Several months back, I finally tried Nightingale 9, a modern (or really Brooklyn-style) Vietnamese-inspired restaurant in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.
With its thick wood tables, craft beer options, and very Smith Street-storefront design and location, the only difference between this restaurant and its many companions along Smith and Court streets in this part of Brooklyn is its Vietnamese-inspired menu. Vietnamese food, especially that of the non-banh mi variety, can be hard to come by in this part of town, so I had been looking forward to trying Nightingale 9 ever since its opening a year or two back.
When I finally made it for lunch, I tried just one menu option - the mushroom soup, their only vegetarian main course.
The soup was actually well done - rich, well spiced and complemented by fresh scallions and herbs, and served at a solid hot temperature. And despite my general aversion to mushrooms, the mushroom flavor wasn’t overwhelming of the soup’s other flavors.
The only downside was that the soup and its noodle serving were a bit on the small side, and I didn’t feel that full after eating it (maybe more a commentary on the huge size of restaurant meals in the U.S.). If I lived in the area, I would probably eat this dish every few weeks, but given that I now live some distance away, it probably won’t be a repeat in the future.
329 Smith Street
Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
Easily accessible from the F/G trains at Carroll Street