00a0100 Herricks Rd., Mineola,\u00a0516-280-2262. Open\u00a011 a.m. 9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, closed Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Andi<\/p>\n

\n\tAndi Berlin is from Arizona and does not know where she is going. But when she gets there, she\u2019ll find something beautiful and delicious that the world needs to taste.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sometimes one dish can tell you whether a place is legit or not. For Vietnamese food, that dish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8695,10203,9,11,10,49,51,50,821],"class_list":{"0":"post-129646","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-feedme","9":"tag-fmopen","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-news","13":"tag-new-york-state","14":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-state-news","16":"tag-restaurants"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}