In late August I had a business trip that included a stop in Arlington, Virginia. From roughly 1991 through earlier this year, my brother used to live in the DC area, so I’ve been coming to various Arlington and DC destinations for quite a long time.
Indeed, I’ve long been a fan of several of the Arlington Vietnamese joints. Pho 75 has long been a favorite, and the Clarendon area used to be chock-a-block with little Vietnamese restaurants. Alas, times change, and many of the Clarendon Vietnamese places have been turned into parking lots, apartment buildings, or parking lots turned into apartment buildings.
One of them, Nam-Viet (a.k.a. Pho 79), however, is still there. It had been many years (probably not since 2002) since I had been to Nam Viet, but it was one of several regular Vietnamese places I would visit with my brother. This time, it was a nice place to have dinner and meet up with some of my DC-area friends from TivoCommunity Forum.
While they do have Pho on the menu, that’s definitely a back-burner item at Nam Viet, so I instead looked at the rest of the menu items. It has been a while since I had a good Bun (vermicelli salad), so I opted for their bun cha gio thit nuong (vermicelli with grilled meat and Vietnamese egg rolls). I was quite pleased with this dish, the grilled pork was nicely seasoned, the egg roll nice and crisp, and the overall result was a the nice pleasing combination of both tangy and sweet flavors I’m used to from Vietnamese food.
Overall, a nice and pleasant Vietnamese dinner. I’m glad this place is still here.
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