A tasty dinner at Simply Vietnamese is the best Tenafly has to offer

Drip coffee with condensed sweet milk capped my New Year Eve's meal at Simply Vietnamese, still the only restaurant in Tenafly that is worth the detour.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

As we walked to our car on New Year's Eve in Tenafly, I looked around for dining options besides Simply Vietnamese, where we had just enjoyed a delicious dinner.

A block away, I saw an Asian Indian restaurant I knew nothing about.

Then, two deliverers came out of Mr. Wok, a second-floor Chinese restaurant that seems to have been open forever and now is called, Mr. Wok & Sushi.

I remember eating there once, never to return.

Down the block, a restaurant with an unusual fish-shaped window is probably the second or third to occupy the same space.

Years ago, when it was a spot for Korean-style Chinese food, I had lunch there, and saw a cockroach on the carpet.

One of the worse plates of hummus I ever had was served in a now-defunct spot in Tenafly, the pricey Hamsa.

For some strange reason, Tenafly has no appeal as a restaurant destination, despite all of its well-heeled residents.

There's far more variety and quality in neighboring Englewood, where Simply Vietnamese owner K.T. Tran operated Saigon R for many years before moving to a bigger space in Tenafly.

Maybe, there's something in the water.

And, perhaps, it's only a coincidence that nearly a decade ago, the publisher of northern New Jersey's major daily newspaper -- who lives in Tenafly -- folded the paper's award-winning Food section.

A great start to our late-afternoon meal was sharing a Vietnamese Salad ($7.50), crunchy cabbage, cucumber and carrots crowned with fresh herbs and peanuts, all in a sweet chili dressing.

My wife doesn't eat them, so I had another appetizer to myself, Broiled New Zealand Mussels in a wasabi-ginger sauce ($9.50).

Pho, the Vietnamese soup with a distinctive, anise-flavored beef broth, also is available with a vegetarian broth. My wife chose Pho with Pork ($12), which is served with bean sprouts, fresh herbs and hot peppers, below.

I should have stopped at sharing the salad and eating the mussels, but I ordered Steamed Asian Angel Hair rice thread noodles served with cooked vegetables, fresh herbs, cucumbers and red-leaf lettuce leaves for wrapping ($15.95). Unfortunately, this dish was a mess to eat, because the lettuce leaves were small and broken.

Complimentary Shrimp Chips and a spicy chili dipping sauce.

Simply Vietnamese is a BYO.

Details

Simply Vietnamese, 1 Highwood Ave., Tenafly; 201-568-7770. BYO, free street parking. Call for holiday hours.

Web site: Fine Vietnamese Cuisine

'Dirty Waters, Dangerous Fish'

Farmed salmon is steamed in a clay pot with bok choy, and topped with fried, crispy onions at Simply Vietnamese in Tenafly. Brown rice is available.

Here is an eye-opening video about how basa fish are farm-raised in Vietnam:

'Dirty Waters, Dangerous Fish' 

Judging from the comments, the video was made public about two years ago.

Why a two-year-old video is circulating now is unclear.

But K.T. Tran, chef-owner of Simply Vietnamese in Tenafly, said she recalls a customer brought up a concern with basa fillets from Vietnam a year to a year and a half ago.

Since then, Tran said, she believes the United States has taken steps to ensure that frozen basa fillets sent here are from certified fish farms free of pollution.

Tran also said she is considering switching to U.S.-farmed catfish.   

On Saturday night, we had dinner at Simply Vietnamese, where I have enjoyed basa fillets a number of times.

Basa is a type of catfish that is also called swai or Pangasius.

On Saturday night and on a previous visit to Simply Vietnamese, I chose another seafood dish instead of having my usual basa fillets in a coconut curry sauce with bok choy and brown rice.

Food safety experts generally recommend buying seafood farmed in the United States, if you can't find wild-caught fish.

Simply Vietnamese doesn't serve any wild fish, so I ordered farmed Salmon in a Black Pepper Sauce on Saturday night as an alternative to basa.

The controversy over basa fish isn't going to keep me from enjoying one of the best Vietnamese restaurants in the metropolitan area.

At Simply Vietnamese, two other alternatives to basa are shrimp in a coconut curry sauce, above, and greenshell mussles in a ginger-wasabi sauce, below.

A green papaya salad with mango, above, and pho with pork, below.

Simply Vietnamese, 1 Highwood Ave., Tenafly;
201-568-7770. BYO, free street parking. Seafood entrees are $18.50 and $19.50.
   

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

Related article

• Here's the only reason to dine out in Tenafly

  ---

Here's a natural for dinner

Have you tried mussels from New Zealand, the ones with the green shells? I unearthed a box from my freezer the other night and prepared them for dinner Monday. I remember buying them at H-Mart in Little Ferry.

I searched and searched the copy on the box, but could not find anything that said they were fully cooked. Yet, the instructions said they would need only 5 minutes under the broiler. So I added chopped sun-dried tomatoes to some, pesto to others and both to the rest, about two dozen in all. They were delicious and needed only a big salad to make a satisfying dinner.

These mussels are farmed and I usually try to avoid farmed seafood. But when I looked at the Web site of the New Zealand Greenshell Mussel, it said no additives are used. "In respect to the environment, New Zealand Greenshell Mussel farming is cleaner and greener than organic gardening."

I've always loved this shellfish, from the days I hopped from one tapas bar to another in Spain, where the mussels are enormous. I first encountered the New Zealand green-lip mussel in the 1970s, in a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco. I liked them so much, I went back the next night for more.