Vietnamese Food--C'est La Vie

Photo by Jason Doiy

Richmond District restaurant serves up exquisite courses

BY M.C. ANDERSON

Finding a place for Vietnamese food in San Francisco is easy. Finding a restaurant with exquisitely balanced cuisine, superbly attentive waiters, attractive decor and reasonable prices is harder.

Fortunately, we've found that rare combination: Richmond District's La Vie, which pampers its clientele with a lot of attention and excellent cooking.

The pampering starts from the moment you're greeted at the door by one of the relentlessly cheerful waiters. Throughout the meal, whether at lunch or dinner, waiters are eager to suggest what to order, explain the menu, refill water glasses, do a show-and-tell on how to eat certain dishes, and divide and serve portions.

Even the timing of when courses are served is on point. If you've gobbled the appetizers and the soup course, don't be surprised if there's a hiatus before the entrees arrive, giving the stomach and the palate a rest before the next onslaught of courses.

The kitchen is equally skilled, with a knack for balancing what could be many competing flavors. In the superb asparagus with garlic sauce ($5.75)--a seasonal substitution for the eggplant in garlic sauce on the menu--the garlic is a subtle note, not an element that blasts other flavors off the plate. Likewise, the chicken salad ($5.75), a tangle of finely shredded cabbage, tender chicken, carrots, mint leaves and red onions sprinkled with ground peanuts, offers a balance of strong yet delicate flavors--which diners can season individually to taste with sweet-sour fish sauce.

The same skill shows in another winner--lemongrass-flavored noodle soup ($5.25). Small pieces of tender catfish and shrimp float in a delicate but flavorful fish broth perfumed slightly with lemongrass, poured into bowls piled with rice noodles, shredded cabbage and mint.

Vietnamese cooking uses a multitude of fresh herbs, and La Vie's menu reflects this emphasis. Stalks of Vietnamese basil, sprigs of mint, and cilantro and lettuce leaves add bursts of freshness to a multitude of dishes, including imperial rolls, soups, noodles, and even a fondue.

Many dishes are composed of a do-it-yourself lettuce leaf or soft rice paper wrappers that encase herbs, shredded vegetables and meat or fish. Learning how to stuff, fold and wrap may take a bit of time. Our waiter spent five minutes showing us how to eat La Vie's excellent imperial rolls ($5.25). An order includes four slender deep-fried three- or four-inch long cylinders filled with a mince of pork, shrimp and carrot next to a pile of lettuce leaves, fresh basil, mint, slices of cucumber, pickled leeks and carrot slices. All this, after a generous sprinkle of fish sauce, is folded into lettuce leaves and rolled and folded into a small, tight aromatic package.

The same wrap-and-eat technique is the modus operandi for a broiled salmon appetizer, ($10.95, a dinner special), livened up by slivers of fresh ginger; and beef fondue ($8.95), both of which are wrapped in soft, crepe-like rice paper.

The beef fondue was quite a production. Waiters placed a hot plate on the table and brought a small pot of vinegar-based broth to a simmer. We then took over, cooking thin slices of raw beef and wrapping them up in rice paper along with herbs and lettuce. Of the three accompanying sauces--peanut, fish and hot sauce--the fish sauce was the best.

Spicy-food aficionados will appreciate the sautéed beef with rice noodle ($5.25), which has a variable heat quotient--the more of the hot-as-Hades sauce you add to the mounds of thin rice noodles, thin beef slices, bean sprouts, lettuce, mint and peanuts, the more of a scorcher the dish becomes.

Another standout: clams in black bean sauce ($7.95), a respectably large pile of plump clams-in-shell strewn with slices of jalapeno and sprigs of mint. They are plate-licking great.

Sweet drinks are yummy, especially the soda lemonade ($1.95), packed with fresh lemon flavor with a slight fizz and decorated with a sprig of mint. The only letdown was on the dessert menu: the creme caramel ($2.50) seemed somewhat bland and eggy.

The setting is as inviting as the food and service. A tank of golden-orange fish, swimming lazily back and forth, greet diners at the entrance. The dining room itself is simply but tastefully decorated: South Vietnamese musical instruments and posters of Vietnam add color to the wainscoted white walls. Small oval wall sconces and contemporary track lights cast a soft light throughout the narrow dining room in the evening.The space is snug, with about 15 tables--but La Vie never seems crowded; the carpeted floor goes a long way toward muffling the noise of surrounding chatter.

La Vie is definitely worth a visit--it's one of the best little restaurants in town.

La Vie, 5830 Geary Blvd., San Francisco. 415-668-8080. Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. weekdays; 11 a.m.-10.30 p.m., weekends. Diners at La Vie can enjoy spicy but delicate food in an atmosphere of soothing ambiance.

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