A taste of pho, a dash of urban chic

ANY time an entrepreneur with more imagination than budget sets up shop, the creative, freewheeling feeling of a gallery district can take hold.

That’s certainly what’s happened at Benley: A Vietnamese Kitchen. If this stylish, smart little new restaurant were located in South Laguna or even the burgeoning arts neighborhood near the art museum in Long Beach, it’d fit right in. It’s a comfortably chic cafe, the kind of place more usually seen in neighborhoods where walk-ins with an appreciation for details end up returning again and again.

In fact 3-month-old Benley (named for the son and daughter, Benjamin and Shirley, of the owners) is situated in a desolate sprawl-mall in the far-inland part of Long Beach, nestled up against Los Alamitos. It’s across the street from a storage facility; the nearest neighbors are a Curves mini-gym and the enormous concrete ditch of the fenced-off Coyote Creek.

The small, narrow space has been made dramatic with white walls, polished concrete floors, huge blown-up photographs of street scenes in Saigon, sleek wooden tables and subtly well-chosen dishware. Some designer friends we invite to dinner one night are wowed by it.

“Look how nice this is,” says the graphic designer, waving the menu. It’s a small rectangular clipboard (the size though not the heft of a traffic cop’s citation book) holding simple lists of starters, pho, noodles, entrees, vegetarian dishes and desserts. But the confident style of the room is more than just a pretty face: It’s a reflection of the bright, contemporary personality of the kitchen.

There are many ways into a marvelous meal at Benley. For one thing, if you love pho but are intrigued by the entrees, you don’t have to pick one over the other. A bowl of pho is usually so filling it becomes the entire meal, but here you can order the “taste of pho” (chen pho nho) appetizer. Traditional beef pho is offered with your choice of meats: steak slices, brisket or Vietnamese meatballs. Chicken pho is superb with its light but flavorful broth spiced with lemongrass and star anise, filled with glassy rice noodles and sweet nuggets of chicken and offered with a traditional rau son, -- a pile of crisp garnishes -- bean sprouts, fresh herbs and green onions.

Or flip to the vegetarian-dish list and find the summer rolls (goi cuon), here a spectacular pair of overstuffed rice-noodle wrappers bursting with basil, tiny rice noodles, julienned vegetables and tofu. Dipped into a peanut vinaigrette or a terrific chile sauce, each chewy bite is salad nirvana.

Shrimp and pork egg rolls, available solo or on top of a big bowl of noodles, are amazing too -- thin, crisp, rice-”paper” wraps deliver melt-in-the-mouth fillings of savory ground pork, shrimp and herbs.

The “taste of vermicelli”(chen bun nho), a companion appetizer to the “taste of pho,” is for noodle lovers who can’t resist: a small bowl of warm, naked vermicelli, a huge grilled butterflied shrimp, juicy and char-flavored, and cool crisp matchsticks of cucumbers, carrots and other vegetables. It arrives with a small pitcher of sweet-spicy vinegar-chile sauce so you can dress and toss to taste. Nothing could be fresher -- unless it’s the salads, which are themselves further expressions of the hot-cool, herbal-meaty, crisp-suave interplay at which the kitchen excels.

At one lunch, my companion and I ordered more than we’d intended to and when the nappa cabbage chicken salad arrived, we resolved to eat just half and save room for entrees. But before we could ask the server to box it up for us, our lightning-fast chopstick strikes had done the deed, and we’d gobbled up every bit of the savory, thin-sliced marinated chicken on a bed of crunchy cabbage-cilantro slaw.

At dinner the modestly named house salad was greeted by the table with the oohs and aahs usually reserved for an artwork. It’s a remarkable medley of julienned daikon, cucumbers and carrots with big medallions of crisp, mellow toasted garlic, slightly sweet, peppery chiles and just enough mint to act as counterpoint to the garlic.

It’s hard to tear yourself away from the starters, but there are rewards for doing so. In addition to pho and vermicelli in meal-in-a-bowl portions, there are beef, seafood and vegetarian dishes. It’s a small list, but thoughtfully proposed, with appealing choices to share or order individually. Shaken beef is a mild-mannered but well-executed saute of tender steak strips, green and red bell peppers, onions and tomatoes. Pan-seared salmon is a beautifully cooked filet, served with sauteed spinach and cilantro aioli. Tofu “steak” pieces are glazed and crisp on the outside, unctuously soft inside. Vegetables are deftly handled. Ong-choy, a stemmed Asian green, is dark and garlicky, with a bracing, lightly bitter bite.

Desserts, offered in pleasantly moderate amounts, are delicate, not bombastic. Orange with orange-caramel sauce is a wonderful dish of chilled orange segments marinated in star anise. Cassava cake (banh khoal mi) is marvelous chewy squares of coconuty gelee. Melting Valrhona chocolate is a tiny three-bite molded dome of flourless chocolate cake. Any would be a fitting adieu.

Benley is an isolated splash of color in a drab landscape, it’s true, but it’s being embraced enthusiastically. Mindful of how a small menu might grow old for regulars, the servers mention to diners that if they call ahead for a group of six or more on a Friday or Saturday, an off-the-menu prix fixe meal can be arranged. Some fans are already taking up the offer: A happy party of 16 was enjoying its candlelit special-order fare one of the nights we visited. Word of mouth rules.

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Location: 8191 E. Wardlow Road, Long Beach, (562) 596-8130

Price: Starters, $4 to $5; pho (entree size), $7; noodles, $6 to $8; entrees, $6 to $15; desserts, $2.50 to $5.

Best dishes: House salad, spring and pork egg rolls, taste of pho, vermicelli with egg rolls, tofu steak, cassava cake.

Details: Open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Closed Sunday. Free lot parking. Free corkage.