Van Đa

Had the set menu for two that comes with the hue sampler set, two appetizers and two entrees. The sampler set was the best part; all three items were good 8.5/10. The beef tartare was too strong of a peanut taste 4/10. The short rib grilled cheese was very good 9/10. The five spice duck was pretty good 7/10. The shaken beef was very salty and sour 4/10. It’s definitely a very Americanized place at ~$70 per person I don’t know if it’s worth it. Overall 5.5/10

FINALLY a good Vietnamese restaurant in Lower Manhattan. I was happily surprised to see the regional hard-to-find dishes. They did them very well, and we loved everything we tried. Definitely worth a visit! Our favorites were the Ban It Ram and Shrimp/Sweet Potato

Celebrated a special day here. Nicely decorated restaurant. Not sure if this was just an off day but most dishes were either too salty or greasy. We ordered 2 sampler sets for 3 to share. You can do either the set, or ala carte, most items are available on either set. Sampler: this is the best within the meal. Flavors and texture were nice of the 3 different samplers, their hot sauce is very hot for usual viet food, we were ok with it but doubt it suits a lot of people’s preference with heat. Prawn fritters - too much batter and it was deep fried and pretty hard to bite, the taste was fine but nothing special. Short rib sandwich with a beef soup dip - ribs were soft but the sandwich was kinda messy and with the cheese it just felt very greasy. 5 spice duck noodles - the duck was so salty

Van Da was solid but nothing too special. We did the deal with starters, one app and one entree per person for $55 each person. A better deal than ordering a la carte, but prob not worth it still in the end. The place is also sooooo far from any of the subway stations, so we had to go really out of our way to try it. The best dishes were the sprimp app and grilled sandwich app. Duck noodles were too salty and papaya salad wasn’t flavorful enough.

Had a good dinner at Van Ða! Downstairs had more seating, but the other table of 4, was way too loud or high that it was bothering to enjoy the meal. Fish was very crispy, and the sauce was so good👌🏻 duck was a little too sweet, in my opinion. I wish the noodle portion was a little bit bigger. Service was really good and informative.