Restaurant Review: Jasmine Deli
March 5, 2009 at 9:55 pm Myrtle Schmeckpepper 2 comments
By Myrtle Schmeckpepper
Well, kids, after about 10 visits to Eat Street’s Jasmine Deli, I can no longer keep my praise for the place confined to street-corner soapboxes. I must take it to The Internets, where it might be heard by all who would be delighted by a big bowl of noodley goodness.
First of all, when I say hole in the wall, I mean hole in the wall. I still walk past the door after almost a dozen visits (though that could be because I’m usually in a “noodle bowl noodle bowl noodle bowl” Frankenstein trance as I’m walking up to the place.) The family who runs Jasmine has crammed maybe 10 tables into the space, but for homestyle Vietnamese food this good, you won’t mind rubbing elbows with some hipster strangers–though last time I was there, I saw some adorable grandmas walk in the door, hungry for some noodles, no doubt.
On to the food: I gravitated toward the stir-fried noodle salad on my inaugural trip and couldn’t convince myself to order anything but that for the next six months. They start with a really giant bowl (key), and add lettuce, cilantro, daikon, cucumbers, bean sprouts, peanuts, your choice of protein (I usually go chicken), vermicelli noodles, and some kind of glorious sweet peanuty sauce loving all over the whole thing. I’m often tempted to just forgo the utensils, no fork or chopsticks, and just go face-first into this happy mishmash. By the way, this is a great date spot, if you restrain yourself properly.
When you can’t wait 15 minutes for your noodle bowl, start off with some veggie-tastic egg rolls–crispy and kinda greasy, but not in a bad way. Theoharides swears by the Mock Duck Banh Mi (deli sandwich), which seems to be essentially the noodle salad minus the sauce and noodles and crammed into some tasty bread. On my last visit, I got brave (okay, not so brave) and ordered something different–the stir-fried noodles with chicken: think noodle salad, easy on the salad and heavy on the noodles. Delicious. Of course.
Jasmine Deli's Banh Mi--photo from swjournal.com
And did I mention CHEAP!!?? The blissful banh mi is about $4, and the giant face-dunking bowl of noodles runs about $7. Not bad. Not bad at all.
Entry filed under: Local Restaurants, Things We Love. Tags: Banh Mi, Eat Street, Jasmine Deli, minneapolis, Noodles, Restaurants, Vietnamese food.
Theoharides
Myrtle Schmeckpepper
Baron Von Schenk
Glum
jlprooney
1.
Fire Crow | March 15, 2009 at 8:16 pm
We had a Vietnamese sandwich place open up by us here in park slope Brooklyn too, Hanco’s on 7th ave and 10th street. the same deli sandwiches it’s sooooooooooo goooooooooood. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
2.
Gina | March 23, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Lady, you NEED to have the noodle salad with the chargrilled beef or pork. I must insist on this. I also wager that there is no chicken noodle soup in the entire Twin Cities metro area superior to the Jasmine Deli incarnation. Oh Jasmine, I love you forever.