Restaurant Review: Bánh Anh Em in Manhattan

There’s exuberance. The plates are just brimming over. This is my review of Bánh Anh Em, a Vietnamese restaurant in the East Village. The chef Nhu Ton and her business partner, John Nguyen, opened Bánh Anh Em last March. It’s a follow-up to their Upper West Side restaurant, Bon Vietnamese Shop House. Bánh Anh Em is more ambitious and expansive. So many things are made in-house. Bread for the bánh mì, which has perfect crackle and then caves in. I’ve never seen such big bánh mì. They’re incredibly generous. You should know that Bánh Anh Em does not take reservations, so it’s a good idea to get there before it opens. My favorite seats are at the counter. I was particularly mesmerized watching the woman who makes bánh cuốn. It’s filled with ground pork and wood ear mushrooms that are chopped fine, but still have just a little bit of a bounce. These rice sheets are found across the menu in different forms. You might get a whole tower of them in bánh uớt chồng. You can roll them up yourself around flaps of pork jowl that are smoky, and pink strips of cured beef. Bánh beo are little rice cakes, each in their own saucer. The idea is you almost slurp them like oysters. The bún chả, you get these juicy patties of pork jowl, and you can see the flecks of char in the nước chấm, and it almost tastes as if the liquid itself has been through fire. The kitchen has only one vat for pho, so they have to mostly alternate between phở bò and phở gà. They’re both great. You can even order just the broth to go. When I brought it home, it was still hot after 40 minutes on the subway and I drank it straight from the plastic tub, standing in my kitchen, feeling it lining my insides and I thought to myself, let winter come.