Photo by Cristina M. Fletes (Post-Dispatch)
Banh Mi So #1 — Saigon Gourmet
Dutchtown fixture Banh Mi So #1 — Saigon Gourmet is a quiet restaurant. Not simply in the sense that it’s not WHAT-DID-YOU-SAY-AGAIN? loud, as so many modern restaurants are. Inside its cozy dining room a meditative quiet prevails. Soft music. The clicking of chopsticks. The slurping of noodles from a bowl of fragrant pho. Thomas Truong pads over to your table, precisely arranges the components of your Vietnamese iced coffee and then pads away. In the kitchen, his wife, Lynne, chops cilantro, layers meat inside a banh mi, fries banh xeo. The quiet makes sense. The menu here isn’t lengthy, but the cooking is impeccable, the service warm. What else to do but appreciate it?
Hours: Lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday (closed Monday)
Opened: 1994
Must order: Pho bo ($7.95)