Di An Di is one of the most buzzed about restaurants this year and given the dearth of really great Vietnamese places near me, I was super jazzed to try this place out. Louise was visiting from SF and she was staying in Williamsburg so it was a perfect excuse to give this place a try.
As with any talked about place in Brooklyn, the place was jammed packed and despite having a reservation we still had to wait 20 mins for our table. As you would expect from a place in Greenpoint, the place is totally hipstered out and is by no means a traditional Asian restaurant (not that I was really expecting it to be). I'll give it credit and say it's beautifully designed and very Instagram worthy with gorgeous plants and pale pink accents on the walls.
The menu is a pretty authentic line up of Vietnamese dishes - pho, bun bo, banh xeo, spring rolls, summer rolls, etc. It's modern but still recognizable traditional dishes. We split the "vegan pizza" ($15) and the eggplant appetizer while I got the pho hanoi #3 ($16) as my main entree. It kills me a little bit to be paying these kinds of prices when my favorite pho place in Maryland is $8 a bowl but I'm paying for the upscale ambience and trendy crowd. The prices in general are slightly overpriced for what I would pay for good Vietnamese food but it's pretty on par for what you are going to pay in the neighborhood in general.
The veggie "pizza" was really grilled rice paper filled with veggies and it was pretty meh. There wasn't anything really good or bad about it - it wasn't very memorable or something I'd order again. The eggplant was super overcooked so it turned out too mushy and it was a bit too spicy as well. I had higher hopes for the pho and it was better than the appetizers, although it still didn't measure up to Pho 75. The broth was good and flavorful but there wasn't enough meat to the bowl. It was just brisket, which I love but I felt like I could have used more meat variety. Perhaps I should have ordered the Pho Bo #1 which had rare beef and brisket to it. The menu says that this dish is covered in scallions and they weren't wrong. The soup is practically green when you get it - I love scallions but it was a bit too much for me.
Overall, I left feeling a bit let down by the whole experience. I like the concept and I read that the owners were Vietnamese folks from Houston where there is a huge Vietnamese populations, so it's not like it's run by people who don't know what they are doing. It continues to get a ton of buzz and recognition from a bunch of well respected food blogs, so maybe it was an off night for me. Despite my initial disappointment, I would still go back and order completely different things just to give it one more try. Fool me once...Total bill: $60/pp with tax, tip and drinks
Photo Credit: Yelp
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