Aaren Prody
Audio By Carbonatix
When you’re ready to graduate from level one Vietnamese cuisine (banh mi, pho, etc.), Bún bò Huế is a perfect entry dish to get you to level two.
V’s House is a playground for sophisticated Vietnamese food in North Richland Hills. It’s a trek for most, but what are the chances you could use a pre- or post-airport pick-me-up? We know those three Rold Gold pretzels didn’t do anything for your appetite on the flight in.
V’s is surprising in many ways.
First, it’s a modern, chic restaurant plopped right on the edge of a plain strip of businesses. The patio out front, strung with fairy lights, is an anomaly, as is the ample parking.
The interior could give you the impression that the restaurant is gimmicky, but that thought is banished upon opening the menu: toasted crab bread, banh knot, 10 kinds of spring rolls, baked seafood miso dip … The sushi section of the menu is a little out of left field, but we can see past it just this once.
The entire menu is interesting. It even includes whole coconuts in the drink section, which cost $8 but are a nice addition nonetheless.
We came here specifically for Bún bò Huế (not because the restaurant is known for it, but because it was a Vietnamese restaurant), and the stone bowl pho at the top of the menu had an iron grip on our stomachs the moment we saw it.
It looked like a house specialty. It cost $26. New York strip steak, beef shank, pork shoulder and brisket come in a spicy lemongrass beef broth. It was a recipe for success, right?
Egg Roll Science
What a teasing bowl of soup that was set in front of us. But first, we need to talk about the egg rolls.
V’s House hand-rolls its egg rolls with pork and a mix of fresh vegetables, then serves them with fish sauce, lettuce and pickled veggies. The first thing we noticed when we bit into the first one was the ratio of pork to wrapper.
Most egg rolls at restaurants are pre-made and frozen, then fried just before being served. When you crunch into one, you can see the glass noodles, carrot and maybe some bits and pieces of meat in an interior that is distinctly doughy.
If we want to get scientific with it (and we should), any average egg roll is like the layers of the Earth: crust (wrapper), mantle (doughy bit) and core (filling).
But these egg rolls were just crust and core. There was at least a full portion of pork sausage in each roll, and the outside was perfectly crispy. You could taste the slight sweetness of the pork, and with the zingy fish sauce, it was the ideal mix of crunchy, salty and a touch of sweet.
We plowed through both egg rolls, and then the first two plates for our Bún bò Huế were set in front of us. Hm. One had raw beef and pork in a floral-like arrangement, and the other had a bowl of thick rice noodles, bean sprouts, lime, basil and green onion.
What, No Chopsticks?
Then a few moments later came our bubbling stone bowl.
With the spread in front of us, we thought one thing: Was this a $26 bowl of Bún bò Huế or was it a bowl of Bún bò Huế that costs $26. There’s a difference.
The first strike was that our place setting lacked chopsticks. There are many injustices in this world, but none as great as eating Bún bò Huế with a fork. It just doesn’t taste the same.
After we were given the proper utensils, we slid everything off the plates and into our soup. Because the broth is served boiling, the raw meat is cooked immediately. You can eat it like hot pot if you want to, but don’t.
Many foodies will stand behind the argument that Bún bò Huế is superior to pho. It’s a bold, unapologetic expression of Vietnamese cuisine, with its layered, spicy lemongrass broth, whereas pho is cleaner and more polished.
Our bowl was just enough spicy to get your head hot, but not enough to make you cry or sweat. Just right. There were strong, layered notes of lemongrass in the broth, and we liked that the beef came raw. With a dip or two, it could be cooked perfectly.
Some people eat pho like this: bite of noodles/meat and then sip the soup. We like to stack the noodles on the spoon and give it a little dunk in the broth to get the best of both worlds, but the spoons they have here are shallow and metal, so the thick, round rice noodles fell right off, and we could barely get any broth.
It was a battle for our perfect bite. But sometimes perfect is the enemy of good, and this was a great bowl of soup.
Perhaps there are many other better bowls of Bún bò Huế out there, but getting to play our way into level two Vietnamese cuisine was a fun experience. V’s House also serves a menu of boba tea, and what better way to end the night than with a to-go sweet drink?
V’s House, 8743 W. Bedford Euless Road, North Richland Hills. Open 10:30 a.m. – 9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 10:30 a.m. – 10 p.m. Friday – Saturday.
