LTHForum.com

Hi,

A friend and I love soup noodles. We’ve been known to detour via Argyle Street on our ‘5 minute’ drive home from exercise class in Highland Park. Ultimately it is a two hour detour. Does it make sense? No! Does love always make sense? No.

For quite a long time, our standard order was the Tank Special Pho, Goi Cuon or Spring roll (shrimp, pork and vegetables rolled in rice paper served with peanut sauce) and Cha Gio or Egg rolls served with fish sauce.

Lately, I’ve expanded the favorites to Banh Xeo: Vietnamese crispy pancake with bean sprouts, shrimp, pork, served with mint, lettuce, cucumber and fish sauce. As the days get hotter, a bowl of soup seems a bit much, so I have steamed rice noodles such as Bun Bo Nuong Tam Cha Gio, which is steamed rice noodle served with marinated beef, shrimp, egg roll, cucumber, sweet and sour sauce, lettuce and bean sprouts with fish sauce on the side. I’d expand further but my notated menu has gone missing.

I will often look at what other customer’s are eating when I stroll in, then have the waiter identify it so I can order it. It’s allowed me to try some dishes I could not always understand from the description. I've also simply taken the waiter's suggestion advising him to find something new to try!

There is quite a long history with Tank both on LTHforum and the other board. There have been reports on

Bahn Mi

Stir-fried squid with lemon grass and hot pepper

Breakfast of champions

Pho articulated

Other soups: here and here



What you want anywhere you go, a place with a bit of heart and a sense of humor.

I do recommend Tank Noodle as deserving of the Great Neighborhood Restaurant nod.

Tank Noodle
4953 N. Broadway St., Chicago
(773) 878-2253

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Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
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Cathy,

I second your nomination for Tank. I'm not as knowledgable about Vietnamese food as I am of other types of Asain fare, but Tank is my favorite of the ones I have tried here and elsewhere. I will differ with you as far as avoiding soup in the summertime. I like a good bowl of soup, preferably spicy soup, to get the sweat going on a hot summer day. It's nature's air conditioner.

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Steve Z.
Photographer/Pseudojournalist

"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child

Argyle is a perfect example where our little plaque might help someone pick between a better and a less good place when they all look the same. (Devon would be one too, hint, hint.) So Tank is an excellent nominee.

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Having only recently visited Tank for the first time, I can't provide an updated opinion. But perhaps a completely fresh take is even more valuable in this instance. I can't claim to be well-traveled when it comes to Argyle Vietnamese spots. However, I definitely spent the better part of November and December acquainting myself with Tank Noodle and it was immediately evident to me why Tank has received the LTH love.

I made five or six trips in rapid succession, sampling the fried spring rolls, fresh spring rolls, chao tom, fried shrimp cakes, a couple different types of bun, a dynamite raw beef salad and the excellent pho. What struck me most about Tank during this stretch was that everything was on. Herbs were fresh and pungent. Fried items were light and crisp. Sauces were balanced, noodles had body, and all of the flavors were clean and vibrant.

Though everything I had there was delicious, the two dishes that really popped for me and exemplified the experience were the raw beef salad and the pho. The raw beef salad could so easily have been too harsh, or overpowered by the onions, or runied by a bad cut of beef (or a good cut of beef, badly cut), but it came out beautifully balanced, light and refreshing. So much cow has never gone down so easily. As for the pho, though not extremely well-versed I was no stranger to pho before hitting Tank, and still, for me, it was like having pho for the first time. The broth at Tank has a beautifully developed roundness, a complex balance that comes off as simple if you don't stop to really consider all that's going on. Historically speaking, I'm one who compulsively adds hordes of condiments to my pho, but Tank's was the first I felt compelled to simply leave alone.

Again, I don't have the frame of reference that some here do. However, as somebody who has only recently come to know Tank Noodle, it strikes me as absolutely worthy of renewal.

