Gabriella's Vietnam — Restaurant in Philadelphia

TL;DR Quality of food is exceptional and consistent, and ambiance is great. However, not a great value or surprise in comparison to many restaurants in Chinatown.

I was curious about this restaurant because of Eater's review that this is an essential eatery for Philadelphia. I booked for Sunday evening close to closing time. The restaurant was packed but service was swift and the food was very good.

My only gripe is that I found the menu a tad on the pricey side when compared to many other restaurants in Chinatown where you can order similar foods with the same great quality for a lot less. For example, the shaking beef was juicy and tender, but the beef is marinated in a similar way to beef in Chinese restaurants to achieve that tenderness (baking soda)--so despite the cost being justified at $28 for filet, it's unnecessary when similar quality could have been achieved with a $14 cut of NY Strip or Sirloin.

The tofu was perfectly seasoned, crispy on the outside and wonderfully tender on the inside. But again, $18 for tofu tossed in a honey-soy glaze...that's about $9 takeout in Chinatown.

The fried rice was flavorful but lacked the pungency or umami of the salted egg flavor that is advertised. It tasted like a yang chow fried rice with added fish sauce, yes it was good but you could get same portion at half the price at the same quality at EMei, Yi Pin, etc.

The only dish we had that was absolutely worth the price was the deep fried flounder. It's an entire flounder battered and fried so that the skin is wonderfully crispy while the meat is fall-off-the-bone tender. It's served with rice paper so that you DIY your own spring rolls. At $36 it's a great novel and family experience with a lot of fish to justify the price.

Gabriella's Vietnam is a great restaurant that thrives because of its consistent food and excellent homely vibes. It's a great introduction to Vietnamese food for people who are venturing into Asian food for the first time or do not often engage with Asian culture. However, if you are well versed with Chinatown or have a traditionally Asian background, you may be expecting a bit more for the amount of money...

Gabriella's Vietnam - South Philly - This place rose to the top of my hit list because it got mentioned on so many "Best of" Lists the last few years... including the NYT , "Top 50 places to eat in the US right now" and many best of Philly lists.  If you are looking for cliche Vietnamese dishes like spring rolls and pho, this is not the place... but if you are open to the unconventional and unknown, then you landed at the right place. We got the water fern dumplings (sounds so boring and weird... water? fern?) but they were anything BUT boring and presented so beautifully.  "feast of tiny cups filled with steamed rice cake discs topped with ground dried shrimp, pork cracklings splashed with a shimmer of nước chấm (I think, fish sauce)." Then the crispy crepes which were savory and had some amazing crunch, flavors and textures. Soft-shell crabs were the group favorite and plated so nicely.  Next the tapioca dumplings, which were a little too exotic for my normal dumping-crazy shrunken human since there was lots of tapioca... quite a departure from your normal dumpling since they were translucent with bits of meat and seafood inside.. and wrapped in banana leaves no less.   For drinks we got the Passion Fruit margarita and non-alcoholic ginger mocktail.. both bursting with flavor and freshness. Service was very friendly... they explained the ideal way to eat the crepes and the waterfern dumplings.    It felt like an adventure eating here with so many vietnamese dishes I have never heard of.  In a word .... delightful!  I love being surprised... especially when it's a cuisine that I thought I was pretty familiar with. After dinner,  we walked down the block to "Artic Scoop", one of my favorite South Philly places to get ice-cream.  They have some unusual flavors there like pandan, taro and lychee rose.  We got the sesame butter and almond cookie on a freshmade bubble waffle cone.  So much yumminess!  Overall, a most delicious night with some bold new flavors and dishes for dinner...

Gabriella’s Vietnam made for an incredible night!

Food: The food was fantastic. It wasn’t until we were halfway through the final dish that it occurred to me to take a picture but the other items we ordered—prawn and mango salad, Brussel sprouts, wings, and seafood salad were truly delicious. Our last dish, winter flounder (pictured) was the only one I found to be lacking at first but after adding the sauce to the rice paper wrap it was really good.

Service: Our server, Eddie, was exceptionally kind and attentive. He made sure our glasses were never empty and checked in on us the right number of times. He did a great job explaining the menu options and how many items we might need for a group our size and gave us great suggestions that matched what we wanted. He also explained how to make the spring rolls and use rice paper without it falling apart.

Before going, we heard the restaurant was BYOB, but we noticed that people had cocktails when we got there. Eddie explained that they are transitioning from BYOB to having an in house bar but are giving customers time to adjust to the new reality. He then got us ice to chill the bottle we brought as well as wine glasses.

Really a masterclass in setting and exceeding expectations.

Ambience: The only reason I knocked one star from the ambience is that the place was really really hot. Glasses fogging and sliding off my nose/needing to tie up my hair HOT. The music was fine, the lighting was good, it felt cozy and intimate without feeling crowded, but I left there soooo sweaty and it honestly felt cooler outside than inside which wild to say in Philly in July.

Overall, I highly recommend this place will definitely...