Vietnamese Food and Cooking

With Nightingale 9, American-Vietnamese Street Food Comes to Carroll Gardens

The team behind Seersucker and Smith Canteen open a noodle shop

JoJu in Elmhurst: The Elastic Vietnamese Banh Mi

At JoJu, your sandwich comes conveniently packaged in a pair of (recyclable) paper-tissue bags, perfect for sharing. Over the last decade, New Yorkers have fallen in love with the Vietnamese sandwich banh mi. The best are found at a pair of places: Saigon Banh Mi in Chinatown and Ba Xuyen in Sunse ... More >>

Sriracha Lip Balm: Pucker Up For a Fiery Kiss

Want to scare the crap out of surprise a special someone under the mistletoe this holiday? Try puckering up with Sriracha Lip Balm. [See More: Sriracha Ice Cream Shake | Sriracha Popcorn Exists]

The Cocky Rooster: A Sriracha Beer

Goodbye ketchup. Sriracha is now America's new favorite condiment. We've done Sriracha booze before (in the form of a glorious ice cream shake), and we've also featured Sriracha popcorn. But what about Sriracha beer?

Year of the Takeout Day 213: Does Vanessa's Dumpling House Water Down Sriracha?

Buckwheat Sesame Soba Noodles from Vanessa's Dumpling House (310 Bedford Avenue, 718-218-8809)

Is Sao Mai Our Best Vietnamese Restaurant?

Take First Avenue to Hanoi

What Should You Eat at Sao Mai?

At Sao Mai, the Goi Du Du (green papaya salad) is damn near unforgettable. This week , Counter Culture floats into Sao Mai ("Morning Star") a newish Vietnamese restaurant in the East Village, and maybe the best Vietnamese restaurant in town. Here are the dishes most recommended for the first-time ... More >>

Sao Mai and Xe May Sandwich Shop: Finally, Your Banh Mi Tacos

The East Village gets two new Vietnamese spots

Behold, the Banh Mi Taco

For this week's review, I went to two new casual Vietnamese spots in the East Village. The first, Sao Mai, offers your standard --though fresh and flavorful -- selection of Viet fare, including pho, bun, and grilled meat dishes. The other, Xe May Sandwich Shop, specializes in banh mi, but also off ... More >>

Xe May: It's a Banh Mi Blowout on St. Mark's Place

Lauren ShockeyThe classic banh mi from Xe May​It was only a matter of time that the Korean taco trend evolved into the banh mi taco trend, right? Well that's what Alan Woo and Davis Ngo are banking on. They've just opened Xe May on St. Marks Place, which specializes in both modern takes on Vie ... More >>

Sao Mai Now Bringing Pho and Other Vietnamese Staples to First Avenue

Lauren ShockeyLotus root salad at Sao Mai​Michael "Bao" Huynh's BaoBQ (229 First Avenue, 212-475-7011) isn't the only Vietnamese-influenced restaurant to open on First Avenue this month. Just a block south in the old Quantum Leap space, you'll find Sao Mai (201 First Avenue, 212-358-8880), a ... More >>

Checking Out ShopHouse, the New Asian Chipotle Spinoff

Lauren ShockeyShopHouse offers rice bowls with either chicken, tofu, steak, or meatballs​I happened to be in Washington, D.C. over the weekend, and while I was there, I ventured to Dupont Circle to check out ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen (1516 Connecticut Avenue NW, 202-232-4141), otherwis ... More >>

Introducing the Meatball Hero, Vietnamese Version, at Thien Huong

​The "meat ball baguette" at Chatham Square's Thien Huong. The city is undergoing a cheap Vietnamese food renaissance, led by the signature soup pho, and the signature sandwich banh mi, and both are now available in many neighborhoods outside of Chinatowns. Last week, we reported on an exem ... More >>

There's a New Pho Parlor in Town - and It's Pretty Good

​A bowl of Xe Lua pho at Pho 88, flanked by giant fresh basil leaves, sprouts, and the usual arsenal of flavorings (chiles pastes, hoisin, etc.) to be added in. The make or break of any full-service Vietnamese restaurant is its pho. While this beef noodle soup originated as street food in F ... More >>

Banh Mi Doc Biet at An Choi, Dish No. 87

​Feast your eyes on the flagship of An Choi's banh mi fleet. These days it seems like you don't have to walk more than a block or two to find the Vietnamese sandwich known as banh mi in many downtown neighborhoods. These are usually rudimentary affairs, with a couple of sliced cold cuts, or ... More >>

