We stopped by Rice Paper a few months ago for a quick bite to eat before seeing a movie at the Phoenix Film Bar. Looking for something exotic, inexpensive, fast and within a 10 minute drive to our final destination, we brought up Yelp! on my phone and searched for nearby restaurants.
I love Vietnamese food. So much so, that when I lived in California and I would go back east to visit my family, I would drive an hour in rush hour traffic in Arlington, VA to go to my absolute favorite Vietnamese place called Cafe Dalat. Anyone familiar with traffic in the DC area knows this restaurant must have been amazing to suffer a voluntary 2 hour commute and it was. Alas, Cafe Dalat has since closed and that is a different story for a different day.
Pulled over on the side of the road and huddled over the phone, we saw that there was a new, modern Vietnamese place within a few minutes drive and that had great reviews and our minds were made up.
The restaurant is a small but well designed coverted store front house on 7th Street in downtown Phoenix. Although they specialize in spring rolls and fresh rice paper rolls, they also offer a selection of pho (soup), goi (salad), bahn-mi (sandwiches) as well as a few mini entrees. If you get 2-3 rolls per person and share a soup or mini entree, you'll be full by the time you leave. The service is pleasant, knowlegable and efficient. The bathrooms are unisex. The seating is cozy and intimate- think party of 2 or 4 rather than 6-8 although if you get there early enough, there is a bar style table in the middle of the restaurant that can seat around 6 people.
As for the rolls, my favorite were the crispy "Budda" and the fresh veggie tempura soft rice paper roll. If you are looking for a meat filled roll, try a traditional pork or grilled chicken with basil roll served with hoisin sauce.
The last time we went, I think we ordered crispy calimari and lemon grass chicken with garlic noodles; both great. We were sitting next to a woman and her daughter who were both eating Pho and the fragrance of it was so amazing that I had to ask them how it was. The mother said that it was some of the best Pho in town and if it wasn't 115 in August, we probably would have ventured to try some.
At around $15-20 per person including a cocktail (they have great HH prices too), this was definitely a modern take on some Vietnamese classics.