New York Vietnamese Restaurant Recommendations

When visiting New York, my question always is: Where should I eat? This weekend I'm in New York and a number of people have emailed, tweeted and Facebooked me restaurant recommendations. One person, Jennie M. sent this detailed message and though I can't go to all of these places, I'm sharing her list of mostly Vietnamese restaurants with you:

Hi Andrea,

I just saw your tweet about NYC asian food recommendations on Twitter.  Honestly, Asian food is really watered down in the city.  Cong Ly is about the only Viet place I go to when I'm in Manhattan's Chinatown. I usually order pho, #57, banh beo, or cha gio there.  I think the outer-boroughs have much more variety and flavor compared to Manhattan.  It's not California for sure, but it's the best list I've got. 

Thanh Da (review)
6008 7th Ave
(between 60th St & 61st St)
Brooklyn, NY 11220
(718) 492-3253

I've never had banh canh cua (pic) outside of Brooklyn so I don't have much of a basis. All I know is that, I go to this restaurant at least once a month with my pops.  Sometimes we go once every week.  We slurp up all the soup with "bowl in face" til the last drop.  They make banh beo only on the weekends as well.  The rice cakes are as fresh and home made tasting as you can get. 

Thanh Huong (review)

533 West Side Ave
Jersey City, NJ 07304

(201) 333-3030
Good bun rieu and great cha gio.  I haven't tried a lot of other dishes from this place, cause well, it's in Jersey.  They have the best cha gio for the east coast! 

Pho Hoai (review)
1906 Avenue U
(between 19th St & Ocean Ave)
Brooklyn, NY 11229
(718) 616-1233
Deeelicious but inconsistent bo luc lac and a good hearty bowl of pho. 

Omai (review)
158 9th Ave
(between 19th St & 20th St)
New York, NY 10011
(212) 633-0550
This place is not your average $6 pho.  It's a small restaurant in Chelsea that makes modern Vietnamese cuisine similar to Ana Mandara or Slanted Door in San Francisco.  They have a great chef who definitely knows how to cook.  All their appetizers are very good.  I used to order grilled prawn and scallops over veggies, rice noodles with lime and basil sauce from my office all the time.  They have a good banh xeo and grilled calamari.

Imperial Palace (review)

Neighborhood: Downtown Flushing
13613 37th. Avenue
Flushing, NY 11354

(718) 939-3501
The NYT wrote an article about this place yesterday..  This is one of my FAVORITE PLACES with traditional Cantonese cooking.  I love crabs - and I can have cravings for their crabs with sticky rice every day.  Read the article and you will want to go to Flushing to try it.  (Just don't get Viet food in Flushing)  While you are on that street, make sure you stop by the smokiest street cart to get a few lamb skewers before dinner cause you might have to wait.  The lamb skewers at this Xin Jiang cart are to DIE FOR.  I just introduced my dad to it last Sunday, and he can't stop talking about it.  He told me next time he is going to bring rice to accompany it with.  These Xin Jiang lamb skewers are Western Chinese/Middle Eastern. 

Lao Bei Fang Dumpling House (review)

86-08 Whitney Ave
Elmhurst, NY 11373

(718) 639-3996
Time Out magazine recently published a piece on "Best Food Neighborhoods."  This dumpling place was featured in it.  It's very popular.  I don't know if I love it.  A lot of people do.  Maybe I don't have enough experience in dumplings.  If you are still hungry, get soft shell crabs at Chao Thai (it tastes like chips.  I think it's deep fried in lard to get it's crispy airyness) or get a bowl of pho at Pho Bang.

I hope you make it to some of these places.  If you do, let me know how you like them!

If you've been to these spots, do weigh in! Or, if you have additions, include them so we can expand the listing.

Btw, Cathy of Gastronomyblog also suggested that I hit Xie Xie for their cha ca la vong banh mi.

Comments

[Christine@ FRESH LOCAL]

Andrea,

Thank you so much for sharing this list! Since moving to NY from SF earlier this year, I've been having a tough time finding an authentic Vietnamese restaurant. It's been one disappointment after another. I'm looking forward to trying these places in the near future.

Thanks again!

Christine

[Noah]

Make sure to check out Doyers Street Vietnamese in Chinatown on (surprise) Doyers Street. It's a fairly deserted part of Chinatown, but there's a gaudy sign to let you know it's there.

[Andrea Nguyen]

You're welcome Christine. I just ate at Cong Ly this evening after grocery shopping at the Viet market on Bowery (at Grand) for my cooking classes. Cong Ly is tucked away on a side street and it's totally low key and old school. Their nem nuong meatballs weren't brilliant but made with care. The Grand Street subway station is nearby so with the rain tonight and my bag of ingredients, it was a relative breeze.

Doyers has so many options. I'll pay more attention!

[Jessica Lee Binder]

Welcome to NY Andrea! I completely agree with Jennie that Asian food is better in the outer boroughs. Edible Queens had an article about Flushing, which is where I go for Chinese food. Thanks for the list. I'm looking forward to some more places to try!

[Mic]

This is great, I love Vietnamese food and i'll be in New York in three weeks and I will some of these places, thanks.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Thanks, Jessica. Love what you do on Foodmayhem.com. Those ghoulish bones from 10/30 are extra fabulous!

http://www.foodmayhem.com/2009/10/halloween-bones.html

Mic -- my pleasure. Many thanks to Jennie.

[r4]

Thanks for sharing the list and for the feedback on the restaurants. I love eating Asian food and Vietnamese is one of my favorites. The next time I am in NY would be trying one restaurant from your list.

[corewu]

We passed by Cong Ly restaurant a while back...and my wife was afraid to go in there since it looks so small and she feels dirty. After seeing all the good reviews at Yelp, I will definitely try it next time I visit Chinatown.

[Tan]

Its so difficult to know which restaurants are good, bad, indifferent when you visit a new place- like 'corewu' says above - it might look a little shabby on the outside but it could hold untold culinary wonders within! Thanks for the list!

[JDG]

Xe Lua on Mulberry Street is wonderful for Pho and grilled stuffed squid.

[Hong]

Andrea, thank you for your blog and recipes! I'm cooking your Chao Ga at the moment since I have a cold, and it's looking great.

Just wanted to add on this post that for me the main reason to go to Cong Ly is that it has a dish difficult to find anywhere else, especially in Manhattan, and that is Hu Tieu My Tho. They use the chewy hu tieu noodles, which is the rare part. Delicious! You can see on my sister's blog from the last time we went there: http://lunchstudio.blogspot.com/2009/10/cong-ly-with-hong.html

[Andrea Nguyen]

Hong -- hope you're feeling better. I had a pot of chao creamy rice soup yesterday for lunch too. Perfect autumn weather food.

Cong Ly is old-school. Love that they use the chewy tapioca noodles for hu tieu. That's the way I like it too. I make the noodle soup at home because it is hard to get 'right' at restaurants. I just call my noodles hu tieu nam vang as a nod to the Cambodian-Chinese influence:

http://vietworldkitchen.typepad.com/blog/2007/11/hu-tieu-nam-van.html