Nightingale 9 Visited 4/11/2015 3 Forks

Nightingale 9  329 Smith St., Brooklyn, NY 11231

Apparently I've been on a Vietnamese kick lately since this is the 2nd Vietnamese review in a row (and there is another one coming up), which isn't a bad thing at all!  I had read about Nightingale 9 a while ago and even though it sounded like a very Brooklyn-fied version of Vietnamese food, I was still very curious to try it out.

The space is casual yet modern and I sat at the lovely bar while I waited for Virginia.  They had an excellent sounding cocktail menu, but I started the morning off with an Vietnamese Iced Coffee ($4). Although I wasn't a huge fan that it was already pre-mixed, it was quite sweet and tasty with the right balance of coffee to condensed milk.   I could have had 3 more that morning.

The menu here is traditional with a fusion slant - they try to incorporate traditional Vietnamese dishes but put their own spin on things.  I'm usually a fan of keeping things more authentic and classic but I was open.   They have a bunch of great sounding appetizers:  green papaya salad, assorted meats and cheese, spring rolls, and donut holes; while the entrees also peaked my interest with lemongrass pork chop, Hanoi style omelette and a few pho options.  I was not a fan that they said that for a $1 you could add a poached egg to your pho.  Not only does that sound disgusting but that also makes no sense when you think about what a traditional pho tastes like.  Given that it was brunch, I opted for a steak and eggs combo and Virginia got a their version of an eggs bendict.  We also split the spring rolls ($10) to start.  I was quite impressed with spring rolls - they are perfectly crisp on the outside and they were filled with delicious ground pork, woodear mushrooms and served with fish sauce and fresh mint and lettuce leaves.   This dish plus the ice coffee was a nice start to the meal.  Next came my main dish which was their play on steak and eggs.  For some random reason they also paired it with baked/burned potato chips as the bottom layer of the dish and that was a turn off for me.  It's not that I don't like potato chips, I do, but it just seemed a bit out of place here and added more salt than was necessary.  The meat was cooked well and was nicely medium rare but cut into pieces as opposed to being served like one piece of steak.   The egg looked great but was a tad overcooked for me - I like a much runnier egg while my meal.  I didn't try Virginia's dish but it was essentially a benedict but served on white pieces of bao instead of english muffins - which is a nice touch but seemed like too much bread-y stuff for what was on top.  We were both still a bit hungry so we got the donut holes ($6) to finish and that was one of the best ideas all day.  It was served with a coconut curd which was fantastic - there were actually a lot of donuts to this order so be ready to eat.  They were lightly sprinkled with sugar on the outside and while they were thick, they weren't super dense - it was a great way to end a meal.

While I liked elements of my meal here, I couldn't help be feel a bit disappointed by it.  I could see real potential to the place and would definitely come back for the spring rolls, coffee and donut holes but I've just got to be a bit weary of a place that encourages people to add an egg to their pho.  Total bill for 2 pp with tax and tip: $77

Photo Credit:  Yelp