The most ambitious Vietnamese restaurant in the area, Hoa Hong 9 (it means "Nine Roses") not only cooks every Vietnamese dish you ever heard of, but also a full Chinese menu, too. That adds up to almost 300 dishes, including many found in no other local restaurants. A major renovation to the original West Bank location made it a more welcoming place, and a good place for the uninitiated to begin their discovery of this exciting cuisine. More recently, the second generation owners opened a smaller but equally exciting French Quarter location--the first Vietnamese restaurant in that district.
Nine Roses (that's what the non-Vietnamese call it) opened its large, attractive dining room in 1990, long before New Orleanians went nuts over pho. Indeed, it was one of the very first Vietnamese restaurants in the New Orleans area. It was a hard sell at first, so for a time a section of Chinese dishes was available for those who couldn't figure out the Viet cooking. But, pitching its offerings to the needs of Vietnamese customers, in its early decades Nine Roses opened early in the morning to serve its soups and noodles, and kept going all day to grab the West Bankers at night.
The Gretna restaurant is a large, spacious, and only slightly utilitarian dining room, with aquariums decorating the edges. Many of the tables are oversize, and quite often filled with whole Asian families. Indeed, the clientele is very heavily tilted to the Asian side, but this should not discourage non-Asians from attending. Service is more rapid than you expect. If you want to space out a series of courses, it would be a good idea to refrain from ordering the second course until you've finished the first one. They cook at the speed of light here. Some of the servers may seem a bit impatient with those new to the restaurant, but they mean nothing by it--it's just the nature of the cuisine.
Don't go to the West Bank Nine Roses on Wednesday: it's closed. If it's your first visit, go to the website and look it over the menu. It includes so many dishes that a bit of pre-meal study will help save a lot of delay in the ordering. Although the purists point an accusing finger to the large sections of Chinese dishes, these are prepared nearly as well as the Vietnamese eats.
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