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There’s no shortage of dining options on the Mission’s 16th Street corridor. But few if any can claim an origin story as sweet as Bee’s Vietnamese Street Food, which opened in October.
Owners Satoru “Scott” Kimura and Truong Anh Thu Do, who goes by Sofia, fell in love about five years ago. When she took him to her hometown of Ben Tre, Vietnam, about two hours south of Ho Chi Minh City, they shared a humble street food meal: a plate of com tam, grilled meat served with broken rice grains. Kimura was captivated by the flavor of the chargrilled pork and tender rice, and when they came home, they dreamed of opening a restaurant where they’d share the dish with others. Now that dream is a reality.
“Everybody serves pho,” Kimura says. “But we wanted to bring something different to the city, something like what you actually find in Saigon.”
Bee’s broken rice plates come with a pork chop or a tender chicken thigh coated in a lightly sweet marinade ($18), or both ($20). All come with sliced cucumber and tomato, plus do chua, a salad of pickled carrots and daikon. To fill out the meal, Bee’s serves a wedge of cha trung — an omelet studded with rice noodles, wood ear mushrooms, and carrots — and a bowl of steaming broth.
Kimura wouldn’t share exactly what goes into the simple but soul-satisfying soup save that it’s made with “lots of vegetables” from a recipe they got from Sofia’s mom, who flew out to double-check the couple had accurately captured the flavors.
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To start a meal at Bee’s, split a plate of sweet and spicy chicken wings (four for $11), each encased in crispy skin lacquered in a caramelized umami bomb, or maybe the crunchy papaya salad ($10), which leans more salty and Thai-style sweet and is tossed with rau ram, peppery leaves of Vietnamese coriander, and tiny shreds of beef jerky.
There are also bowls of noodles, each starring that same rich vegetable broth, as well as fried spring rolls ($10), tightly stuffed with shrimp, crab, and vegetables.
Bee’s narrow home, just west of Guerrero, used to be a ramen shop, and the couple lives right around the corner. There are just three tables in the front of the dining room, a handful of stools facing the kitchen, and a few more tables in the back. On most nights, Kimura and Sofia do all the cooking and serving.
Like just about everything at this mom-and-pop shop, there’s a sentimental reason for the restaurant’s name. “Bee,” Kimura explains, is Sofia’s childhood nickname and means “big eyes.” Like the restaurant’s recipes, she got it from her mom.
The Standard recommends:
Sharing is the best (and thriftiest) way to dine here. The below generously serves enough for two.
The Standard recommends:
Vietnamese papaya salad: $10
Sweet and spicy chicken wings: $11
Chicken broken rice: $18
Total: $39 for two