V-Nam Cafe

While lacking the expansive menu offerings of other Vietnamese restaurants, V-Nam Cafe makes sure to pile on flavor and authenticity to its condensed selection of dishes. Chefs at the intimate eatery assesmble Banh Mi and sunfish sandwiches with the desired level of spice, ranging from none to a Sriracha-and-hot pepper fueled maelstrom. They also fill bowls to brimming with pho beef in an oxtail broth—best attacked with a spoon, chopsticks, and Do Not Disturb sign—and bake savory morsels of ginger chicken inside clay pots. The less-is-more attitude extends to even the beverages, comprised chiefly of Vietnamese iced coffee, Boylan’s sugar-cane-sweetened sodas, and Mash fruit-infused waters.