The downside of a BYO restaurant

A spicy Tamarind Soup with tofu at Simply Vietnamese in Tenafly.

All I wanted was a quiet Saturday night dinner with the family at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant -- the only reason we dine out in tony Tenafly.

Instead, we were surrounded by other customers who voices seemed to grow louder with each gulp of wine they drank in the casual BYO, Simply Vietnamese.

One man knocked over his glass, splashing red wine on a customer at the next table, where a party of six were working their way through several bottles.

A waitress cleaned up the mess amid the clumsy guy's profuse apologies. 

I looked at one woman at a table near the window, and she sounded as if she was shouting at her husband, who was seated facing her only 2 feet away.

She likely was trying to keep her voice above the wine-fueled commotion filling the small dining room, one of two in the storefront restaurant.

By the time we escaped the din, customers filled nearly every table inside and several outside, and almost everyone brought their own bottle -- or two, in the case of one party of four.

After we arrived for our 6 p.m. reservation, Joe, the head waiter, gave us a choice of two tables inside, but he never had time to come over and chat as he usually does. Nor did I see K.T. Tran, the chef-owner.

The servers were slammed, and it took longer to get our appetizers, entrees and especially the check. I can just imagine what was going on in the kitchen.

I did notice an appetizer of New Zealand Mussels with a ginger-wasabi sauce gave off an unpleasant scorched-shell smell from being left under the broiler too long ($8.50).

When I asked for a special, Spicy Tamarind Soup with tofu, pineapple and fresh tomato, no one asked whether I wanted it less spicy than the full furnace blast I got ($15.50).

We had three appetizers: New Zealand green-lip mussels for me, above; pork ribs, below, and a summer roll with duck, not shown.

In a restaurant with a liquor license, you wouldn't encounter so many loose-lipped customers drinking wine. 

The ridiculous markup on bottles and even glasses of wine at many restaurants keeps down the number of people who order liquor with their food.

And it keeps down the noise, too.

An anise-flavored broth called Pho, above, comes with a plate of garnishes, including cilantro, bean sprouts and jalapeno pepper, below. Pho is a breakfast soup in Vietnam.

The House Noodle Soup with ribs, above, contains thick noodles, below.

Garlic Chicken comes with onions, green beans, bok choy and zucchini ($12).

 
We also ordered too much, because ribs in his soup weren't enough for my growing teenage carnivore. He wanted the rib appetizer, too.

We spent more than $100 for four, including a lower-than-usual tip for service that wasn't up to what I have come to expect at Simply Vietnamese.

Next time, we'll try to go there at 5 p.m., as we have in the past -- before the wave of chatty wine drinkers descends on the place.

Simply Vietnamese, 1 Highwood Ave., Tenafly; 201-568-7070.

Web site: simplyvietnamese.com

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Simply delicious Vietnamese food

Image via Wikipedia

Fish, bok choy (above) and rice make a great one-dish meal.

It's been more than a year since we had our first meal at Simply Vietnamese in Tenafly, and on Saturday evening, we discovered three one-dish dinners that will keep us coming back for more.


When we walked up to the entrance, we found Chef/Owner K.T. Tran having an early dinner with friends at an outdoor table. And inside, we learned the restaurant has expanded and doubled in size.


The new room has the same red walls as the original, with Vietnamese accents here and there.


I chose the broiled basa fillet, which is a member of the catfish family farmed in Vietnam and Thailand ($19). I asked for the spicy version with a ginger-scallion sauce.


The generous fillet was served on a bed of leafy bok choy, and topped with carmelized onions and sweet pepper, as well as crisped onion, with a big bowl of white rice on the side. Beautiful.


What more could you ask for in one dish: tasty fish, greens and a starch. Brown rice ($2) and scallion rice with fried eggs ($4) also are available.


Joe The Waiter recommended his favorite, the House Noodle Soup with ribs ($12), to my 14-year-old son, who was wowed by the sweet, pork-infused chicken broth and how the meat fell off the bones of the slow-roasted pork ribs. He also enjoyed gnawing the soft bones and marrow.


