Even Hannah had a hard time believing it.
She never had any doubt the crowds would come to her newest venture, Hannah's Neighborhood Bistro, but neither she, her partners, nor even I, expected the deliriously positive response the restaurant has generated in its first several weeks.
Hey, why not?
This stunning newcomer, a multimillion-dollar gamble on the site of the failed Tre in Boca Park, appears to have all the right moves.
First, except for the kitchen, the space has been completely rebuilt and redesigned so it now resembles a French colonial dining hall in the owner's native Saigon. Second, the menu has been scrupulously planned to include many Asian fusion buzz dishes, from clever, creative sushi to entrée salads and the family's signature garlic noodles.
Ironically, Hannah's new digs have already eclipsed her family's venture in Desert Passage, Crustacean, a branch of the successful Beverly Hills restaurant. Why ironic? Mainly because Crustacean cost more than $10 million, and features upscale fare from Hannah's chef-mother, Helene An, who learned the art of cooking in Vietnam.
Not everyone knows the An family story, so I'll recap it here. Danny An was an Air Force colonel and Helene was the daughter of a regional governor in Vietnam when the family was forced to flee Vietnam in 1975. Settling here, they arrived literally without a penny, but soon after had a flourishing Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco.
The eldest of five daughters, Hannah grew up in the restaurant business, and this latest venture has been largely her own baby. She recently relocated to Vegas with her children, so she is here full-time now. She will need to be. The restaurant has been mobbed since it opened in late July.
The signage doesn't hurt. It's hard to miss as you drive by, or not see the people dining on the outside patio, so it's abundantly clear this is a restaurant, not a furniture store. The inside design features the family's "walk on water" carp pond, a glass and concrete under-floor innovation, twirling banana-leaf fans overhead, a nicely appointed bar, lush booths and an abundance of Asian art throughout the restaurant.
Dining options are equally versatile, with seating available at either the sushi bar, which fronts an actual waterfall in the restaurant; in the spacious, high-ceilinged dining room; or outside on the patio, which is my choice now that the weather has finally turned mild.
The food here is even more versatile, affording the chance to eat traditional Asian fare from Vietnam, California cuisine such as sushi, and a number of Western dishes that the French left behind in Vietnam, such as beef Burgundy, and even banh mi, the Vietnamese name for sandwiches on French bread.
Most of the opening kinks, such as a sluggish kitchen and a staff who had a hard time explaining some of the more exotic dishes, seem to have been ironed out now. And the kitchen has rounded into form as well, so that a few of the dishes that were problematic at the outset are as they should be at this point.
Take a dish such as plantation shrimp, cooked with black peppers, chiles, green papaya, glass noodles and caramel syrup, which was cloying and overly sweet at first. It has now become a dish with real balance. Or the usually ersatz Dungeness crab puffs from the dim sum menu. You can actually taste the crab in the filling now.
I'm not much for sushi, but I cannot resist Hannah's roll, rolled in yellowtail, drizzled with sesame oil, and stuffed with a deep-fried soft-shell crab. From the Asian tapas menu, don't miss grilled calamari, crispy chicken dumplings or shredded duck flatbread. One of the best salads is Vietnamese salad: carrots, jicama and either chicken or shrimp, tossed in a tangy garlic-lime vinaigrette. Pho, the meal of rice-noodle soup in a bowl, is good, too, though slightly faux, compared to its counterparts at those authentic pho places on Spring Mountain Road.
Main dishes are listed under Signature Plates or Special Plates, and several are worth a shout. Don't miss shaken beef: sweet, pungent sautéed beef, delicious with rice. A hefty plate of crab fried-rice hit all the right notes one evening. So did colonial beef stew, in a Crock-Pot with root vegetables, the chunks of slow, braised meat redolent of five spice, the lusty Indochinese all-purpose seasoning.
Almost no one eats here without ordering a plate of garlic noodles, which are at least one part butter to two parts noodles, and who knows how much garlic? For a more substantial pasta, you can go native with hu tieu, which the menu refers to as Vietnamese pasta, and which are, in reality, thicker noodles consumed with mixed seafood—prawns, scallops and calamari, in this case.
Boca Park needed a real neighborhood restaurant that wasn't a chain, and so far, Hannah's fits the bill. Perhaps we weren't ready for an upscale Pacific Rim restaurant until this one opened, but judging by the response, tastes are changing.
Hannah's gamble looks like it will pay a healthy dividend.