Little Saigon is a Vietnamese wonderland that spans four towns in northern Orange County. The range of eating options is staggering, and despite dozens of multi-stop trips to the area, there are always new surprises. For example, LA Times contributor C. Thi Nguyen recently “found” Ngu Binh, a 15-year-old central Vietnamese restaurant named for a mountain in Hue. Nguyen spotlighted the cooking of chef-owner Mai Tran, a native of the central Vietnamese town of Thua Thien. Stylish central Vietnamese restaurants like Quan Hy and Quan Hop get more accolades and offer much larger menus, but where there’s overlap, Ngu Binh is preparing even better versions of the same dishes.

When we pulled up to the restaurant, which resides in a double decker strip mall at the corner of Bolsa and Magnolia, a waiting customer was amused to see us, saying, “This isn’t pho. This is the real deal….You must be adventurous.” Condescension aside, it was a fun experience at Ngu Binh, a high volume restaurant that serves high value food and isn’t built for lingering.

Ngu Binh’s only decoration consists of Mekong River paintings and decorative wood carvings.

The streamlined menu features only 17 options, with plenty of ingredient overlap. Tapioca, steamed rice cakes, pork and shrimp play a prominent role.

Banh Beo Chen ($5.75) were addictive, 10 small plates each holding a thick, glutinous steamed rice cake, sweet chopped shrimp, scallions, crispy pork rinds and fried caramelized shallots.

Spoon on spicy chile-flecked fish sauce and scrape the rice cakes from the bowls. Scoring a bite of each component was really satisfying, with an array of textures and flavors.

Banh Banh It Kep Banh Ram ($6.50) worked on even more levels, with the same chopped shrimp, scallions and shallots. In this case, the base was a smoky fried rice cake, crispy outside and glutinous and sticky at the center, topped with a glutinous steamed rice cake gob studded with pork and shrimp and stained red.

I couldn’t figure out why the pork and shrimp were stained such an unusual color, so I e-mailed local Southeast Asian food expert Robert Danhi, who said the red color comes from annato.

Mi Quang Dac Biet ($6.50) was another dish that delivered a blizzard of flavors, colors and textures, soup loaded with yellow vermicelli-like rice noodles, fatty but flavorful pork strips, sweet shrimp, crispy sesame-studded rice crackers and crushed peanuts. As we dug into the noodles and into the shallow chile-flecked broth, we unearthed a thatch of crunchy bean sprouts, mint, and fibrous shaved banana blossom that had a texture similar to lemongrass.

Ngu Binh offered so much flavor and value that it will be fun to return to the restaurant to further explore the menu. Bun bo hue and tapioca dumplings with mung beans are only 45 minutes away, and I will bridge that distance again soon.