A welcome addition: Viet Com adds to ABQ’s impressive Vietnamese dining scene

Few dishes encompass the pleasures of Vietnamese cuisine more than the spicy lemongrass soup called Bun Bo Hue.

It’s spicier than pho, its better-known cousin, with a bracing, pungent aroma of lemongrass and fish sauce. Sinus clearing and sweat inducing, it’s a meal and a physiological experience in one.

Bun Bo Hue is one of the signature dishes at Viet Com, the four-year-old restaurant on Carlisle Boulevard, a few blocks north of Interstate 40.

A welcome addition: Viet Com adds to ABQ’s impressive Vietnamese dining scene

Viet Com’s 2020 opening was a welcome development for a stretch of Carlisle with “For Lease” signs abound. A towering lime-green sign out by the street announces the restaurant’s location. That same lime-green color brightens the trim of the freestanding stucco building that’s framed on two sides by a parking lot.

Inside is a clean, no-frills space with a drop ceiling and tile floor. The long, narrow dining room holds a few cushioned booths along the back wall and numerous quartz-topped tables for four.

A recent weekday dinner hour was quiet, with only two parties seated inside. An occasional customer came in to pick up takeout orders from a counter at one end of the place.

We took a seat at the front window near speakers that thumped with what sounded like Vietnamese house music. The lone server working the dining room set down the menus and then noticed the late-afternoon sun drawing a bead on us and thoughtfully lowered the shades.

There are two versions of the menu: a traditional one that lists the dishes and prices, and a spiral notebook with large photos of each dish. A sticky note on the first page of each menu noted that items cost $1 more than the listed price.

So many Vietnamese restaurants stray far from their roots, offering entire sections of Thai, Chinese and Japanese food. Viet Com’s menu, in contrast, is mostly focused on the classic dishes of the region. That means soups, clay pots and stir-fry with rice.

Ranging in price from $6.50 to $9.50, the 10 appetizers offer a good variety based around different proteins. An order of Spring Rolls ($6.50) arrived with a small bowl of peanut sauce. Each roll had three large shrimp inside, their bright pink color muted by the rice paper wrappers. The ingredients were fresh and well-balanced. Each bite offered layers of texture, from the gummy wrapper through crunchy bean sprouts to the springy rice noodles. A pre-bite dip into the thick peanut sauce added sweetness and a vinegary tang. One order was enough for a filling lunch.

The soups are broken up into three categories: beef broth, chicken broth and udon noodles. The aforementioned Bun Bo Hue ($13.50) is one of seven beef broth options.

Bun refers to rice vermicelli noodles, bo to beef and Hue to the central Vietnamese city where the dish was popularized in the 16th century.

The soup arrived in a large white bowl, its deep red broth steaming profusely. Blubbery half-moons of Vietnamese ham and paper-thin slices of rare beef mingled on the surface of the rich, fragrant broth with tiny wheels of green onions and ruddy droplets of chili oil.

The broth was terrifically balanced between the salty and spicy, with a heat level that was noticeable but tolerable. The ham, free of any pink chemical colorings, was tender, the beef slightly metallic. Underneath it all sat a copious pile of thin, round rice noodles that could have fed me for days. The soup comes with a plate of fresh cilantro and basil, along with bean sprouts and quartered limes. There’s a bottle of Sriracha on the table if you want more heat. All in all, it’s a valid contender for the best soup in the city.

Gluten-free items are not marked on the menu, but some of the dishes are naturally gluten-free and others can be adapted by the chef. An example of the latter is the Grilled Chicken Rice Plate ($11.95). The meat of the two sliced chicken thighs was moist underneath a sweet and salty lacquer on the skin that offered a kick of umami. It was served with a dome of rice and pickled vegetable slaw piled on sliced cucumbers.

The drinks menu includes soda, fruit juices and smoothies. Viet Com’s version of Thai Tea ($4.50) sported the requisite pumpkin-orange color in a plastic cup with lots of ice. It had a sweet, creamy opening with a black tea finish that served as an ideal antidote to the spicy soup. The tartness of the Passion Fruit Juice ($4.75) made it another good partner for the spicy dishes.

Four smoothies for $5.50 each finish off the menu. Alongside the commonplace strawberry and avocado were a couple of unusual offerings: durian and soursop, two tropical fruits with sweet-and sour, custard-like pulps. What would have been a difficult choice was made easy when the server told us that only avocado was available. It was served in a plastic cup and had good thickness and texture, but was pretty flavorless.

The server was friendly and efficient and able to answer any questions we had about the menu.

Viet Com adds to the remarkable Vietnamese food scene clustered around I-40 on the east side of the city. The Bun Bo Hue alone is worth the trip.