VAN DA

This place is charming, with a friendly, gracious staff, cool and comfortable surroundings and super tasty food.   But its possession of a Michelin star was what it put Van Da on our radar and drew us in, and I'm sorry to say there was little in our experience to merit it.  And that's not to say I don't recommend it, it is only to put that recommendation in proper perspective.


We arrived sans reservation, and despite there being two or three empty tables (presumably imminent reservations), we had to wait a spell before obtaining stools at the bar- absolutely sufficient.  The bartender took a little warming up, but once we had him on our side he was pleasant and engaging, and added a bit of personal attention to the experience.   He mixed up a snappy little cocktail, as well, although he seemed to be tiring of swizzling that Ho Chi Smokey that everyone seemed to be ordering, my tablemate included.

Ho Chi Smoke

To his credit, and in that we're in the East Village, the cocktail program is respectively strong.  A Turtle Tonic seems a bit like a spritzed-up mojito, and that Ho Chi Smokey spiked mezcal with chili and a shiso salt rim for its savory, zesty appeal.  The food menu itself is pretty concise, and vegetarians would have a tough time here, given that even the un-meaty sounding options usually include fish sauce or egg.  We started with the Banh Khot, decadent little cups of griddled turmeric-scented dough filled with a chunky mince of wild mushrooms anchored in coconut custard.  This was by far the best dish of the night, starting off strong and perhaps steering us to prematurely believe in that star.  But while everything else we tried was inarguably good, nothing was exceptional.  We had to
order the Cha Cha la Vong (how often do you get to say THAT?), and its tangle of pearly, thin noodles, crisped filet of branzino and flurry of dill and chopped peanuts was served with fish sauce and hot chili oil apart, so as to season to taste.  But not being that familiar with Vietnamese foods (at least in preparing them), I was a little cautionary to over-season with one or the other (or both), or even strike the right balance between them, and thus ended up eating most of the dish with just little dibs and dabs of funk or heat, and most bitefuls just amounted to noodles with a little fish.  You would think.... I 
would think a Michelin star would want each bite to achieve the ideal actualization of the dish, and that should be left up to the chef, not the diner.  The plate that arrived was basically unseasoned, the diner being left responsible for a decision that I wis would've been enacted in the kitchen.

Shaking Beef c/o Agnes C. on Yelp

Next we went for the Bo Luc Lac  (Shaking Beef), but it didn't really shake things up.  The beef, while plentiful, was pretty tough, simply seasoned alongside toothsome, round potatoes and crowned with fronds of watercress, deemed salad, but undressed.  I have to wonder if we wouldn't have been more successful with some of the noodle soups, like Bun Rieu with tofu and seafood, or Cao Lau's chewy noodles and pork cheeks.  But you can only eat so much in a given sitting, and you can't know before you order what might've been better.  Even our dessert, a perfectly adequate little panna cotta with crisp slices of persimmon (unfortunately not the meltingly custardy hachiyas, but the
sweet-when-crisp fuyu variety) was simply a plain, cool yogurty pudding with the fruit sliced atop.  Kinda yawn, eh?  Nothing we had would make me want to come back to Van Da, not even the Banh Khot, which I've had similar versions-ish of elsewhere, just as good and that would fill the same craving and have much more to offer in addition.

This place is good.   Okay-good, certainly nothing of it rang of Michelin-star good.  Did I miss something?  Or did Van Da?

234 East 4th Street
(Btwn Ave A & B)
New York, NY

www.vanda.nyc

Reservations: VanDaReservations@gmail.com

Phone: 917.994.4781