The Restaurants We Can't Live Without By Tom Fitzmorris. . . Revised March 2009 #84 Kim Son Vietnamese. Gretna: 349 Whitney Ave. 504-366-2489. Map. Lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday. Casual AE MC V   WHY IT'S ESSENTIAL   Kim Son was the city’s first succcessful Vietnamese restaurant, and still one of its best. It offers a much broader menu than most other local Vietnamese places, and the inclusion of a great many familiar, fall-back Chinese dishes makes this a good place for a person to try this exciting Southeast Asian cuisine for the first time. The prices make eating here one of the great bargains in the entire area.   WHY IT'S GOOD   Kim Son cooks with a heavy use of fresh herbs, homemade broths, and grilled meats--all hallmarks of Vietnamese cooking. Some of the best dishes involve charcoal-grilling, claypot-braising, and salt-baking. The latter has become a house specialty, dealing with everything from local hard crabs to lobster. They also have some unexpectedly wonderful noodle and vegetarian dishes. The beef dinner is a classic, the meat served in over a half-dozen ways.   BACKSTORY   The city's longest-running Vietnamese restaurant opened in the 1980s. When Vietnamese families were resettled here in the 1970s, their first restaurants uncovered the fact that nobody here understood their food. To make a living, they started cooking Chinese, which is why to this day about half the menu at Kim Son is distinctly Chinese.   DINING ROOM   A large room with the usual Asian kitsch. An alarmingly big fish levitates in an aquarium. Men should check out an amazing apparatus in the restroom.   ESSENTIAL DISHES   Imperial roll. Spring roll. Vietnamese hot and sour fish soup. Charcoal-broiled beef and cold noodles. Salt-baked crab. Salt-baked scallops. Salt-baked Maine lobster. Fish cooked in clay pot. Steamed whole fish. Claypot chicken curry with coconut. Leaf-bound beef. Beef fondued in boiled vinegar. Eggplant and bean cake in claypot.   FOR BEST RESULTS   It's best to bring a large group, the better to sample the wide range of the menu. Make sure you stay away from the Chinese food, which is not bad but not as good as the Vietnamese dishes.   OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT   The service style is a shade brusque, but they mean nothing by it.   FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD   Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter. Dining Environment Consistency +2 Service Value +3 Attitude Wine and Bar Hipness Local Color   SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES    Open Monday Open all afternoon Vegetarian dishes Quick, good meal Unusually large servings Good for children Easy, nearby parking Click here for an index to all 200 Essential Restaurant reviews. © 2009 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com