Viet Taam Vietnamese Cuisine

January 2024

An Orthodox European Rabbi and his beautiful Vietnamese wife open a restaurant in Netanya. There has to be a story there, but first we eat.

Viet Taam began as a modest store font restaurant on Tel Hai, a side street in downtown Netanya. By the time we discovered the restaurant it had already expanded to a garden area with comfortable well-spaced seating across the road from the original restaurant.

When you think that you have experienced the kosher version of every kind of exotic cuisine on the face of the earth, make your way to Viet Taam restaurant for authentic Vietnamese cuisine. Naomi, from Vietnam, is the chef and restaurant owner. She and her husband, Rabbi Asher Fettman, will welcome you with classic Asian hospitality.

The rabbi and his wife have quite a story. Originally from Nancy, France, Rabbi Asher spent many years in other parts of Europe, the US, and finally in Hong Kong. There he met Naomi, who was in the process of conversion. There are twists and turns in this story which ends, at least for now, on a narrow street in Netanya.

The current one-page menu has a limited selection of meat, chicken and vegetarian appetizers, soups, main dishes and drinks!

"Beer!" he said, as he ordered a bottle of Leo beer imported from Viet Nam. This is an especially light beer that I enjoyed as well. Like all the foods at this restaurant, the flavors are pleasant and subtle without being overwhelming.

We shared one appetizer of Spring Rolls. The rolls are either fried - looking something like egg rolls, or fresh reminiscent of a wrap. An appetizer includes two rolls, so my companion and i shared one appetizer of egg roll-style fried spring rolls. These were served with a lovely light dipping sauce. Not the sticky sweet red sauce that is served with egg rolls. This sauce had the fresh taste of vegetables, was not at all spicy, and was an excellent complement to the spring rolls.

The hot soup was especially attractive on the early winter afternoon that we visited the restaurant. Choose whether you prefer your soup chicken or meat based. My companion chose the soup with meat and noodles. Along with the meat, the soup had a healthy portion of scallions, vegetables, bean shoots and plenty of thick noodles, making this pretty close to a meal in a bowl.

News for vegetarians - all the meat and chicken dishes on the menu are also available parve, with tofu as a substitute. For our main dish we chose the parve version of the rice noodles and vegetables with tofu. This dish came as a large platter of rice noodles, tofu, vegetables, and chopped nuts. The nuts were on the side of the plate, making it possible for folks who would rather not have nuts, to avoid them.

Nuts are a favorite in our world, eaten either stand-alone or in foods. I sprinkled the nuts on top of the rice noodle dish, giving it a nice crunch. The dish was generous and was easily shared between myself and my companion.

Chef Naomi prides herself on her creativity developing kosher versions of classic non-kosher Vietnamese dishes. To the credit of the chef, the dishes at Viet Taam were tasty without being over spiced. They were filling without going overboard

Precious few Vietnamese ingredients are available with kashrut supervision, so in many cases Naomi has to prepare the basic source ingredients from scratch. An exception is the Sriracha sauce - imported from Thailand (kashrut chatam sofer) for folks who prefer their dishes spicy.

Many times restaurant meals are so heavy you cannot think about topping off with a dessert. I was hoping to end our meal with a nice dessert but it looks like we will have to come back for a second visit to enjoy a dessert. Desserts are prepared fresh every day and the owners are still working out the quantities needed. So next time.

The menu, we were assured, is about to grow substantially. The new menu is already out to print and is waiting for the last touches in the kitchen. By the time you read this there should be many more choices on the menu,.

Location: Tel Hai is a narrow ally way of a street perpendicular to Herzl Street, the main drag in downtown Netanya. It is easy to miss unless you know where it is. Google maps knows where it is. When we visited this restaurant on a mid-week afternoon the tables were full.

Take Away: If you cannot make it downtown order in from Viet Taam.

When entertaining a large crowd save yourself some work and order the spring roll appetizer from Viet Taam. A quick phone call and you'll have a beautiful appetizer that delights your guests.

From the Menu
Spring Roll (2) starter NIS 24
Soup (beef) NIS 54
Rice noodles main course (vegetarian) NIS 49