washingtonpost.com: Saigon Gourmet

Saigon Gourmet
By Phyllis C. Richman
Washington Post Restaurant Critic
From The Washington Post Dining Guide, November 1996

2635 Connecticut Ave. NW
(202) 265-1360

Hours of Operation and Prices
Lunch: Daily 11:30-3; Entrees: $5-$7
Dinner: Daily 5-10:30; Entrees: $8-$13

Other Information
• Credit Cards: All major
• Dress: Casual
• Reservations: Recommended on weekends
• Parking: Street
• Nearest Metro: Woodley Park-Zoo
• Handicapped accessible

It's one of the prettiest of Washington's Vietnamese restaurants, with pink linens and upholstery and large watercolors of shore birds against sea-green walls. And it has the space for sidewalk dining. While the menu breaks no new ground, what sets the food apart is its bright colors, crisp textures and fresh flavors. Even more refreshing is the calm and helpful service. In case there's anyone left who isn't familiar with the ways of Vietnamese dining, the waiters explain how to use the rice paper and which dipping sauce belongs with which dish. And if you order a whole fish, the waiter will deftly bone it at the table.

If you judge a Vietnamese restaurant by its cha gio, this one is a star. The plump fried rice-paper rolls are crisp, flaky and filled with a meaty and fragrant pork-seafood-noodle mixture. Meats and seafood grilled on small bamboo skewers benefit from quality ingredients and a hot charcoal fire. Pork is the best of the grilled options, from appetizers through entrees. As an appetizer, it is sweet and spicy, with crisply caramelized edges and a smoky flavor, topped with bits of onion that have been fried until they are thoroughly crunchy.

Among the entrees is a particularly delicious grilled pork with rice crepe. Seafood choices are mostly routine, except when pork comes into play. Shrimp Saigon Style is fragrant slices of pork and whole shrimp simmered in a thin red sauce that looks hot but is actually quite mild. More zesty - and messy - is Salty Shrimp With Shell; and this kitchen tends carefully to the cooking of its whole fish.

For dessert, bananas dipped in batter and fried, then flamed with a mixture of rum, honey and sesame seeds, make for a grand morass of crunchy, creamy sweetness. And the kitchen concocts the ultimate banana split: banana flambe with rich, sweet-sharp ginger ice cream.

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