I walked into Monsieur Vuong for the first time on a Wednesday around 9:00pm and couldn’t believe my eyes. The picture of a grinning, muscle-bound Vuong decorating the wall? Even better – a restaurant in Berlin that’s not empty! All the tables are full? Sit at the bar? Hell, I’ll take a table for two in the bathroom!
All told it wouldn’t be so bad to eat in the bathroom at MV, decorated with purple orchids, advertisements for the owner’s other endeavor (Asian-themed hotels), and two pencil sketches of a man grasping his enormous phallus. Peculiar, I know, but I came for the soup not the art. And with Monsieur Vuong himself keeping watch throughout the night, unwise is the man who questions his interior design preferences.
The restaurant itself is fairly small, housing about a dozen tables and a large, J-shaped bar that runs along the perimeter of the kitchen. It’s always packed at night and they don’t take reservations, so plan on a brief wait during the week and twenty minutes or more on the weekend. You’ll spend this time packed like chickens in a ConAgra processing plant with other hopefuls in the central artery of the restaurant, which also serves as a waiting area. Fortunately, the head waitress is friendly and composed. She performs crowd control and assigns tables accurately without even taking names. The large number of diners means that you may end up eating at a table with strangers. I think this adds to MV’s charm, especially after eating too many meals at mediocre restaurants with only a handful of clients on hand.
On to the food: MV offers a limited and frequently changing menu of Vietnamese dishes with the self-proclaimed goal of using only fresh ingredients and creating authentic meals. In this respect they succeed. Try the soup with homemade wan-tans (6,90€, meat or vegetarian) in a vegetable broth flavored with fresh herbs. Vietnamese cilantro (coriander) gives the broth a bright, almost minty flavor. It’s delicious and addictive. Pair that with a Vietnamese beer (2,90€) or a mango shake (3,50€) and you’ll have a satisfying combination of flavors. I also tried one of the daily specials – a rice dish with chicken, ginger, and vegetables (6,90€). It was spicy by Berlin standards with a vibrant ginger flavor and an easy-going peanut sauce. I appreciated that it wasn’t mucky and overly sweet, but there was too much of it and my chopsticks were rendered useless 2/3 of the way through. Here again coriander was included with a heavy hand, suggesting characteristics of the wan-tan soup. And so this is my only complaint: The menu could really benefit from some more variety. (Well, there is one more thing. I sat down with a friend in an empty MV around lunch time during the week, asked for a beer and a shake, and received a sour look from the waitress – not the one mentioned earlier – ostensibly for not ordering food.) But I’ll keep coming back because that could all change with the snap of Monsieur Vuong’s powerful fingers.
MV combines economy with excitement. A definite stop on the culinary circuit, perfect for lunch, a light dinner, or a date with somebody who doesn’t have much to say.
Sous-vide,
Jeremy
Monsieur Vuong: Indochina Cafe
Alte Schönhauser Str. 46 / 10119 Berlin
030 3087 2643
Open daily 12pm-12am
Website
February 16, 2007 at 6:01 pm
Jeremy, thanks for your comments on chowhound and the link to your blog which I will be checking daily until my departure! I will definitely be checking out Monsieur Vuong and look forward to future posts.
Shannon