There’s something coming out of the kitchen in the humble Vietnamese Restaurant in La Vista that’s starting to take hold nationwide. You take a bánh mì sandwich and dip it into a steaming bowl of phở, just like a French dip. It’s an idea that makes sense, because the bánh mì is a sandwich created during the French colonial period in the mid-19th century when the baguette first entered Vietnamese culture. Vietnamese cooks made it their own, giving rise to both the famous sandwich and street-side baguettes filled with pâté, grilled pork, pickled veggies and herbs.
It’s called the phở mì dip, and it came about when co-owner K.C. Jones decided to dunk his bánh mì into a bowl of phở on a whim. He liked it so much that he began telling other customers to try it and it quickly caught on.
“I just dipped it, and I was like, man, that’s pretty good,” K.C. said. “So I told a couple of people, ‘Hey, try this.’ Next thing I knew, everybody was doing it.”
Vietnamese Restaurant dining area
Photo by Jennifer Corey
You’d think it would earn its spot on the menu right away, but his wife Evie, the restaurant chef, wasn’t convinced. For six years, she kept it off, equal parts amused and playfully irritated at her husband’s campaign to make dunking a thing.
“Bánh mì is bánh mì. Phở is phở,” she said. “I tell him, you eat it your way, but stop telling the customers! But they kept dipping, dipping, dipping…okay, I give up. Fine, put it on the menu because everybody’s already doing it.”
It’s the kind of playful banter, resistance to change and eventual fusion that makes both their marriage and their restaurant work so well.
Vietnamese Restaurant interior decor
Photo by Jennifer Corey
Evie first opened Vietnamese Restaurant with her mother in 2010. Evie wasn’t the chef at the time—she was out front serving, while her mom worked the kitchen, cooking traditional recipes she carried here from Vietnam. But her mom began teaching Evie how to cook the dishes over time. When her mom retired, Evie took over.
K.C. had been working construction when Vietnamese Restaurant first opened. When a serious back injury forced him to rethink his career, he started helping out wherever he could in the restaurant. Over time, he became the face out front—talking with customers, managing the dining room and coming up with the occasional menu twist.
He sums it up this way: Evie runs the back of the house, and he runs the front, and together, they’re the engine that drives the restaurant.
Vietnamese Restaurant dining area
Photo by Jennifer Corey
K.C. is the one who took our order on our first visit and made us feel like we’d been coming there for years. On our second visit, their teenage daughter Jasmine was serving, a reminder this is very much a family-run place. What struck me during our visits was how connected to the community this restaurant is. K.C. knew countless customers by name. He asked about their family and genuinely cared to know how they’re doing. It’s his front-of-house philosophy.
“If I can make somebody’s day better just by being nice to them,” K.C. said. “Then I’ve done my job.”
For our first visit, we tried the coconut basil mussels and shrimp spring rolls as appetizers. Jennifer had a bowl of phở tai, and I had the chicken street noodles for main entrees.
Coconut basil mussels
Photo by Jennifer Corey
The coconut basil mussels arrive steaming hot, the meat tender and juicy in its broth. The broth leans savory, with coconut up front and a nutty umami depth underneath.
Shrimp spring rolls
Photo by Jennifer Corey
The shrimp spring rolls are wrapped in rice paper, packed with shrimp, vermicelli noodles and fresh basil. On its own, it’s a tad bland, the main flavor coming from basil and shrimp. They’re built for the peanut sauce—nutty, rich, with a touch of sweet soy.
Phở tái
Photo by Jennifer Corey
Phở tái comes with thin slices of rare beef in steaming broth, noodles, and green onion. Per tradition, phở comes with a plate of bean sprouts, fresh basil, lime and jalapeno you can add to the soup as you see fit. The broth is cooked with beef bones for nine hours. The noodles were a bit soft, but the broth might be the best I’ve had. The broth carries layers of flavor—deep umami, well-seasoned, with a faint sweetness. The shaved rare beef finishes cooking in the broth, tender and juicy. It’s a broth that has you planning your next visit before you finish it.
