By luck, on one of my visits I went with a vegetarian intent on having the curry chicken, no chicken. He asked for it extra spicy (or was it extra hot)? Like many on this board, I am not a vegetarian and suspicious of any dish that claims tofu as an acceptable substitute for meat, but it was freaking delicious. Even better than the chicken version. So good I tried making it at home (with very limited success).

It's not on the menu, so here's the first entry to the "secret menu" category. Curry chicken. No chicken, tofu! (as it would have been behind the counter of Ben Tre instead of Billy Goat) and extra spicy.

Thanks for the heads up on the salty lemonade entry. I love that stuff.

It was wet and cool outside and I'd not eaten yet for the day and the thought of traveling 30 minutes by bus to (and from) a restaurant for dinner didn't appeal to me, so I walked the 5-minutes from the front door of my building to Ben Tre for dinner at about 8 this evening.

My dinner consisted of spring rolls with shrimp and chicken in green curry.

I'm in love with Ben Tre's spring rolls, and what I had tonight didn't disappoint. The curry was a bit heavy on the coconut flavor and next time I need to remember to ask the cook to emphasize the curry more. The chicken was moist (even without the bath of curry), medallions of chicken breast - not the mystery meat chicken I've been served at all too many Asian/Chinese restaurants over the years.

It was a good dinner. Three other tables were occupied, which is probably not a bad attendance for an evening of nasty weather.

After a special trip to Downtown Evanston was aborted because the restaurant I wanted to visit was closed, I wandered about looking (unsuccessfully) for a place to have dinner before returning home and stopping at Ben Tre. The situation could have been far worse.

Shrimp Spring Rolls



Rare Beef Pho



My meal choice was a bowl of rare beef pho (which didn't stay "rare" for very long!) and an order of shrimp spring rolls. At 8:30 p.m. I was the only customer in the place – if you discount the table of 5 or 6 friends of the owner’s son and daughter who were holding court. The broth of the pho was clear and flavorful and the pieces of beef were tender.

On a lousy day like today, I was in the mood for pho. I'd never been to Ben Tre even though it's really close to me. Unfortunately, a sign in the door said closed for heating repair. I'll try later in the week. Hopefully, they won't be closed long. I've been meaning to try them out for months.

jaybo wrote:On a lousy day like today, I was in the mood for pho. I'd never been to Ben Tre even though it's really close to me. Unfortunately, a sign in the door said closed for heating repair. I'll try later in the week. Hopefully, they won't be closed long. I've been meaning to try them out for months.

A good alternative in the same general area is Hoanh Long. For me, it's a toss up between these two places when I want to eat in the neighborhood. I probably go to Hoanh Long two to three times as often as Ben Tre, but both are very good.

Hoanh Long
6144 N. Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL
(773) 583-7770

Didn't see Jaybo's post about Ben Tre's 'heating repair' problem, so I did initially drive over there. BUT not to worry...I made a quick detour to Hoanh Long for--on this frigid day--some smashing pho tai can (pho w/rare beef & soft tendon) and bun bo nuong cha gio (beef w/vegetables on vermicelli with egg roll) to go.

Warmed my bones!

I used to go to Ben Tre for lunch when I lost Vien Dong on Clark, and after Pasteur became too "commercial" and Le Colonial too expensive. Ben Tre's lemongrass chicken is very flavorful. But I switched to Hoahn Long a couple of years ago and the idea of going back to Ben Tre would never come to my mind...
By the way when you compare the number of guests, especially those of Vietnamese descent, at the two restaurants at lunch time, you will rapidly get the picture... One of them, Ben Tre, is often empty and the other one quite busy.
By the way Hoahn Long is located on the same site where one of the greatest Chinese restaurants this city ever had, Peter Lo's, was providing its very tastebud-stimulating dishes 30 years ago.
I tried many Vietnamese restaurants in Chicago since the early seventies, and even though I'm still convinced that that there is not a single really great Vietnamese eatery in Chicago, like those hat you would find in Paris or Montreal, HoanH Long is quite satisfying and more than reasonable in terms of cost per meal.