With a funeral home that hosts all-night vigils at one end of this stretch of Southwest Eighth Street and Miami's most famous Cuban restaurant at the other, you would think it would be tough to keep anything secret in this part of town. In Little Havana, talk reigns supreme.

Yet, you stop at the demure cafeteria window of a Salvadorean eatery (an oddity in itself), ask if anyone knows the location of long-rated one of the best places to eat in Miami by the Zagat guide, and what you learn is how separately our worlds spin.

''A Vietnamese restaurant? Around here? No, que va,'' says the woman working behind the counter, her customers nodding in agreement. No way.

Luckily, as she is making her point, you look up to the shopping center's marquee, and there it is, perched high and in small letters, ''Hy-Vong'' -- ''hope'' in Vietnamese -- the only indication that one of these small storefronts is home to a beloved eatery of Asian cuisine.

The restaurant, on Calle Ocho since 1980, is owned by Kathy Manning, who helped chef Tung Nguyen flee Vietnam in 1975. Except for a brief interlude in which Nguyen opened her own restaurant in South Dade, the two have been a winning team.

It's not easy to get Nguyen to tell you much about her cuisine. She's too busy.

''Cooking, cooking all the time,'' she says when you finally get her on the phone. ``Stuffed tomatoes, grouper, mahi-mahi. Come eat.''

She doesn't tell you that she's known for her pork rolling cakes ($4.50), paper-thin rice noodles rolled with ground pork and shiitake mushrooms, and neither do the two waiters who take turns serving you on this deserted weeknight.

So it's best to treat a trip to Hy-Vong as an adventure. We started ours hot -- really hot -- and wound our way down to cool and sweet.

Hottest of all was kimchi ($1), a tongue-stinging condiment of pickled, fermented vegetables. Dip into it at your own risk; Nguyen's version of this Korean specialty is incendiary.

By comparison, the spicy ribs ($4.50) seem mild. If you're used to ribs smothered in barbecue sauce, these little ones will seem naked. The meat is light in texture and color, bare but not bland, seasoned with hot peppers and garlic.

Pho ($6), a hearty Vietnamese soup, is listed among the appetizers but is nothing less than a full entree. Our deep, heaping bowl smelled of cilantro and lime. It had the look of a clear seafood stew but the generous portion of vegetables -- love the healthful feel of those crunchy bean sprouts -- and the plentiful shrimp and chicken chunks packed plenty of solidity.

In any adventure, the best moment sometimes comes in the most unexpected package. Here, it was the kingfish in mango sauce ($16.95), the evening's fish special. Not only was the fish the freshest -- the meat as white as we've ever seen -- but also the thick, pulpy sauce had just the right dose of natural sweetness. There's no place in Miami where we've had it better.

Vietnamese cuisine is so light it leaves plenty of room for a really sinful dessert. There weren't many choices on this night, but who needs quantity when you have quality? The homemade cinnamon ice cream ($6), created by Manning, came on a wonderful rhubarb crisp with pecans -- plenty to share, and cool and easy like Sunday morning.