Vietnamese - What's the best?

Any recommendations on best vietnamese in the city? Any specific dishes you love?

Nha Trang Center st. for seafood and vegetable soup and beef cubes with spices, bbq beef and amazing catfish caserole.

Nam Son for superb beef stew, pho and shrimp spring rolls (ask for the triangular ones).

i completely agree w/mike lee that cong ly (hester st btwn bowery/chrystie st) has very good food. it's simple, straightforward, very cheap, and authentic--and yes, i'll say that it's the closest i've had to the great vietnamese food out in LA (actually, in the little saigon of westminster in orange county). it's not as good as the LA places, but the best we have in manhattan. i'm not a huge fan of nha trang or pho viet huong or the other places mentioned, btw.

you can get a good banh mi at viet-nam banh mi so 1, on broome st btwn mott/elizabeth.

Depends on what you go for. I am especially picky about vietnamese food, especially their use of herbs, so my opinion will vary amongst others.

Nha Trang is only OK to me despite what the posters below think (and definitely not one of the best in the city). Their vietnames crepes, though, are slightly above the rest of the crowd and would be what I would order at that restaurant.

Pho Tu Do is the only place I know that serves Bun Rieu but still no Bun Rieu Oc around in the city. The soup base is missing a hint of shrimp paste but they have the jar in the restaurant which you can add a tiny bit to the soup. Make sure to ask for it piping hot so the shrimp paste gets blended into the soup well. And honestly, no their Banh mi is not that good.

Cong Ly has probably the best beef pho soup base around. Their spring rolls are excellent as well and they will run out. Also, their Bun Bo Hue is probably the better one out of the rest (better than Thai son's IMHO). One thing I haven't tried is their Seafood Congee which seems to be a special of the house.

Which do you recommend for 4 people?

Pho Tu Do is on Bowery and Cong Ly is on Hester.

For vietnamese dinner style dishes, I would recommend Thai son. Every dish is decent but not superb.

For pho and its variants, I recommend Cong Ly (the only draw back its they do not do dinner style dishes but I usually don't mind pho at night in the cold days). Most of their noodle dishes are at least decent enough to make me reminiscent of vietnamese food in Los Angeles. Also, they are one of the few vietnamese restaurants that aren't stingy on the sawleaf herb if you ask for it. Other places only gives one or two even if you ask...

ah i know exactly where they are now. I've have seen them, but never tried.

funny, i always thought ny (manhattan) would have good chinese / viet etc when i moved here, but its mostly pretty ehhh...always have to go to flushing to get better stuff

Thanks for the tips

I think that has always been the case everywhere. Best Chinese/Vietnamese in SF Bay area is in the suburbs/San Jose, best Chinest/Vietnamese in LA is in the 'burbs (SGV) and the best chinese and vietnamese, and even anything ethnically related to Asia in NYC would be in Queens.

The only thing asian ethnic food I believe Manhattan excels in is Japanese food... highly competitive with anything in the suburbs in LA. (Maybe the same can be said about Indian food as well).

Btw, what street are Pho Tu Do and Cong Ly on?

i like doyers vietnamese or thai son. Most vietnamese places taste the same.

Nha Trang on Baxter gets my vote, too. Consistently delicious and a great bargain. Be sure to try the crispy squid w/ garlic sauce and the famous bbq pork chops.

Bao 111 @ 7th and C.

Delicious sea bass and great specialty drinks!

Nha Trang in Chinatown - two locations - Centre St., Baxter. Consistently good and amazingly cheap. I always get the pork chop on vermicelli - can't beat it for $6! Look it up on nycitysearch.com.

I'll second Nha Trang. We always go to the one on Baxter and will be going tonight. Gotta have the BBQ pork chops and soft shell crabs.

Nha Trang is one of the best, but I give the edge to Pho Viet Huong.

Especially for

anything with lemongrass & hot pepper
bo la ngo (the same grilled beef in a leaf usually called bo la lot)
Spicy shrimp salad
cha gio (spring rolls)
.but everything is good.

Link: http://petercherches.blogspot.com

Peter,

What about the BEST bahn mi???
Doesn't ahve to be in Chinatown, but definitely in Manhattan!

I don't know about the best banh mi. I never buy them at takeout places. As for sitdown places that make them, Pho Tu Do is pretty good, but they only make the basic one (pate, ham, chicken roll, etc.)

There's a great place in Brooklyn, in Sunset Park.

What I haven't found is a place for hot bbq banh mi. There was a place on Kearney St. in SF that made great ones.

I like the one on broome street Viet-Nam Banh Mi So 1

The one on eastbroadway used to be pretty good, they moved to mott street in the back of a jade store between hester and grand. My problem with them is that they premake the sandwiches. So sometimes the bread is soggy.