Our 10 Best Vietnamese Restaurants

Lauren ShockeyBun cha Ha Noi at Pho Bang​Alas, New York City isn't one of the great Vietnamese culinary capitals of the world. Which is too bad, because at least in our minds, Vietnamese cuisine is one of the best on the globe. But you can still find some decent Viet grub. You just have to ... More >>

Tomorrow: Our 10 Best Vietnamese Restaurants

Lauren ShockeyBaoguette Café offers a tasty chicken and sausage dish over rice, but is the restaurant good enough to make it into the top 10?​While we do have plenty of banh mi peddlers, New York City isn't an enclave for Vietnamese expat communities, so it doesn't possess a bounty of full-sc ... More >>

Ask the Critics: Where Should I Eat When Called for Jury Duty?

flickr/InfoMofoJury Duty isn't a total bust​Esther D. Asks: I just got called for jury duty. I work in Midtown so don't know the area too well. Where should I have lunch? Dear Esther: Jury duty sucks (unless you have an even crappier day job, in which case it might actually be an awesome va ... More >>

V-Nam Café: New Competitor Joins E.V. Beef Sandwich Fray

​Plenty of tender marinated beef in V-Nam's banh mi bo. Roast beef sandwiches have become increasingly popular over the last couple of years. On one hand, there's the traditional Italian roast beef hero as espoused by This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef, Defonte's Sandwich Shop, and several more ... More >>

The Over-Rice Farrago Known as Com Suon Bi Cha at Thai Son

​This Vietnamese meal is #24 in our 100 Days/100 Dishes series. When in Northern California, you judge a Vietnamese cafe by its pho. In New York, the pho is generally substandard, and it's the omnibus over-rice dishes that constitute the bellwether. Despite its name, Thai Son is not a Siames ... More >>

No. 15: Bun Bo Hue at Thanh Da

​The bun bo Hue at Thanh Da presents a dark tempest of a beef broth. Let's enumerate the ways bun bo Hue -- named after the city of Hue (pronounced "Way") in Central Vietnam -- differs from the signature noodle soup of Saigon, pho (pronounced "FFFah"). First off, the noodles are wheat instead ... More >>

Bun Rieu at Thanh Da

Lauren ShockeyThanh Da's Bun Rieu​We've been eating a lot of Vietnamese food recently (could we be prepping for a 10 Best? Oh, maybe), and were excited when we saw bun rieu on the menu at Thanh Da. As we've noted in the past, the Sunset Park restaurant does a great bun bo Hue, the spicy beef ... More >>

No. 6: Sandwich #1 at Saigon Banh Mi Bakery

​This jam-packed sandwich will set you back only $3.75. Saigon Banh Mi Bakery started out in a little stall under the Manhattan bridge, then hopscotched, first to the southeast corner of Mott and Grand streets (where it cowered behind a jewelery store), then recently leaped over Grand and es ... More >>

Battle of the Dishes: Vegetarian Banh Mi Brawl

Victoria BekiempisSaigon's version, with rubber band "extra" removed.​ Banh mi has quite a rep -- for being a gutbuster on the mean streets of Saigon and New York. Pickled carrot and radish slivers, cilantro, cucumber slices, pâté, grilled meat, and occasionally cheese burst out of a French ... More >>

The Early Word: Saigon Shack

Lauren ShockeyDuck banh mi​ Saigon Shack has been open for about a month, selling banh mi, pho, and other Vietnamese and pan-Asian snacks to hungry NYU students and Greenwich Village residents. Looking for a quick lunch, we popped in today to see how their sandwiches stack up against the comp ... More >>

Tu Do's Pho Needs Re-Education

But other fine dishes abound at this Chinatown Vietnamese spot

Co Ba Tries to Capture the Spirit of Vietnam's Neighborhood Stalls

Steven Duong offers a new restaurant

Co Ba: a New Vietnamese Eatery in Chelsea From a Pioneering Restaurateur

Bottom: banh duc man (steamed coconut cakes); Top: goi du du (green papaya with pork belly and shrimp)​New York is not known for its Vietnamese food, but Steven Duong has been quietly trying to change that for years, offering vibrant, precise dishes in ever-so-slightly upscale places. The Vie ... More >>

Bánh Mì Saigon Loses Its Bling

Jesse ReedStill meaty and crunchy, but the karats have been 86'd.​Just as there are those who argue that sliced bread doesn't taste as good as bread that's been torn into chunks, there are those who argue that bánh mì sold in the back of a jewelry shop tastes better than bá ... More >>

