Vietnamese food from a Houston family kitchen, cooked slowly and served in seven courses.
The tasting menu runs about two and a half hours. It starts with food you eat with your hands, gets to a bowl of phở poured at the table, and ends with the chè the chef’s grandmother made on hot afternoons.
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sơn mài (n.) · Vietnamese lacquer painting
A lacquer painter lays down a coat of resin, waits days for it to cure, then sands most of it away. Then does it again, sometimes twenty times, until the gold shows through. We make broth the same way.
The phở broth takes eighteen hours. The bones go in the night before.
Khánh Vũ grew up in an apartment off Bellaire Boulevard in Houston, where her grandmother fed twelve people every Sunday from a two-burner stove. Khánh’s job was the chả giò. She spent ten years cooking in New Orleans and San Francisco, picked up French technique and a lot of patience, and came back to Texas in 2019 to cook the food she grew up on, with better ingredients and more time.
“My grandmother never measured anything. She tasted, waited a while, and tasted again. I still haven’t found a better recipe than that.”
Khánh VũChef & owner
The menu changes a little with the seasons, but it always starts with something you eat with your hands and ends with chè. Scroll through the courses below and switch between the wine, tea and zero-proof pairings.
Turmeric crêpe, tiger prawn, perilla
Wrap it in lettuce and herbs, and eat it with your hands.
Hamachi, green mango, nước chấm, rau răm
Cold, sour and a little hot. It wakes you up.
Blue crab spring roll, butter lettuce, ginger nước mắm
The Sunday chả giò Khánh rolled as a kid, now with Gulf blue crab.
Clear phở broth, A5 wagyu, poured at the table
Eighteen hours of broth, poured in front of you.
Chilean sea bass, clay-pot caramel, black pepper, coconut rice
Every family thinks theirs is the right way. This is her grandmother’s.
Texas wagyu tenderloin, watercress, lime-pepper salt
Seared in a very hot wok. You will hear it from your table.
Pandan panna cotta, mung bean, coconut, cà phê caramel
What her grandmother made on hot afternoons, finished with coffee caramel.
Crémant de Loire, NV
Jasmine pearl, served chilled
Yuzu and lemongrass soda
Grüner Veltliner, Wachau 2022
Cold-brew sencha
Cucumber and shiso tonic
Riesling Kabinett, Mosel 2021
Lotus green tea
Ginger and calamansi
Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley 2021
Roasted oolong
Smoked cinnamon and star anise cola
Chenin Blanc, Vouvray 2020
Aged pu-erh
Tamarind and palm sugar spritz
Syrah, Texas High Plains 2020
Lapsang souchong
Black cherry and pepper shrub
Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos 2017
Phin coffee, the Vietnamese way
Coconut cold brew
Served in the dining room and at the bar. Point at a dish to see a photo.
Maine lobster, mint and vermicelli in rice paper, peanut-hoisin
Crisp turmeric crêpe, prawns, herbs
Blue crab spring rolls, ginger nước mắm
Hamachi crudo, green mango, nước chấm
Shrimp paste grilled on sugarcane, rice paper, herbs
Wagyu wrapped in betel leaf, pineapple mắm nêm
Lemongrass pork chop, pickled shallot, fried egg
Clear broth, A5 wagyu, poured at the table
Chilean sea bass, clay-pot caramel, coconut rice
Texas wagyu tenderloin, watercress, lime-pepper salt
Garlic butter noodles, half a lobster tail
Blue crab fried rice, egg, scallion
Pandan panna cotta, mung bean, coconut
Coffee caramel flan, salted cream
Black sesame ice cream, sesame brittle
Morning mist. Gin, pandan, lime, egg white
Dusk. Bourbon, phin coffee, coconut, bitters
Salted lime. Mezcal, preserved lime, soda
Japanese whisky, lotus tea, soda
Calamansi, honey, soda
Pandan, coconut, lime
Sparkling. Loire Valley, NV
White. Wachau, Austria, 2022
Red. Texas High Plains, 2020
Six Gulf oysters, nước chấm mignonette
A cup of our phở broth
Sample menu and prices for this demo site. Please tell us about allergies when you book.
Sit facing the charcoal grill for a nine-course menu. Khánh brings out a few of the courses herself and will tell you exactly what went into them.
Book the counter
One long table for up to sixteen. People book it for birthdays, rehearsal dinners and the occasional very important client. We plan the menu with you.
Ask about the room
No reservation needed. Cocktails made with pandan, calamansi and phin coffee, Gulf oysters, and a cup of phở broth if you stay past eleven.
See the bar menu
They pour the phở broth at the table and the whole room goes quiet for a second. Best thing I ate in Dallas this year.
My parents are from Huế, and nothing is ever spicy enough or sour enough for them. They booked their next visit before we left.
We sat at the counter for our anniversary. Nine courses, nobody rushed us, and Khánh remembered our names when we came back in the spring.
Get the Hoàng Hôn at the bar. It’s basically a cà phê sữa đá for grown-ups, and I mean that as a compliment.
Sample reviews for this demo site.
| Tuesday – Thursday | 5 – 10 PM |
| Friday – Saturday | 5 – 11 PM |
| Sunday | 5 – 9 PM |
| Monday | Closed |
