"Sitting on a low plastic stool, or perched on a bench at Mắm, it’s easy to form a close relationship with all the flavors and textures on your plate. Like the seating, the Vietnamese food here is uncompromising—from the tofu that’s made fresh every day to the perfectly springy blood sausage. Minty, citrusy herbs tangle with silky poached eggs, bouncy chicken feet, and snails stuffed with pork. Little bowls of different dipping sauces, like the stellar mắm tôm, tie individual ingredients together in bite after spectacular bite. Visit often—the menu changes with the seasons. In the summer, you can sit outside, wrapping and dipping your way through a platter of pork four ways, and another with three different mushrooms. In the winter, sit inside surrounded by mellow hip hop and the bubbling warmth of a hot pot of fatty catfish and green banana, or a soup that’s thick with shore clams and dill." - bryan kim, neha talreja, willa moore, will hartman, sonal shah
