Why go: Lots of Vietnamese restaurants offer 100-plus dishes, but none gets as many right as this quiet, white-tablecloth dining room in a Clarendon office building. The kitchen—which also has made our 100 Very Best Restaurants list for the past three years—is masterful with the fryer and deft with rice and noodles, and it turns out salads with perfect precision. Even the lemonade and dessert crepes stand out.
What to get: Golden fritters of yam and shrimp; shredded-pork spring rolls; crunchy banana-flower salad dotted with baby clams; green-papaya salad; anything with grilled pork, such as vermicelli bun, broken rice, or thin noodles fashioned into lettuce wraps; caramel pork and catfish; spicy lemongrass chicken; banana-filled crepe; lemon soda.
Best for: Big, family-style meals (tables seat up to ten); quiet dates or catch-ups.
Insider tip: Skip the pho.
>> See all 2010 Cheap Eats restaurants here
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