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-Dom
www.skilletdoux.com

Let me guess, you generally visited midday? I've been saying it for years now, Tank's "A team" cooks from the early hours until midafternoon, so it's best to go during that time frame.

E.M.

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"Don't even touch my gold, I'm good."

This is true, they were all lunchtime visits. For all I know, the evening kitchen specializes in paczki and popovers

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-Dom
www.skilletdoux.com

LTH,

Three thumbs up for Tank's LTHForum GNR renewal, a regular lunch spot for many LTHers, including myself. Deliciously executed Bo Tai Chanh (rare beef salad), light crisp Banh Xeo (Vietnamese pancake) and one of the best, if not the best, bowls of Pho on Argyle.

Bo Tai Chanh


While tank does the standards very well, one should explore the large menu as well, for example Banh Mi, I'll have a fried egg on the side please, or the drop dead delicious Goat Hot Pot Erik M arranged for a small group one afternoon.

Enjoy,
Gary

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Sauce on the side, always, implied, axiomatic..........never a doubt, BBQ sauce without.

Low & Slow

I'll add my voice to the chorus. Tank is deserving of a renewal. If anything, they have become more consistant since initially being awarded their GNR. Big thumbs up for Tank.

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Steve Z.
Photographer/Pseudojournalist

"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child

Hear, hear. I do love that the huge menu always allows you to try something new. Recently I had the shrimp and pork belly with sat-e sauce in a clay pot. It blew me away.

I'm not sure why Tank is one of the ones that needs new comment, seems like we've had a steady stream over time (Dmnkly's here is particularly good, that is, of all the ones that don't involve Erik talking them into making something no one else has ever heard of), but whatever, I'll bite.

I was there just a couple of weeks before the GNR process started up again, in other words, a month ago or so, and it only confirmed my longheld views-- nothing's ever bad at Tank, at worst it's the second best of something you've tried, or a worthy competitor, but frequently, more frequently than any other Vietnamese restaurant I've tried, it's the best-- the freshest, the brightest, the tastiest and most enjoyable. You can count on Tank for almost anything, and order at Tank without worries, and obviously lots of people do, because it draws a steady crowd of both Vietnamese and gringos, without obvious distinctions between what one group and the other orders. (I'm sure there are differences, but it doesn't seem like two different kitchens serving them, as it does at some places.) It's the entry point to its neighborhood-- far moreso than the more publicized Pasteur ever was-- and a very good example of it, and if that isn't a Great Neighborhood Restaurant, what is?

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Watch Sky Full of Bacon, the Chicago food HD podcast!
New episode: Soil, Corn, Cows and Cheese
Watch the Reader's James Beard Award-winning Key Ingredient here.

Amen, ditto, and you bet!

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Gypsy Boy

“How can a nation be called great if its bread tastes like kleenex?” (Julia Child)

This restaurant is currently up for GNR renewal. Please post your comments below.

Thanks,

=R=
for the GNRs

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I just wanna live until I gotta die. I know I ain't perfect but God knows I try. --Todd Snider

Twitter: ronniesuburban

I'm reminded of a thread -- not too long ago -- where Erik and I debated whether Tank was "the best" spot on Argyle. After a brief semantic argument, it became clear that we were not arguing whether or not it was "the best" but rather the precise nature of its "bestness". Nonetheless, we agreed that were every restaurant on Argyle but one to be reduced to rubble, Tank was the one we'd spare (at least I think we did).

Tank no longer seems to be the place. Other spots on the block are getting more attention, and this is good (and was, actually, the point of the aforementioned discussion). But when stopping in for a fix on a recent trip home, flavors were just a bright and vibrant as ever.

Needless to say, I support renewal for Tank.

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-Dom
www.skilletdoux.com

I really like Tank Noodle, and had one of my 5 best meals of 2008 there(my opinions about my visit are on the Tank Noodle thread.

The pho was excellent, I cant wait to get back for another bowl. Every other dish was very good as well.

