23023 Tue Feb 18 20:25:28 -0800 2003 6 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 86537 I understand this restaurant to be a trendy location but does the food deliver memorable vietnamese cuisine? Tue Feb 18 20:25:28 -0800 2003 0 Daniel 1 86539 daniel, the slanted door is a culinary delight. call it what you will - this place is well deserving of it's long waits and packed house night after night. it may do you some good to read through the archived postings, there are several references to this SF gem. Tue Feb 18 21:10:17 -0800 2003 86537 0 jflash 2 86559 i totally agree. i liked the shaking beef and caramelized chicken dish. both dishes not common in the vietnamese restos in ny where i'm from. Tue Feb 18 23:42:11 -0800 2003 86539 0 mirepoix 3 86589 Still a very good place [ I went back with some trepidation last week] but an order of magnitude more expensive than other more modest Vietamese places. It's really a matter of personal values whether the ambience, the "scene" and the fame make the prices "worth it." I guess I'm nostalgic for the early days at the Valencia location "BCV" [before the Clinton visit]. Don't be put off by some of the "trashing" that's occured on this site in the recent past, but bring $. Wed Feb 19 14:17:48 -0800 2003 86559 0 Jimbo 4 86687 Why do so many people think that Vietnamese food should be cheap? There seeems to a general notion that it's "authentic" only if it's not more than a few bucks. Why does "real" ethnic food need to be served only in dives? It's as if SF foodies think that Vietnamese people are all poor and so, by extension, their food should be cheap. There's a lot of prep involved, and labor is expensive, especially if it's not grandma frying the spring rolls and second son taking your order. If we can allow European cuisines to be high-end and "worth" a more elegant experience, why not Asian foods, too? To be fair, compare Slanted Door to other restaurants in its price range and Charles Pham to his professional peers--not to the outer district eatery or the mom-and-pop pho shop--and then ask if it's a good place for the money. Wed Aug 20 11:21:31 -0700 2003 86589 0 Thy Tran 5 86688 I agree. I think, though, that people expect it to be cheap not out of any generalizations about the poverty of the Vietnamese, but because unlike, for example French cuisine, they were first introduced to the food in pho and bun joints and that's where they formed their ideas and expectations about the experience of eating Vietnamese food. People feel the same way about most "immigrant" cuisines. For that matter, I've heard people complain in upscale Italian restaurants about paying so much for a "plate of pasta." Wed Aug 20 18:54:23 -0700 2003 86687 0 Ruth Lafler 4 86726 I totally trashed this place the first time I visited it in its FB location (when it first opened its doors there). I've been back a couple of times since and have been continually impressed by the food and service. Went 2 weeks ago and what stood out was their Thai basil turnover dessert. It was similar to the style/presentation that Chikalicious in NYC adopts. Yummers! Fri Jun 03 19:49:38 -0700 2005 86589 0 buttercuplah