- Michael Gebert
- Bun cha ha noi, noodle soup with grilled pork belly and herbs
I don’t know what happened at Embeya when co-owner and chef Thai Dang was suddenly and messily locked out by his former partner—one side talked a lot about it and the other not at all, so it’s hard to make a fair judgement. I know what I thought about its initial incarnation as a fine-dining, mostly refined Asian spot: it was a civilized place that served some beautiful food in a gorgeous downtown space (by Karen Herold), and in another time it might have been a runaway hit. But by the time it opened the fine-dining crowd had come to accept much more casual settings for refined Asian food made with fine-dining techniques (Yusho, Fat Rice, Parachute). Embeya dressed to the nines a slightly tamed Vietnamese cuisine for business executives just when we’d decided we’re OK with funky in flavor and ambience.
- Michael Gebert
- Banh cuon nhan thit
So is it upscale, casual, or what? The main course was the most everyday of Vietnamese dishes, bun cha ha noi, a broth with hunks of pork belly and pork meatballs, to which we added noodles (from metal pails) and green herbs. This was the HaiSous that I looked forward to the most—a bowl of beautifully made soup broth with superior meats and an almost penetrating cleanness to the flavors. Not that I don’t like funk in Vietnamese food too, but this seemed like the summation of Dang’s training under Gras and his own personality. Dessert was likewise simple and direct: condensed-milk yogurt with a spoonful of preserves.