Chicken street noodles
Photo by Jennifer Corey
Chicken street noodles come with generous pieces of chicken breast with wide, flat noodles cooked just right. The noodles are seasoned well, with a savory depth and bits of peanut for crunch. The broccoli and carrots are also cooked well, with just a touch of crispness to them. It’s a hearty serving of noodles – warm and comforting.
For our second visit, we had the Vietnamese egg rolls, grilled pork spring rolls and BBQ pork buns for appetizers. For entrees, Jennifer had the garlic shrimp rice, and I had the pork bánh mì.
Vietnamese egg rolls
Photo by Jennifer Corey
The Vietnamese egg rolls have a thin, crisp shell that cracks clean with each bite. It’s my ideal kind of egg roll—the crisp shell never overwhelms the filling. Here, the filling inside is hearty and well-seasoned. The rolls come with a sweet chili sauce that carries a slight tinge of heat—perfect for dunking.
Grilled pork spring rolls
Photo by Jennifer Corey
Like the shrimp spring rolls, the grilled pork spring rolls are wrapped in rice paper. Inside is delicious pork, fresh basil, chilled noodles and bean sprouts. The grilled pork brings a smoky char that lifts the roll.
BBQ pork buns
Photo by Jennifer Corey
The BBQ pork buns are served soft, the pillowy dough holding a pork filling that’s equal parts sweet and savory. The dough has an elegant sweetness and accompanies the filling beautifully. The kitchen runs out of these often, and it’s no mystery why.
Garlic shrimp rice
Photo by Jennifer Corey
The garlic shrimp rice comes atop a garlic broth with onion and scallion. The sauce is comforting and savory, and the shrimp are cooked well. The rice is the right amount of sticky for this kind of dish as it soaks in that broth fantastically. The garlic leads the way but never overpowers—a nice touch of restraint. It’s a welcome deviation from our usual phở fare.
Grilled pork bánh mì
Photo by Jennifer Corey
Now to the pork bánh mì. As I said earlier, there is an option under the phở menu called phở mì dip. Since we’d already tried the phở, I took another route, also suggested by Jones. You can order a bánh mì sandwich and a generous cup of phở broth to dip it in.
The pork bánh mì stacks grilled pork, mayo, cilantro, pickled carrot and daikon, and cucumber. The ingredients come on a six-inch French roll, sturdy and crisp. The carrots and daikon are lightly pickled, not overpowering but the sour flavor blends well with the slightly sweet, savory grilled pork. The mayo rounds out every bite with a creamy edge.
Phở broth
Photo by Jennifer Corey
But let’s talk about dipping a bánh mì in a bowl of phở broth. Like a French dip, the bread softens and soaks in the broth’s flavor. This is among the most robust phở broths I’ve had in some time. It’s a perfect dip for this sandwich. The broth doesn’t just soak in—it deepens the sandwich with its own richness. It’s an excellent spin on a traditional bánh mì, a journey on this menu I highly recommend.
Evie and K.C. are committed to keeping Vietnamese Restaurant humble and modest. There are no plans for future expansion—just plans to continue to make people happy with good food and a welcoming atmosphere. They’ve signed a new ten year lease, so they plan to be here for a while.
Vietnamese Restaurant interior decor
Photo by Jennifer Corey
K.C. credits the phở mì dip to a bit of curiosity years ago. And while other versions exist, what matters is that he created it on his own, and it’s become the restaurant’s most memorable dish.
This restaurant is what makes our country so special – a place where a husband-and-wife team can carve out their own culinary section in a Greater Omaha city and not only serve good food, but warmth and comfort. It’s the kind of place that’s worth coming back to again and again. When you find your Phở spot, it’s something special. That’s exactly what we found here in this special, humble spot in La Vista.
Here, it’s the front-of-house that makes you welcome and the kitchen that warms your soul.
