Vietnam Georgetown Restaurant, Georgetown, D.C.

A couple of dozen years ago during my internship days, I ate in a rather downscale corner restaurant in Georgetown that served what was to me at that time a very exotic cuisine called Vietnamese. Tonight I went back.

Vietnam Georgetown Restaurant is located on a busy corner along M Street in east Georgetown. It's still a fairly non-descript place, although they now have nicer decor and black, lacquered tables with comfortable and unrickety chairs. They also have a liquor license now, which I don't recall them having on my last visit. We were seated immediately in the middle of the dining room, and, while the place was never completely full, they had a rapid turnover of tables and a steady stream of new patrons to fill the vacated tables.

Leo started with the chå giò, a pair of those rice paper-wrapped spring rolls which were deep fried and crispy before being served and accompanied by a little bowl of fish sauce.



For his main course he selected the ever-popular phô bò, a thin soup with slices of beef, some vegetables, and a bunch of rice noodles. He liked both items, and particularly commented on the authenticity of the food and the unusualness of an American Vietnamese restaurant actually using the "correct" type of noodles.



I chose to begin with the chim cút quay. Two tiny quail were halved and cooked; the menu says that they were roasted, but they were so flavorful and crunchy, I suspect that they were fried instead (especially since I noted a little grease on the bed of leaf lettuce underneath them). Other than the leg bones and scapulas, I was able to eat all of the other bones.



A little bowl of a sweet yet hot red pepper sauce came with the quail. The next course was a delicious bò lúc låc, slices of Vietnamese steak marinated in garlic sauce and then stir-fried with slices of garlic cloves. I found the meat very flavorful and tender.