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Bánh, on the Upper West Side, is one of the city’s most distinguished Vietnamese restaurants, a gem in a drab food district. It’s bright and relaxed, serving up great takes on beloved dishes: big bánh mi filled with pickled vegetables and juicy pork belly, rich, flavorful bowls of pho, and bun bo bo, a butter-seared beef and noodle dish. A few months ago, after much anticipation, Bánh chefs and owners Nhu Ton and John Nguyen expanded their business, opening Bánh Anh Em in the East Village. Anh em means “brothers” in Vietnamese, and the two restaurants do share DNA that’s hard to miss, but the downtown spot feels more ambitious, focused, and mature. The pho comes in a broth slow-simmered with the aroma of star anise and black pepper, and the noodles are incredibly springy and chewy, made daily in a huge imported noodle machine whose retro-futuristic design takes up space behind the bar. There are bánh mì sandwiches here, too, but unlike the restaurant uptown, where the baguettes come from Balthazar, Bánh Anh Em’s bread is baked on the spot—big, light as rugby balls, made from yeast and flour, with a crisp crust and a soufflé-soft crumb.
Bun ryu is a tomato noodle soup.
Banh cuon ha noi dumplings are stuffed with pork, shrimp and mushrooms, and topped with fried shallots.
What really sets this restaurant apart, however, is its focus on Vietnamese dishes that are hard to find in New York, even now that bright, experimental, decidedly ambitious new Vietnamese or Vietnamese-inspired restaurants like Mắm and Ha's Snack Bar are on the rise. Bánh Anh Em features such rare dishes as bánh trung tiên, a dense glutinous rice cake topped with sweet pork belly, a traditional New Year's dish.
Sourse: newyorker.com
