Omnivore - A visit to So Ba in EAV

The new Vietnamese restaurant specializes in pho

We drove to East Atlanta tonight, thinking we might eat at the Graveyard, but I wanted to see whether So Ba (560 Gresham Ave., 404-637-9911), a Vietnamese restaurant, had opened yet. Indeed, it’s been open a couple of weeks and we had an excellent, inexpensive meal there.

Our server told us “So Ba” means “my third” and refers to the fact that this is the owner’s third restaurant. (He also owns Wasabi in Castleberry Hill). As it happens, So Ba’s opening was also occasioned by the birth of the owner’s third child.

We sampled goi cuon filled with pork; a bowl of pho with rice noodles, herbs, brisket and steak; a rice dish with grilled cubes of filet mignon; and a classic rice noodle (bun) dish with spring rolls and grilled pork and shrimp.

We found everything to our liking, especially the pho ($7 for a small bowl), whose rich, perfumed beef broth was perfect for a  freezing night. The  filet mignon, similar to what’s called “shaken beef” at many Vietnamese restaurants, was a delicious bargain at $11.

After dinner, I looked the restaurant up on Yelp and found that a few people had panned it — brutally, in one case — within a few days of its opening. With so many food bloggers around, it’s become a race to see who can get to a new restaurant first. That’s cool, but making a definitive judgment a couple of days after an opening is dubious. And in this case, I assure you that the strongly negative reviews do not describe my own experience two weeks after opening.

So Ba is located in the rather ramshackle building formerly occupied by Cantina la Casita. The interior has been pared down to stark minimalism, a difficult effort in a building whose architecture is from the School of Ma and Pa Kettle.  But the staff, beautiful and friendly, creates plenty of warmth.

Let me hear your reports. Sorry that I have no pictures. I forgot my camera!