NVM Review

By Warren Rojas

Food: 6.9 Ambiance: 7.1 Service: 6.8

I’d be willing to bet big money Four Sisters handily trounces the 49 other Best Restaurants—possibly even combined—when it comes to carry-out business.

No matter the hour, there always seems to be a steady stream of customers who bee-line for the bar to either pick up a ready-to-be-rushed-home order or plot their next totally totable repast.

Conversely, staff seem obsessed with munching anything except what’s on their 125+ item menu (seen them sneak in everything from grease-stained McDonald’s sacks to cupcakes from NYC’s Magnolia bakery).

More for me, I guess.

Cooked-till-sour ginger and caramelized chicken rumble in a clay pot.

Lime-pepper sauce slices right through soy-marinated quail (a spicy-sweet saga).

A hot pot bubbling with garlic- and onion-spiked stock puts the fate of catfish, clams (briny) and calamari (scored stalks of ivory squid), in your chopstick-wielding hands.

By Warren Rojas

Food: 6.5 Ambiance: 6.7 Service: 6.1

Changing postal codes—not to mention the modern design scheme and reinvigorated cooking—has provided Four Sisters with a whole new latitude.

Having previously placed the Eden Center on any serious diner’s culinary map, the Lai family has now helped turn Merrifield into a dining Mecca frequented by their fellow Vietnamese, spellbound Westerners and a new breed of curious locals.

The Lais most recently trimmed around a dozen dishes (congee, random entrees) from the original 160-plus item menu. But even seasoned vets will still find plenty to love.

Sweet-and-sour soup almost sparks complete sensory overload thanks to pungent pineapple chunks, seed-packed okra clusters (stewed pods pop with each bite), sliced tomatoes, crisp bean sprouts and freshly torn basil (aromatic bouquet, forceful flavor).

Grilled pork marinated in garlic, soy and Sriracha (that workhorse of the Asian condiment set) begs to be plunged into scallion-topped rice noodles or enveloped in beds of lettuce, basil and pickled carrots.

Mushroom- and pork-stuffed crepes are bolstered by sizzling lemongrass beef, roasted garlic, pickled carrots, bean sprouts and chopped peanuts (glorious).

By Warren Rojas

A venerated fixture within the Vietnamese community, the family-run Huong Quê continues to delight by serving traditional Southeast Asian cuisine in a modern setting.

The menu is gargantuan, touting over 200 items. Amazingly, most dishes remain under $10—including a number of robust salads (papaya with shrimp and pork), some astonishing soups (pork and sour cabbage) and almost two dozen vegetarian plates—while an array of daily lunch specials run just under $7.

A plate of shredded pork rolls ($3.75) yields sizeable cellophane wrap-ups filled with pork and herbs, all served with an intriguing sweet and sour dipping sauce. An order of shrimp wontons ($4.25) brings plump shrimp fried in a crispy coating (ideal for snacking). A crispy crepe ($7.95) produces a rice pancake (a moon-sized omelet) filled with shrimp, shredded pork and some fabulous bean sprouts, along with piles of fresh mint, basil and other greens for rebundling the crepe before dipping it in an alluring fish sauce. For a splurge, try the grilled fresh black peppered beef ($13.95), a platter of braised beef served with a side of ground black pepper and oil which, when combined, produces a spicy dipping sauce for the tender morsels.