Simply Banh Mi

cozy , friendly , halal PHO ! highly recommend the lemongrass beef pho and 2 thumbs up to the kind positive owner lady :)

This is a partially halal Vietnamese restaurant (o wut?) serving a pretty stellar menu. The proprietor told me they had bought some halal meat by mistake when they first opened, but the business took off as a result and they stuck with what worked. He assured me that the chicken and beef are all halal (you are in some good luck) and that there is no chance of cross contamination (the restaurant does serve pork). The next nearest halal Vietnamese restaurant is 2500 miles away in San Francisco. After that you\'ll have to hop on a flight to Ho Chi Minh City (you\'ll find the halal restaurants near the Masjid Musulman - Saigon Central Mosque). Metered parking is available on the street, but even in this upscale neighborhood of Georgetown, you\'ll want to leave the 1997 Ferrari 550 Maranello with the 5.5L V12 and gated 6-speed manual transmission at home. There is minimal seating in the restaurant, enough for parties of 2-4, but during peak times there will be a wait. The banh mi (a French-inspired Vietnamese sandwich) should probably be your first bet. The lemon chicken bahn mi contains a generous portion of chicken marinated in a lemon sauce with vegetables (cilantro, daikon, etc.) served on a fresh crispy baguette. This reviewer recommends getting it with the fried egg and crispy eggplant. The other star on the menu is the Vietnamese soup called pho (say \"fa,\" not \"fo\"). This author tried the excellent chicken breast noodle pho -- pieces of chicken breasts in a light broth with rice noodles and plenty of bean sprouts and basil. The fried chicken is improbably crispy and is well-paired with a sweet-sour-spicy sauce -- highly recommended as an appetizer. The lemongrass beef noodle bowl contains chunks of marinated beef with thin rice noodles topped with vegetables and a sauce of your choosing. Go with the fish sauce for the most authentic flavor. This is a pretty decent dish, but this author has had better vegetarian versions. The fried bananas dessert is a crispy roll with bananas inside, topped with powdered sugar and served with Nutella. Very well made and worth the money. If you\'re in the neighborhood, come to this restaurant. You won\'t find another Vietnamese halal restaurant anytime soon, and certainly not one this good.