Several New Vietnamese Restaurants Storm into New Orleans
By Joey Lehrman | Email the Author | Follow on Twitter
As part of an exciting trend that represents New Orleans culinary scene growing even more diverse, several new Vietnamese restaurants are now open or are scheduled to open in the coming months. Five of these new destinations were recently featured on nola.com, and are as follows:
7900 Maple St., 504.373.5628
Opened: April 2013
Owners Quinn Nguyen and Phat Vu broke out from Tan Dinh, the West Bank favorite, to open Ba Chi Canteen in Uptown New Orleans last spring. Where Tan Dinh’s menu underscores the French influence on Vietnamese cuisine, Ba Chi’s pushes the multicultural possibilities into other parts of Asia — Korean, Thai and Japanese flavors permeate the menu — and even Latin America. Bao steamed buns have been trending across the country for years. Here they’re billed as “bacos.”
Mint Modern Vietnamese Bistro & Bar
5100 Freret St., New Orleans, 504.218.5534
Opened: January 2014
Among the Vietnamese newcomers, Mint is among the most playful. Here the steamed buns are billed as “sliders”; I’m partial to the ones with pork belly. There is also a kimchi-topped hamburger and a Vietnamese-Thai riff on chicken and waffles. But you don’t have to wager your entire night based on the success of Mint’s playful inventions. The menu is built around a wide selection of pho, bánh mì and bun.
514 City Park Ave., New Orleans, 504.482.6845
Opened: January 2014
MoPho is arguably the most ambitious of this new breed of restaurant, by virtue of chef ownerMichael Gulotta’s menu as well as the fact that he wasn’t born to this cuisine. Gulotta, a former Restaurant August chef de cuisine, brings high-grade technique to bear on the casual restaurant’s fancifully creative takes on pho (try yours enriched with mustard greens), rice and noodle bowls (blue crab and beef cheeks are both protein options) and banh mi po-boys (roast tofu with blackbean mayo is one). The crispy-salty-sweet chicken wings highlights a line-up of Vietnamese-inspired appetizers and bar snacks.
4077 Tulane Ave., 504.483.8899
Opened: December 2013
Hieu Doan’s vision of a Vietnamese restaurant for a changing New Orleans includes fried calamari with wasabi cream, papaya salads threaded with fresh picked herbs and a version of a Cubano sandwich with braised duck, house cured bacon and Vietnamese-style pickled vegetables. But on early visits, the traditional dishes — pho with oxtail, vermicelli noodles topped with fried egg rolls — have been just as impressive.
2135 St. Charles Ave., 504.609.3710
Opened: February 2014
This new restaurant, a sister to Pho Orchid Express on Airline Drive, was packed with Mardi Gras parade revelers the night I tried it. Fried chicken wings were particularly popular, and with good reason; they come with a dish of the sublimely simple, inexplicably underused Vietnamese dipping sauce made of lime juice mixed with salt and black pepper. The roast duck tacos — Pho Orchid’s answer to Ba Chi’s “bacos” — are a pared back version of a more famous dish from Peking, China. The brisket pho’s broth was clear but rich in flavor.
While I haven’t dined at any of these establishments just yet, I’ve received several recommendations for the very recently opened MoPho near City Park, and Ba Chi Canteen on Maple. Cheers to the always growing and diversifying culinary scene in New Orleans!
Joey Lehrman is a retired teacher with over 40 years of experience in the New Orleans public school system. Since retiring, he has transitioned to sharing his experience and perspective and all things New Orleans through a variety of blogs, news-sites, and social networks.
