Jazmine Cafe in Jazztown

I have a love for Vietnamese food, thanks to a year+ spent working with the cuisine. In this regard, I have two tips: 1) if you want to cook your own, Nicole Routhier's The Foods of Vietnam is a wonderful, essential, and simple must-have for your kitchen, and 2) if you are in Cincinnati and looking for inexpensive ethnic cuisine, visit SOng Long - it's a gem in a city not known for diverse food experiences.

The Gulf Coast, meanwhile, has a thriving Vietnamese population, and last night I tried my first of the many offerings in town. We were looking for dinner in Uptown (Downtown and parts of the city further away have many other options), so our choices were limited. Without any recommendations to guide us, we decided to try Jazmine Cafe. I wasn't expecting much - the place was empty at dinnertime, surprising even for a Thursday. But I was very happy with the result.

The restaurant has a nice, understated ambiance - nothing flashy. The menu is almost strictly Vietnamese, instead of the Asian combo restaurants (Vietnamese+Chinese, Korean+Japanese, Thai+Japanese, etc.) that pop up everywhere (and that I was halfway expecting). The offerings are diverse, including the Vietnamese classics: Phở, Bánh_mì (labeled as "Vietnamese Po' Boy", which is fairly accurate), etc. There was also a long list of bubble teas, new for me at a Vietnamese restaurant.

We tried "spring" (or "summer") rolls, phở gà (chicken noodle soup), a Po' Boy, and a shrimp tamarind soup, "Canh Chua Tom", that was incredibly similar in look and flavor to the Thai soup, Tom Yum. The spring rolls were goodl fresh flavors, but light on the herbs (good for me, as for personal reasons I find strong flavors of cilantro and mint unpalatable). My phở gà came with traditional accoutrement, had a wonderful light flavor, and for only $6.95 was a great price for dinner. Emilie went with the Vietnamese Po' Boy with pork, which she liked, though she mentioned that the jalapenos made it maybe a little too spicy. Once again, at $4.95, a great dinner price. The tamarind soup was a little pricy by comparison at $14.95, and Montana described it as "very similar to [Tom Yum], but a little less spicy. I found it a little bit greasy (and the shrimp in it seemed to have picked up the greasiness), but it had that delicious, distinctive sweet/sour taste that only comes from the tamarind." I tasted it and agreed perfectly with her assessment. A nice offering, but not quite the hit or meal deal as the dishes Emily and I had.

Lastly, Jazmine Cafe doesn't seem to have put their website together yet. It has a menu, but here's a map.