This loverly new restaurant is located in one of my favorite international areas of town… good old Buford Hwy. It’s a Vietnamese Restaurant with much deliciousness to choose from, and quite affordable menu! Searching like I often do when a friend says, “hey lets go explore!” I found this based off of a review in one of our local papers here in the ATL. Some may think that’s cheating, but I say why not go based on a recommendation? That’s why we here at the Bud do what we do right? In my fanciful opinion a recommendation is much better than a trial run and if we can get one before dipping into adventure, why not, we shall spread the good word!
My favorite thing about Vietnamese food is that there’s lots of fresh salad items and herbs mixed in with their meals; nothing like a good old pickled carrot if you ask me. Combine that with , broth, or some crunchy spring rolls divided up amongst a giant bowl of noodles… It’s kinda like the “light and fresh” version of what Americans think of as a typical Asian meal… (usually ignorantly assuming “Chinese food” covered in some sugar sauce).
Anyway on to the foooooooooooood!!!
We ordered probably exactly the same thing that was mentioned in the review. I think we even got the same waitress! I assumed this because her description was just like the review had mentioned, loud, bubbly, and a little bit sassy --I like her instantly. We let her pick the food and I noticed the similarity but I have to admit it sounded absolutely amazing! And! It’s perfectly alright with me because this meal can easily be characterized as palatable to the Asian food loving American with a little dash of adventure. Like many, I’ve had other Vietnamese meals, but as an introduction to a restaurant for the first time I don’t mind erring on the side of caution as things can get exotic quickly, so lets eat!
We ordered three things for a hungry group of four: Large (self assemble) Spring Roll Platter, Small Seafood Rice ClayPot, and a Large Lau Hotpot –which included assorted seafood, meats, veggies, and herbs.
First came out the Spring roll platter. This was the bigger more economic version of the normal 2 piece Spring Roll order. We were going to split one order for each couple, but she told us that for a couple bucks more we could assemble them ourselves (fun!), and get more bang for the buck. I’m game! She brought out a large platter with Vietnamese fried ham and chicken patties, as well as crispy fried rolls-some super thin and the others a little larger which featured shrimp and veggies mmmmmmmm! She also had in hand a bowl of water, dried rice paper, and a platter full of herbs, greens, and pickled accompaniments typical with a Vietnamese meal, and various dipping sauces. The fun part! Next she showed us how to assemble.
Take the rice paper and dip in the water rotating around a couple times so that you wet the entire circle so that it softens. Next take one of each roll and meat, combined with greens and veggies of your choice, wrap, seal, grab some delicious sauce of your choice, dip, and devour.
Some of said choice veggies included pickled mango… talk about delicious, I had a hard time getting myself to stop … this was just the appetizer.
After devouring that large assortment of deliciousness, she brought out the clay pot. She suggested we order a small one of these and a large soup. Either way we would be leaving with full bellies although I have to say we skeptical at first, and then pleasantly surprised. This was full of seafood: shrimp, squid, scallop etc. The rice was gummy and crunch at the same time. NO CLUE HOW THEY DO THAT FANTASTIC MAGIC. Sooo good, and not just your regular fried rice. It comes out in a clay pot literally! Steaming, and sizzling, and wonderful.
Finally it was soup time. Another large bunch of platters were delivered to our table. One was full of raw thin sliced beef, scallop, shrimp, mussel, whitefish, and green onion. The other was another, more complex version of the veggie/greens platter. This one she mentioned had a Vietnamese herb that Americans might say had a “funny taste” or potency similar to how people feel about cilantro. She warned that we only add a little at first, taste it, and then if desired, add more. It looked like curly purple green parsley and it did taste funny, and it was really good .. but in moderation, potent! Our soup was brought out over a little gas plate that was turned on once on the table. She said that we had to leave it covered for a couple minutes and when it came to a boil to add a half of everything to one side. When that was done, in only minutes, scoop out, turn down, and eat up. The other half was for seconds.
The broth was a spicy, chilli/tomato-ish, and fantastic. By the end of this entire meal it was a miracle that none of us sprang a leak. The total cost for 4 people tasting various delights (2 of which could eat horses) was only about $60 before tip. I can’t imagine being happier.
4646 Buford Highway NW
Atlanta, GA 30341
(678) 580-1727
The plates look delicious and the rice pot thing has made me hungry!
ReplyDeleteHow do you find these places? There are so many restaurants in that area. How do you know which to choose?
Yeah it is a little daunting at first... It's kinda like how can you tell when there are 3 Vietnamese restaurants right next to each other! But I usually try to find either a recommendation from a friend, or I'll just find a place that looks good and look it up, see if there is any buzz. Usually it's a good sign if you see the place is packed!
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