Revisit: Cha Pa's Noodles and Grill 04-13-2011

Location: 314 W. 52nd St.

Time: 1pm

People: Showtime Ops!

Feelings: To celebrate SaSha's birthday, we headed over to perhaps the only proper Vietnamese restaurant in Midtown West, Cha Pa's. I have not been to Cha Pa's since their grand opening back in January, so I was curious to see how they had made progress.

The restaurant was packed, which is a good sign. Their floor was unfortunately damaged and uneven from a flood, which made this five-inch-heeled food blogger inanely difficult to walk to the back table.

Since we are a noodley bunch, most of us ordered bun, vermicelli noodle bowls. They even had the non-fish sauce version available for PeeWee, so if you are vegan or afraid of the smell of fish sauce, I recommend asking for the non-fish sauce.

I wanted to order off their lunch special menu ($7.95), but they did not include tofu vermicelli noodle bowls. When I asked to substitute the pork or chicken for tofu, the server said that was not a part of lunch specials. I ended up having to order $9 Fried Lemongrass Tofu Noodles. The tofu was crispy and juicy, and it was overall tasty and filling. I wish they provided stronger fish sauce and other sauces, but this quality of bun is not something we can obtain anywhere else in Midtown West.

If you are expecting Chinatown quality bun and pho, you will not be satisfied here. It is $2-$3 more expensive than those as well. So if you work in Midtown West and have bun and pho cravings, you have two options: either take the train down to Chinatown or walk a couple of blocks to Cha Pa's.