Hung Ky Redux

In San Francisco, the only restaurants I go to again and again are the low end ones. Here's my rationale: if I'm going to pay $30+ for a meal, I want it to be special in a lot of ways. There simply aren't very many mid-to-high end restaurants that leave me craving their food so badly that I'm willing to go back and spend that much money again and again. I'm always happy to try a new place and rarely regret a decision, but 90% of the time I don't end up returning.

Cheap food, however, has a much stronger ability to stir up intense cravings in me. After yesterday's lunch, I felt myself craving bahn cuon. For those of you who don't know what bahn cuon is, here's a photo (seriousy kids, you WANT to click that link. This is rare Vietnamese comfort food that's phenomenally prepared at Hung Ky). I'll post my own thoughts when I finally get to eat and photograph it again. So anyway, with visions of bahn cuon dancing in my head I met up with a few people at Hung Ky to try it for the second day in a row. I also got to try a few more things from their menu in addition to the excellent bun cha and the tasty pho ga.

Vietnamese Chicken Salad: the most refreshing thing I've had in a long time. I didn't eat the little fried chips, but the rest of the salad was amazing. Hung Ky must serve free range chicken; the meat in all their chicken dishes is firm and sweet. This salad had sliced red and green cabbage, iceberg lettuce, cilantro, peanuts, and other green goodness. It was great by itself or with the accompanying nuoc cham.


Chicken Porridge (chao ga): comfort food find of the year (so far, at least). This porridge could have been just a smidge thicker, but I think those at our table just prefer our porridge that way. Again, amazing chicken, intense flavor in the broth, very creamy texture. This is probably as good or better than yo mama ever made it.

Tragically, the restaurant ran out of bahn cuon at 1:00 p.m. I think the three of us almost cried. Therefore, I was again unable to photograph it in all its glory. Instead, we had the bun cha again (which I forgot to photograph): delicious grilled pork and grilled pork sausage swimming in sauce. It's served with a large plate of cold vermicelli noodles, basil, cilantro, and red leaf lettuce. You can eat all the ingredients mixed together in a bowl or try to make a lettuce wrap out of it.

Addendum: here are more photos of Hung Ky Chowdown Day 1, courtesy of ed:

Bahn cuon, the star of the show! You have to get to the restaurant early to eat these suckers. So so so delicious. I can't even do it justice. Beautiful transluscent rice flour skins. Very elasticy. Others called it chewy, but it wasn't chewy to me, just springy, warm, and perfect. They're filled with mushroom and pork and topped with Vietnamese sausage, cilantro, and deep fried scallions. The combination of the crunchy charred scallions and tender soft bahn cuon was divine.

Pho ga and Bun rieu. Pho ga was very good, probably second best after Turtle Tower (but I'd have to do a side by side to decide). Bun rieu was a nice change of pace. Interesting broth, but I found the noodles a bit too soft and the tofu (?) patties in it strange. Not something I'd order on my own, but something that I would probably take a few bites of if friend ordered it.

Hung Ky
(415) 674-8278337
Jones Street
San Francisco, CA 94102