Tank and Sun Wah being so close makes for a tough decision of where to eat when I am in that neightborhood. Both are GNR's I gladly drive 90+ miles each way to eat at.

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I got a real good mind.

Before Cotton was King: http://www.grubseeker.blogspot.com

I've eaten there just once, this last year, and even though if I were in that neighborhood, I'd probably give Sun Wah my next meal, Tank is justly deserving of its GNR -- huge menu, with things you don't find everywhere, and varied enough that you could probably eat for weeks without repeats. Everything we had was delicious, and they were helpful with the stranger items on the menu for those who were not familiar with the cuisine.

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What is patriotism, but the love of good things we ate in our childhood?
-- Lin Yutang

I "discovered" Tank in 2008 and while I am late to the party, i am happy to attend. This is one of my go to spots. The food is consistently wonderful and it is also a great experience.

Definitely deserves a renewal - stepping into Tank on a cold night yesterday, I was surprised to find the dining room nearly full with diners of all persuasions enjoying steaming bowls of various soups.

Service was quick and attentive, papaya salad was strewn with fresh, popping vegetables even in the middle of winter, and the pho was downright luxuriant - a broth I would happily drown in.

Oh and the bill.............

Needless to say, I support a GNR renewal.

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"By the fig, the olive..." Surat Al-Teen, Mecca 95:1"

Tank, along with Sun Wah are also my two "must eat" stops along Argyle. Tank, imho is an archetypal GNR.

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"Barbecue sauce is like a beautiful woman. If it’s too sweet, it’s bound to be hiding something."
— Lyle Lovett

"How do you say 'Yum-o' in Swedish? Or is it Swiss? What do they speak in Switzerland?"- Rachel Ray

Classic "dog with two bones" problem -- which one to eat at? You may find me one day, standing in the middle of Argyle, unable to move one way or the other deciding which to eat... or standing in the middle of Argyle, unable to move one way or the other, having decided to eat both.

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What is patriotism, but the love of good things we ate in our childhood?
-- Lin Yutang

More on Tank here and here and here

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No guts, no glory.
http://www.chicagonow.com/quips-travails-braised-oxtails
http://quipstravailsandbraisedoxtails.blogspot.com/

This place is up for renewal of its GNR. Please post your comments here until 10/10/11.

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Steve Z.
Photographer/Pseudojournalist

"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child

One one of the unseasonably cool evenings last week, we had bowls of pho a Tank. They were just right, with lots of star anise in the broth, multi-textured beef, and piles of sprouts, peppers and basil. Service was friendly and swift, though the place was pretty empty at the late hour we arrived. It's hard for me to evaluate this place because I always seem to order the pho. But there are other GNR's with followings based on a limited number of dishes. I support renewal of GNR status for Tank.

Check out the cane juice extractor in the back by the cash register, an interesting piece of restaurant equipment.

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Man : I can't understand how a poet like you can eat that stuff.
T. S. Eliot: Ah, but you're not a poet.

Tank remains my go to for Vietnamese food on Argyle Street. There may be better renditions of individual items at other places, but for overall experience, I still choose Tank almost every time. It's still a GNR in my book.

When I think of Tank I think of waiters in camo gear, banh xeo, spring rolls and duck soup- and it brings a big smile to my face.

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"In pursuit of joys untasted"
from Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata

I concur. Banh xeo, LEMON CURED BEEF SALAD. Is Tank Noodle really the best? I've had pho from half a dozen places around Argyle and in many cities of my travels and Tank's is my benchmark bowl of star anise kissed broth.

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blog E-Dogz

While the size of the menu and bustle of the packed dining room make Tank appear like the Joy Yee of Argyle, the food never disappoints. While other spots on Argyle are better at certain dishes, Tank is a great all-around favorite.

Also, Tank doesn't get the credit it deserves for having the second-best banh mi in town (second to Nhu Lan).

I've spent many a snowy night behind its steamed-up glass, enjoying a giant bowl of pho, and heartily support the renewal.

-Dan