Le Da Nang in the East Village

​Le Da Nang, a new East Village Vietnamese spot, doesn't have a whole lot going for it, at least based on one visit. As Dave Cook pointed out, the menu lacks specialties from the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang, or from its neighbor, Hue. (Though there is a seafood hot pot, which we realiz ... More >>

Home's Banh Mi and the Park Slope Vietnamese Sandwich Battles

​Folks who live in Park Slope used to have to head down to Sunset Park to get their banh mi fix. (And they still should,as the superior sandwiches at Ba Xuyen and Than Da are worth the short travel time.) But now Park Slope is practically rife with its own banh mi shops. First, there was Hanc ... More >>

An Early Look at Banh Mi Zon in the East Village

Banh mi #1: Pork roll, shredded pork, liver pate, and the fixings​ As the journalism business flounders, the banh mi trade booms--no one knows this better than Tai Dang, who was reportedly fired from his job as a photographer for Newsweek, and decided to return to his native Saigon to learn to ... More >>

Park Slope Banh Mi Wars: Hanco's Vs. Henry's

Left: Hanco's classic bahn mi with pate, ham, and ground pork; Right: Henry's version of same​ As we reported earlier, there is a gen-u-ine banh mi war going down in Park Slope, and nothing could be more titillating. Fork in the Road, reporting from the scene, thought that it was obvious tha ... More >>

Pix from An Choi

This week, Counter Culture sandwiches itself into An Choi, a newish Vietnamese restaurant on the Lower East. The menu is limited, but much of it is quite good. Though we found the banh mi expensive compared to those in nearby Chinatown (we staged a statistical comparison), An Choi offers a ... More >>

Incredibly Cheap Eats--Bun Bo Hue at Thanh Da

The irresistible bun bo hue, a soup that originated in the city of Hue, Vietnam You've probably had your fill of pho (the multi-beef rice noodle soup) and banh mi (the French-leaning Vietnamese hero), but I bet you haven't had your fill of bun bo hue. A rash of immigration from central Vietnam ... More >>

Sriracha, Spotted Everywhere

While eating with my in-laws at a stodgy fish restaurant in suburban Massachusetts, I asked the waiter for Sriracha, almost just to see what he would say. But he nodded knowingly, and brought out a dish of the red, garlicky hot sauce. That's when you know that Sriracha has hit the mainstream. That, ... More >>

Are You a Fan of Sriracha?

John T. Edge interviewed the owner of this Facebook page for his piece on Sriracha. You, too, can become a fan of the popular Asian hot sauce. And why not? The FB fan page features pics of people eating Sriracha, a movement to get the company that makes the sauce to print and sell Sriracha T-shirts, ... More >>

Pics of Nha Toi's Banh Mi

I know Eater declared banh mi "over," but in my opinion, the banh mi fad is that rare thing: a trend that actually results in an increase in delicious, affordable food. This week, my column reviews Bep and Nha Toi, two new Vietnamese spots in Williamsburg. Bep serves pho, bun and other simple dishes ... More >>

Banh Mi in Williamsburg

I stopped by 172 Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg yesterday to see how Banh Mi's construction is going (the space used to be a Polish butcher shop). Looks nice from the outside, but the paper over the windows is so throughly taped up, I couldn't see inside. No one seemed to be working, so maybe they' ... More >>

Good Stuff: Nicky's Pho

When I woke up this morning, my ongoing sniffle had increased to a full-on sinus infection/cold. I decided only pho could save me. Sadly, I've been unable to find any pho near me in Fort Greene. The closest thing is Nicky's Sandwiches (311 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn) in Cobble Hill. I don't find the ... More >>

The Early Word--Hanco's Park Slope

The classic--sort ofAs Hailey pointed out, the new Hanco's on 7th Avenue in Park Slope, which opened on Saturday, is peddling banh mi at the inflated price of $7 each. The other, older Hanco's in Boerum Hill sells the same sandwiches for $5.25. For comparison, the most awesome banh mi in the city ( ... More >>

The Early Word: Baoguette

Edgar Allan Pho: World of Taste in the Bronx

Southeast Asian nabe surrounds horror master's cottage

BarBao Is Pho Real

A new Vietnamese spot on the Upper West Side showcases Michael Huynh's cooking

Fork in the Road Gorges on Bahn Mi

Brooklyn's Banh Mi Stars

Pork roll and sardines and pâté—oh my!

Our Man Sietsema: 'A tour de force of dodgy pork parts'

A Hero's Welcome

Chinatown's new banh mi parlor turns to France for inspiration

A Bahn Mi Double-Whammy

Mo’ Better Pho