House of joy

Bánh Vietnamese Shop House (Upper West Side)

RESTAURANTS • First Person

The upside of spending four and a half (miserable) years at a small Boston college was the four and half (delicious) years spent slurping pho in the city’s exemplary Vietnamese restaurants. So I was disappointed when I returned to my Vietnam-restaurant-deficient hometown of New York and had to reduce my cravings to the occasional pho dac biet on Baxter Street.

But 20 years later, NYC is getting the Vietnamese cuisine it deserves, fueled mostly by young Vietnamese-American chefs, focusing on the freshness of the herbs and greens and delicacy of the spices, deploying protein as a garnish rather than a main, and emphasizing the hyper-regionality of the country’s dishes. Everyone is fighting for tables right now at dazzling Viet-French-bistro Ha’s Snack Bar, but uptown, there’s a sleeper Vietnamese spot a limestone’s throw from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, where you won’t have to wait three hours for a seat.

Its name is Bánh Vietnamese Shop House (or Bánh, for short), and you should go with a bunch of friends to share the bounty that lands on the small, colorful tables each night. (They’re also opening an East Village outpost later this month.)

On a recent visit, we went heavy on rice dishes. First, there was cơm tấm, a plate of crispy rice loaded with charcoal-grilled pork chop, a slab of delicate meatloaf, glossy pork skin, crackly pork crispies, lightly pickled carrots and daikon radish, jiggly egg, greens and tomatoes, the whole thing begging to be smashed together and scooped up with chopsticks. Then, the bánh cuốn, three individual gelatinous rice puddings, garnished with pork floss and crispy onions with a ramekin of nước chấm (fish sauce). And chef’s kiss for the bún chả combo platter, pork belly and pork patties in spring roll format, with vermicelli and greens and more dipping sauce. (Also recommended: Vietnamese savory donuts, in the form of bánh chưng, or fried sticky rice crullers with mung bean and pork inside.)

Despite the amount of meat and rice on our table, everything was light and delicate. The plateware was bright and rustic, spanning the gamut from woven baskets lined with banana leaves to cerulean blue and Pottery Barn gray ceramic finger bowls. While we declined to imbibe, beer or wine are both on offer. Bahn NYC is a destination restaurant, and luckily for all of us, the destination isn't Boston. –Matt Levy

→ Bánh Vietnamese Shop House (Upper West Side) • 942 Amsterdam Ave • Tue-Thu 6-10p, Fri-Sat 12-4p & 6-10p, Sun 12-4p, 6-9p • Walk-ins only.