text: Slanted Rice is a small more-or-less Vietnamese restaurant located in the Hilton Village outdoor mall, near its north end.  It has all of the ingredients it needs to be a great addition to the Scottsdale dining scene, except for what I call \"food design\".\n\nFor example, the Drunken Beef - basically filet mignon cubes with fried onions - had a big problem: the beef was tough and chewy, probably because they used the filet mignon tips, or possibly because the meat was not filet mignon at all.  The crispy rice bowl with chicken was a smallish bowl of cripsy rice, but it came with such a scarcity of chicken and vegetables that it wasn't much beyond the rice.  The chicken that was there was dried out.\n\nThere were other issues with the food as well.  The free broth served with the meal was bland except for a strange almost cinnamon taste.  The egg rolls were small and the filling was mushy.\n\nAlthough prices at Slanted Rice are not high (our entrees were $16 and $20), the portions are small and the value is barely there.  On the other hand, service was good, the menu was interesting, and the ambiance was inviting, but that was not enough to make up for the food, which was passable at best.