I really like little Namnam Cafe in St. Matthews, but to be honest, the last time I was there it wasn’t easy to concentrate my full attention on the fare.
What was the problem? That was in mid-March of 2020, just days before Gov. Andy Beshear ordered Kentucky restaurants and bars closed to indoor dining.
When we arrived just a few days before that, everyone was well aware of the coming pandemic, and not entirely sure if everyone was going to survive. I’m generally mellow, but just about everyone tenses up a bit when confronted with our own mortality.
I like to imagine Namnam as a tiny eatery in a rural Vietnamese town, in contrast with the more urban Ho Chi Minh City vibe of Vietnam Kitchen, District 6, and other local Vietnamese favorites.
So, although I enjoyed the experience and wrote about it fondly, it crossed my mind the other day that it wouldn’t hurt to take a fresh look without a flight-or-fight response going on in my head.
Namnam Cafe is comfort Vietnamese food for me. It has operated since 2011 in the tiny St. Matthews building that the original Simply Thai occupied for five years before moving to larger quarters across Wallace Avenue.
Namnam’s owners, Chef David Truong and family, have expanded the space by enclosing a roofed patio on the side to create a weatherproof back room. The result is, let’s say, lovably disheveled, with comfortable if saggy booth seats and portable air conditioners that struggle and hum on sultry days. I like to imagine Namnam as a tiny eatery in a rural Vietnamese town, in contrast with the more urban Ho Chi Minh City vibe of Vietnam Kitchen, District 6, and other local Vietnamese favorites.
The menu is extensive, and it’s published almost entirely in English, without some of the Vietnamese names that we’ve learned over the years since our Vietnamese neighbors arrived. Pho is listed as soup, banh xeo as a crepe, and so on. Everything is excellent, though, and easy to figure out, so no harm done.
Eight appetizer rolls – two fried and six wrapped in rice paper – are priced from $6.75 (for crab rangoon) to $9 (for a beef summer roll stuffed with grass-fed locally raised tenderloin). Four variations on pho are $14.50 (for veggie pho) to $16.75 (for bone-broth pho with Stone Cross Farm beef tenderloin).
A dozen entrees including noodle dishes, curries, stir-fries, fried rice, and a Vietnamese crepe, are almost all priced in the $14 to $16 range, with charges varying depending on your choice of chicken, pork, beef, shrimp, tofu, or veggies. A single outlier, shaking beef made with Stone Cross Farm grass-fed meat, is $22.75 plus a $2 surcharge if you wish a drizzle of duck fat.
Beverages include U.S. soft drinks, teas, fruit teas, bubble teas, and Vietnamese coffee drinks, plus a changing selection of beers.
We started with a shared order of Buddha rolls ($7.50). Two very large rice paper-wrapped rolls were split into four chunks and plated on ridged green square plates that resembled banana leaves. They were loaded with cold rice noodles, slices of chewy grilled tofu, a few bean sprouts and bright carrot shreds, and crisp leaf lettuce. Each plate came with a small tub of tangy-sweet peanut butter and hoisin sauce topped with chopped peanuts. I’m pretty sure I could see the Buddha smiling as we mindfully enjoyed this simple treat.
Virtually all of our dishes were served in large, bright-red bowls. Pho with brisket ($14.75) was a delight, simply made and flawless. Crystal-clear beef bone broth boasted a deep beefy flavor heightened by subtle hints of anise. It cradled a bed of tender rice noodles, thin-sliced onions and snipped scallions, and about eight rectangular slices of flavorful Stone Cross Farm grass-fed brisket, cut crosswise and very tender. The traditional.pile of greens and herbs to be added as you like it came alongside: bean sprouts, Thai basil leaves, a slice of fresh jalapeño, and a lime wedge.
Pho with vegetables ($14.50) made a fascinating plant-based flip side to the beefy, meaty brisket pho. A nest of springy white rice noodles made a base for a produce stand’s assortment of veggies cooked crisp-tender, including snow peas, tiny carrots, thick mushroom slices, onions, and small squares of tofu. It all swam in a simple, savory broth that showed off enticing aroma notes akin to garlic and ginger.
Saigon noodle tofu ($14.25) started with a ration of stir-fried rice noodles dosed with the bright yellow turmeric color and piquant bite of Southeast Asian yellow curry sauce, then added long carrot and onion shreds cut to match the noodles, bean sprouts, bite-size cabbage leaves, green onions, and chewy rectangles of pressed and baked tofu. Thanks to the curry, it’s not available with less than medium spice, and that was fine with me.
Lunch for three came to $54.06 plus tip. The share for two would have been $36 plus tip.
NamNam Cafe
318 Wallace Ave.
891-8859
namnamcafe.com
facebook.com/namnamcafe
instagram.com/namnam_cafe
Noise Level: Despite parties at several tables and an air conditioner laboring next to our seats, noise levels remained in the 65dB range, posing no barrier to conversation.
Accessibility: Part of the restaurant is accessible to wheelchair users, but the entrance door is heavy, much of the dining area is down a short step, and a narrow hall back to the unisex restroom would be hard to negotiate in a wheelchair.
