Rainier BBQ & Restaurant

We’re strongly considering having our next birthday party at this Vietnamese restaurant in Rainier Valley. Everything on their long menu feels like things you’d want to eat while with a big group, including preset family meals that come with a bunch of dishes to feed four or eight people, dishes that they call “exotic and drinking snacks” like grilled lemongrass goat and coconut milk snails, and different hot pots filled with anything from lobster to bitter melon. While it would take you years to work your way through the entire menu, we’re fans of their vermicelli dishes with grilled pork, whole ginger crab, and shrimp with string beans. And with a pretty big space and lots of round tables, it’s exactly the type of place to have beers with friends and crack open some crab claws—even if it's nobody's birthday.