Kooma has finished their shuffling in West Chester borough. Last September, the original Kooma moved into spacious new digs on Church Street, and Mary Bigham brought you the scoop here. Now the old Kooma space on 151 W. Gay St. has been transformed into a new hot spot called Kooma Viet.
The new space is impressive. With modern decor and red and white colors throughout, Kooma Viet resembles a nightclub, bridging the Vietnamese dining experience and the nightlife crowd. So, what’s on the menu?
“This is a noodle restaurant with strictly Vietnamese and Chinese food,” Bar Manager Jordan Kennedy told me on a recent visit. “There’s really no overlap in food with the new Kooma.”
The Kooma Viet menu carries such offerings as dumplings, Vietnamese pancakes, rice and vermicelli. There’s also Spicy Chicken BBQ and Grilled Beef with broken rice. Jordan also recommends the Grilled Pork with Egg Rolls. “It’s marinated in lemongrass and served with daikon onion and radish; [it’s] so good.”
“The most popular item so far has been our pho,” Jordan explained. “I used to have to go to the city to get good pho, and I often did, but we have great pho here.” Pho is a rice noodle soup with a broth that is made by simmering beef bones for at least eight hours, though it is much more than that. I had only had pho once, many years ago, so I placed an order for pho.
Shortly afterwards, a side plate with jalapenos, lime wedges, bean sprouts and Asian basil was set out on the bar. Then, three sauce containers were laid out—hoisin sauce, sriracha and a chili sauce. If you’re like me, you learned it’s not polite to play with your food. Well, pho is different.
A giant bowl of pho was brought out and set before me. Chefs Thom Le and Will even came out to give me a lesson on eating pho. Will encouraged me to sip just the broth first, and it was surprisingly complex and satisfying. Jordan suggested placing a spoonful of hoisin sauce into the broth and mixing with chopsticks. The flavor of my next sip was different, sweeter, but also delectable. They suggested adding in a couple bean sprouts from the side plate, which I did. The texture of the bean sprouts brought out yet a different flavor from the pho.
It struck me that eating pho is about creativity and experimentation. No two bowls of pho are the same if you continually add in Asian basil leaves, jalapeno or a different mix of sauces. The bowl of pho is similar to a painter’s canvas and the side accompaniments and sauces are the foodies’ paints. By adding different paints after each bite or sip of pho, you change the flavors as you proceed. I added some sriracha and the pho was a bit hotter. After adding some chili sauce and a jalapeno, the pho had real bite to it. The fun in eating pho is that you are playing with your food, creating your own flavors and textures as you eat your meal.
Now the rice noodles in Pho are long and thin, and there’s no fork and knife. I bent over the giant bowl and lifted the draped noodles in my pinched chopstick and slurped away. After a few bites, I realized I’d better raise my napkin to cover my shirt.
When Jordan and a waiter stopped back, I asked, “There’s really no graceful way to eat Pho. Is there?”
They both laughed. “No, not really,” Jordan said. “It’s totally acceptable to slurp away. And it is also acceptable to lift the bowl and drink out of it.”
To pair with your authentic Vietnamese and Chinese food, Kooma Viet has a decent list of Asian beers. Sapporo on tap, and bottled beers such as Asahi Extra Dry, OB Lager and Vietnam’s 33 Export. They also had Victory HopDevil on tap.
Kooma Viet is open: Mon.–Wed., 11:30 a.m.–10 p.m.; Thu., 11:30 a.m.–10:30 p.m.; Fri. and Sat., 11:30 a.m.–2 a.m.; and Sun., 5 p.m.–9 p.m. For more information, click here.
Photos credited to Jim Breslin.
