Leafy
$$
641 NW 100th Pl
Pembroke Pines, FL 33024
2:00 pm – 10:00 pm Monday-Sunday (Closed on Tuesdays)
Leafy is an eco-friendly, vegetarian-friendly and gluten-free friendly authentic Vietnamese restaurant 15 minutes south of NSU that mixes in Asian fusion and specializes in aesthetic drinks and exotic dishes. Mainly, Leafy is known for the teddy bear ice cube drinks, which they only make 100 of a day, so it’s important to go earlier in the day to be able to try it.
Upon arriving, I was blown away by the decor of the restaurant. While outdoor seating is currently available, the tables are pretty small. However, there are larger tables inside and masks and social distancing are enforced with only 17 people allowed in at a time. Inside Leafy, there are beautiful and deep inspirational quotes on the walls and a swinging chair, perfect for pictures. They also had “Dragon Ball Z” playing on the TV, adding to the good vibes already established.
Leafy is a waiter service restaurant where you order at the counter and have your food served. We ordered the chicken sticky rice and Vietnamese fried chicken wings with strawberry and mandarin sodas — and ice bears, of course.
The drinks were brought out first and the first thing I did was take tons of pictures. They were large in size and the bears were cute and colorful. If you wanted to, you could even purchase a little beanie to put atop your ice bear and take more pictures. The drinks themselves were good — my favorite being the mandarin orange soda as it tasted just like the fruit. The mandarin ice bear also tasted great, again, just like mandarin oranges. As for the strawberry soda, while it was not my favorite, I did enjoy the chunks of strawberries in the drink (the mandarin soda had chunks of mandarin oranges too), but thought the ice bear tasted too artificially like strawberries. However, the person I went with loved the strawberry soda and bear, so I see how it’s viewed as one of the most popular drinks on the menu.
The food was unexpectedly amazing. There was so much flavor in the chicken of the chicken sticky rice and the Vietnamese fried chicken wings were out of this world. The cilantro, spinach and onions (raw and caramelized) really did help to bring out even more flavor in the chicken sticky rice, where the chicken was truly flavorful on its own because of the visible seasoning on it. I ate every last bite. The Vietnamese fried chicken wings were absolutely great. They were the perfect blend of sweet and spicy and the crunchy breading added some great texture. It was like your regular yummy fried chicken wings, but so much better. As for portions, the plates were definitely shareable, offering enough food for two people to eat and be fully satisfied.
While Leafy got their big breakthrough because of their aesthetic and unique ice bears, the food is really what drives this place home in my heart. I’d eat those Vietnamese fried chicken wings with a mandarin soda reading those deep quotes on the wall while “Dragon Ball Z” plays on the TV any day.
