Cuốn

Vietnamese spring rolls (“cuốn”) are not actually magical, despite their ability to make cold noodles, vegetables, and proteins impossibly tasty using only soft, unfried rice paper wrappers. In reality, these rolls are just thinly wrapped salads with their dressing sauces turned into optional side dips, and that secret is the concept behind Cuốn, a Costa Mesa-based takeout restaurant that opened inside Costa Mesa Kitchens in July 2025. Operated by a single cook who preps rolls and salads while visitors use a counter-mounted screen (or their own smartphones) for ordering, Cuốn is effectively a ghost kitchen – a take-out business without any of its own seating or communal seating – so if you want to try its food, you can get a bag to eat outside, or order delivery.

Cuốn offers five basic recipes in the form of either spring rolls or salads, and they’re differentiated primarily by proteins – beef, chicken, shrimp, fish, or tofu – that accompany rice noodles, lettuce, mint leaves, cilantro, and carrots. Served in cardboard boxes with small plastic cups of pickled veggies, sauce, and optional chili paste, each roll is individually plastic-wrapped for freshness, and the proteins may still be warm if you eat them soon after they were made.

One roll costs five dollars, which is on the high side locally, but you can bundle two ($9.50), three ($13.50), or four rolls ($16.25) to drop the per-roll price to just over $4. As most Vietnamese restaurants pre-ordain their roll bundles – all of the same type, or rarely three different pre-set rolls – we appreciated the ability to choose each roll in a Cuốn set. You also get the choice of five dips ranging from fish sauce, hoisin, or sweet soy to chili mayo or chili tomato, plus four drinks including two Vietnamese coffees and two fruit teas. Each single- or two-roll package includes one dip, upgraded to two dips in sets of three or four rolls. Salad bowls with larger portions of the same ingredients plus cucumbers are $14 each.