Present

Present is such a fitting name for the Vietnamese restaurant in Falls Church, Virginia, that we went to on Saturday evening. The food was a present to my mouth, and it paid for us to be present at the restaurant when we were. Let me explain. We were meeting up with friends who recently moved to Fairfax for dinner. We had tried to get reservations at several restaurants, but ended up not being able to, since we didn't try to settle on a place to eat until 6 on Saturday. Not a good idea. I had heard about Present through the Washingtonian's list of the areas top restaurants, and thought we should give it a try. Just so you know, you definitely need a reservation here. However, we arrived at about 6:45, and there were a few big tables in the back being held for an 8 pm reservation. We were told that we could be seated at one of the tables if we could be done by 8. By virtue of being present at the right time, we were seated without a wait on a Saturday night. This is perhaps one of the best Vietnamese restaurants I have tried. And yes, I have been to Four Sisters. The menu seemed a lot more varied and creative, and I was much more impressed with the food, even though Four Sisters was good. For appetizers, we ordered the Green Parasdise spring roll, a cold roll with shrimp and vermicelli and pork in rice paper, which is actually called a summer roll at other restaurants. I feel like these are generally all created more or less equal. We also ordered the Silken Shawl Imperial Autumn Roll. FYI - you can order half orders of these puppies. It was a fried roll wrapped in a lacy rice noodle paper, which comes with lettuce to wrap it in. I wonder if the lettuce or the lacy rice paper is the "shawl." I loved the idea of wrapping the roll in lettuce; it was something different than what's offered at other restaurants, and it was a nice contrast to the crispy roll. It may be one of the best fried rolls I've had at a Vietnamese restaurant. The main courses were excellent as well, and truly memorable. I ordered the No. 61, aka the Open Field in the Sunset, which the menu describes as a sweet and sour soup with pineapple and green vegetables. It can be ordered with either fish or shrimp. The server recommended the fish, so I went with that. The soup was awesome. I wish that I could do it justice with words, but I can't. It came with two decent size non-fishy white fish fillets and was chock full of veggies. The broth was sublime. The only other dish I tried was the spicy beef soup, which my husband ordered. It had a nice kick, and the noodles were thick and round; they looked like thick white spaghetti noodles; not the thinner vermicelli. I can't wait to go back. I am dying to try the whole fried fish, but need to go with someone who is into the whole fish thing. Just a few parting random parting thoughts. If you're looking for traditional pho, don't go here because they don't have it. They have a lot of other great soups, but no pho. Also, the prices are imminently reasonable; presentation is beautiful, and they're nice to kids there.