Your parents wear clothes you find ridiculous, and your kids listen to music you can't stand. It is ever thus: tastes change with each new generation. The sons and daughters of New Orleans's original influx of Vietnamese have grown up. The popularity of their parents' food hit it big with the local Millennials. So imagine the possibilities of VietGen2 as they move into the restaurant business. Especially when the food is hybridized with the flavors and ingredients of this part of the world.
Owner Hieu Doan explains the essence of Namese this way: "We cook in the traditional Vietnamese style, but we also cook the new dishes we have fun creating in our kitchen." If you always eat pho with brisket when you dine on the food of Vietnam, you will find it done well here. But if you are up for something a little different (or even a lot), that is here too. All credible, delicious and very fresh.
Hieu Doan's parents were refugees from Vietnam to New Orleans in the 1970s. (So was Hieu, but he was only four months old at the time.) In the industrious way the Vietnamese people live, Hieu's parents opened a seafood market and deli in an former gas station at the busy corner of Carrollton and Tulane. When they retired, Hieu and his sister Denise took over the business with the idea of transforming it into a restaurant. The mission was accomplished late in 2013.
The building was originally a sleek, modern Shell gas station--the last of the kind that could do mechanical work for you. Renovated with a wood deck in front and a spacious line of three dining rooms inside, the adaptation goes almost unnoticed. Walls are covered with thin, long, horizontal sticks of ceramic tile that suggest bamboo. The service staff is mostly Asian, but they show little sign of accents, and are a cheery, well-informed bunch.
Forget the pho and check out the more original variants on Vietnamese cooking. They don't stray too far. The specials are particularly good.
| Attitude | 2 |
|---|---|
| Environment | 1 |
| Hipness | 3 |
| Local Color | 1 |
| Service | 2 |
| Value | 2 |
| Wine | 1 |
