Lower East Side, Manhattan · restaurant
Twenty-four seats, a nightly-changing chalkboard menu, and fish sauce threaded through nearly everything, the Vietnamese-French cooking here feels completely unlike anywhere else in the city. The pâté chaud alone, a flaky pastry stuffed with pork, mushrooms, and vermicelli, justifies the line forming before doors open. Natural wine keeps flowing, tables turn slowly, and regulars know 4:45pm is already pushing it.
Buttery pastry shell with plump shrimp; rotating preparation from the nightly chalkboard menu
Escargot in sticky, tangy tamarind butter—comes with baguette you'll use to swipe every drop
Flaky pastry stuffed with ground pork, mushrooms & vermicelli; served with umami-sweet dipping sauce