New Pasteur (Vietnamese)
85 Baxter Street (near Canal Street)
Manhattan
(212) 608-3656

New Pasteur is our favorite kind of restaurant. The decor in their small dining room is plain (but not unattractive) with green tables and simple mirrors adorning two of the walls. The service is friendly and extraordinarily fast. And, most importantly, the food is delicious and inexpensive.

Starters
We recommend starting your meal with a hearty bowl of Pho (rice noodle soup). The chicken Pho, with large chunks of tender white meat, broccoli spears, and cilantro in a rich chicken broth, is especially tasty. In fact, we like the soup so much, we wish we had simply filled up on it, rather than ordering the Bi Cuon, a cold, clammy pancake filled with bland slivers of pork and shredded lettuce.

Entrees
New Pasteur's menu has over 140 items from which to choose. We spent so much time reading the menu on our first visit (the descriptions of all the dishes sounded so good we had trouble making up our minds!) that our waiter, obviously thinking that we were confused, brought us photos of some of the dishes to help us out.

Although we encourage you to review the menu carefully and take your time when making your selection, you needn't worry about being too choosy -- all the main dishes we sampled at New Pasteur have been great! Two entrees we have found particularly pleasing are the Tom Rang Man (large shrimp with green peppers and onions in an oyster sauce) and the Ga Xao Xa Ot (chicken with chilis and lemon grass in a sweet brown sauce).

The one thing that this restaurant lacks is a nice list of desserts. You may find, however, (as we often do) that the rest of your meal has been so delicious that you have filled up without a thought of saving room for a sweet. Even if you do crave something sugary, the tempting pastries of Little Italy are just a short walk away.

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