With Asian restaurants multiplying across Charleston faster than rabbits in the spring, diversity is hard to come by. Mi Xao Vietnamese offers diversity and taste to go along with it.

The restaurant on 1055 Highway 41 is small and very clean, and most of its customers buy their food to go. When I went in, my table was the only one occupied. I ordered a basic teriyaki chicken kid’s plate (I was paying with some cash I found under the seat of my car).

I will proudly admit that I am not an easy person to feed. The portion size at many restaurants is either too small for me or too big, and there is little in-between. However, when the server brought out what can only be described as the largest kid’s meal I have ever seen, I knew where I would be stopping on my way home from school  from now on. Not only was it the perfect serving size for me, but it was also served in the only acceptable format of Asian food: drowning in soy sauce.

The chicken and rice was well cooked and flavorful. The meal typically comes with a salad, but the cashier was more than willing to accommodate my carnivorous diet and add extra chicken instead. I used the chopsticks for as long as I could, then I became frustrated and finished it off with silverware. There were vegetables mixed, of which I tried a few, but mostly avoided. The vegetables I did eat were cooked in the teriyaki sauce with the rest of the food, so they honestly weren’t terrible (which is a lot for me to say). The pricing ($6 for my meal) was fair especially considering the fast service and quantity of food you get.

There is only one problem I could find with this establishment, which was that it was a little small and probably would have trouble holding a lot of people on busy days and could get crowded easily. I prefer to eat in a less crowded space, and this is the only flaw I could find in Mi Xao.

I enjoyed my experience with the staff at Mi Xao, who were friendly and fast. All of these factors make Mi Xao a unique and positive dining experience. I would give this restaurant an A, as almost everything about it satisfied what I would consider a top notch eatery.