Lang Van

Lang Van is the Vietnamese restaurant on Shamrock Drive in east Charlotte, and with more than 2,300 public reviews it carries the deepest record of any Vietnamese kitchen in the city. The menu is long and numbered, which is the traditional format and makes ordering easier than it looks. Quail and the yellow pancake are the two dishes regulars steer newcomers toward, alongside the soups the kitchen is built on. The room is small, so a wait is normal.

What to know

• The dining room seats fewer than twenty tables across two sides.
• Waits of forty minutes are common on a weeknight.
• Parking is genuinely difficult, which is the most common complaint.
• The Vietnamese coffee is worth ordering at the end.
• The restaurant is closed on Monday.