If you are looking for Vietnamese food that skips the fancy presentation and goes straight to the cooking, Hương Bình Restaurant is the place. It sits in the Ding How Center strip mall in Seattle's Chinatown-International District, tucked into the Little Saigon neighborhood at the corner of 12th and Jackson Streets. The address is 1207 South Jackson Street, and it does not have a street-facing facade, so you will find it inside the mall rather than out on the sidewalk.
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The place has a long history behind it. Lien Dang opened the restaurant in 1993 and ran it for more than two decades before selling the business in 2019. Her son, Scott Hoang, shared the news on Facebook at the time, noting that the new owners were allowed to keep the name and some of the recipes. Even after the sale, Dang has stayed involved, working seven days a week making the pickled vegetables, including a pickled cabbage recipe passed down from her grandmother. The family connection to the city's Vietnamese food scene runs deeper than that one kitchen: her eldest daughter, Taylor Hoang, runs another Vietnamese restaurant, District One Saigon, over in Redmond.
What sets the menu apart is its focus on the cuisine of central Vietnam, though the kitchen covers traditions from the north, center, and south. Central Hue cooking is known for its complex spice profiles and smaller portions, while the southern style tends to be sweeter with more fresh herbs. Among the dishes that get the most attention are the duck noodle soup, congee with blood sausage, pork tongue, liver, and ear, bánh bột lọc dumplings, bún bò Huế beef noodle soup, banh hoi thit nuong, bánh bèo, and jellied pancakes with shrimp flakes and scallions. The rest of the menu rounds things out with chicken phở, bún thập cẩm, bánh ướt thập cẩm, pork skewers, chạo tôm shrimp sugar cane, pork chop with shredded pork and egg, mì Quảng, and vermicelli bowls.
On the practical side, it is an easy, unpretentious visit. Expect to spend somewhere between $10 and $20 per person, and the restaurant is open every day from 8 AM to 8 PM. It does not take reservations, so you walk in and wait your turn, with lunch on weekdays being the easiest time to get a table. The dress code is casual, and payment is cash or check. Parking is available along South Jackson Street, and the restaurant gives you an hour of free parking, though one review describes the parking garage as sketchy. If you would rather not drive, the First Hill Streetcar stops right at 12th and Jackson.
Local food writers have been paying attention for years. Eater Seattle has included it in a roundup of the best Asian dumplings in the area and in a guide to fantastic Vietnamese takeout and delivery. It is the kind of neighborhood spot that does not lean on design or press, which is exactly what the James Beard Foundation's America's Classics awards were created to recognize. The neighborhood itself, the International District, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and brings together Vietnamese, Chinese, Cambodian, and Japanese communities, so a stop here fits right into the character of the area.
