Vietnam, is a 'classy-joint' for Chinatown. You'll know what I mean when you set one foot in the door. All the surfaces are covered in well-polished wood, the waitstaff is helpful and pleasant for the most part, and there are no ducks hanging in the window. To be honest, I don't really care about any of those things in a Chinatown restaurant. Instead, their presence, or the lack thereof, is sometimes what give a place its charm. However, I am not naive enough to think that these luxuries do not make an impression on other diners. One glance inside and you'll notice that the tables are mostly filled with (gasp!) Caucasians. I know it seems wrong to point out, but you know the old saying that if you find a restaurant filled with the people of that culture than it must be a good, or at least authentic, place.
I ordered the scorpion cocktail which was made with rum, brandy, and fruit juice. The tiki-style glass it came in was cute, right along with the paper umbrella. I know it was cheesy but I had to do it. The cocktail was a pretty generous size for the $7 price tag and I didn't need to order another drink with my meal. It was a little too sweet for my taste but there was an acceptable alcohol:filler ratio. B-. I did have to laugh at my husband though who also ordered one.
I've tried other dishes here before, but so far my favorite is really the broken rice dishes. Today I decided upon the Com Tam Thit Nuong (Pork Broken Rice) to which I added a crispy spring roll. When I crave rice, this is what I want (yes, sometimes I crave rice). The pork is thinly sliced and grilled. The flavor from the grill is just enough to enhance the flavor of the pork without overpowering it. The rice is a nice balance of sticky and fluffy. Pickled vegetables and a spicy chili sauce are served on the side-although I could always use more chili sauce. The dish is also served with a Nuoc Mam sauce which is a thin dressing with a light vinegar flavor. I like to dip the pork in it and drizzle it on the rice. It gives everything a sort of fresh and tangy flavor-kind of like a Vietnamese ketchup. Now lets talk about the spring roll. I know I said that this is what I crave when I want rice, but in reality, deep down, what I really want, and what is always my ulterior motive for coming here is the crispy spring roll. It is filled with ground pork, seasoned with Vietnamese spices, and rolled in a thick-enough-to-give-it-bite-but-not-too-thick-to-be-chewy wrapper and lightly fried. It comes out with a kind of blistered skin that gives the wrapper another dimension of crispy. This is the kind of thing I have to plan how I eat it, one bite to begin then one halfway, then one saved for my last bite. The dish as a whole gets a B+ but the spring roll deserves its own rating-A.
My husband ordered the Com Tam Dac Biet (House Special Broken Rice) which comes with grilled chicken, pork, and beef, and a slice of a kind of crab meat, egg, noodle loaf. Each item is grilled well, however he did fess-up halfway though the dish that he realizes why I ordered only the pork-its the best! Despite all my urging that he should add a crispy spring roll, he did not want to splurge the extra $2. B.
After my first visit to Vietnam, I do crave it and return. I wake up in the middle of the night grasping blindly in the darkness and whispering, "Crispy Spring Roll!" It is a nice restaurant with many options. Everything I have tried there so far has been decent at the least. Most dishes range from $8-$13 so it always an affordable option. While I cannot vouch for the authenticity of the place, I can say with confidence that you're friends who are either picky or afraid to try new things (why are you friends with them anyway?) will be able to say they like Vietnamese Food after a visit.
Overall: B
Vietnam
221 N. 11th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
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