My wife ordered the specialty of the house, pho soup, with its heady anise-scented broth, and asked for the shrimp version ($14). We've been eating Tran's pho since 2001, when she opened opened Saigon R in Englewood (closed in the summer of 2010) and Mo' Pho in Fort Lee.


The soups came with a garnish plate of crunchy bean sprouts, sliced jalapeno peppers, fresh cilantro and fresh lime, and there were hot, chili and oyster sauces on the table.


My family yells at me when I tell them what to order or suggest we share dishes, so I remained silent when my mother-in-law picked a Vietnamese Salad with shrimp ($11), expecting a Western salad with tomatoes. 


The dressing was made with fish sauce and peanuts were added to the cabbage, cucumber and carrot salad. She took most of the salad home.


We also shared an appetizer, translucent rice-paper summer rolls stuffed with vegetables and shrimp, with an unusual peanut-fish sauce for dipping ($8).


I thought I'd end my meal with a cup of Vietnamese drip coffee, which is served with sweet condensed milk (on the house). The small pot with a powder of coffee and hot water is placed directly over the cup.


I love strong coffee -- and this was one had bulging muscles -- but it kept me up, tossing and turning long after midnight.


Simply Vietnamese, 1 Highwood Plaza, Tenafly;
201-568-7770. BYO. Free street parking.

Simply Vietnamese in Tenafly

Image via Wikipedia

On Saturday night, we got a refresher course in the wonderful pho soup and other dishes from the kitchen of K.T. Tran by visiting her new restaurant, Simply Vietnamese, in Tenafly.

The restaurant, a former pizzeria, opened one week before and has been greeted enthusiastically by residents of Tenafly, said Joe The Waiter, who followed Tran from Saigon R, the Englewood restaurant she closed this summer. 


Simply Vietnamese is a welcome addition to Tenafly, which isn't much of a restaurant town despite all of its wealthy residents. For example, I can't imagine how Mr. Wok, a mediocre Chinese restaurant, has survived all these years.


We shared two appetizers, miniature spring rolls ($5), served with lettuce for wrapping and fish sauce for dipping; and broiled New Zealand mussels (photo) in a wasabi-ginger sauce ($8.50).


Each of us ordered a bowl of pho -- garnishing the anise-flavored broth with herbs, bean sprouts, hoisin sauce and hot peppers. My son chose soup with spicy jerk beef, I had tofu and vegetables and my wife ordered shrimp ($12 and $14 each).


When my bowl was set down before me, I breathed deeply to capture that distinctive anise flavor. There's nothing else like it in the world of Asian soup noodles.


Joe The Waiter said Tran was going to raise prices after holding the line for three years in Englewood, and she has done so in Tenafly. 

Why did she move? She had only six tables in Englewood and the parking was impossible, the chef-owner said. In the window of the Tenafly restaurant, look for the neon "Saigon" from the old place, which she opened in 2001.

Tran also is the chef/owner of Mo' Pho on Main Street in Fort Lee. 

Simply Vietnamese, 1 Highwood Plaza, Tenafly;
201-568-7770. BYO. Free street parking.

Just smell that wonderful broth

Image by Hanoi Mark via Flickr

We moved out of Englewood in the summer of 2007 and stopped going to Saigon, the Vietnamese restaurant where we first encountered pho when the place opened about nine years ago.


I remember how I met owner K.T. Tran in the checkout line at the ShopRite and she showed me the lease she had just signed on a Palisade Avenue storefront. 


Yesterday, we returned for an early dinner after deciding against fighting traffic to eat at Aleppo Restaurant in Paterson -- the fourth postponed meal there since it was reviewed Feb. 17 in The New York Times.


When Joe the waiter set down my bowl of pho with shrimp, I leaned close to the anise-scented beef broth and breathed deeply. Wonderful. You'd be hard put to find a broth that matches the aroma of this one. 


The rice-noodle soup and fried vegetable dumplings made a satisfying meal, even though we knew the broth violated the spirit of our meatless pledge.


And we really enjoyed catching up with Joe and K.T.


Saigon R, 58 W. Palisade Ave.,
Englewood; 201-871-4777. Closed Mondays.
www.saigonmopho.com