Eating Dallas: Green Papaya

Green Papaya is a Vietnamese restaurant in the Oak Lawn area and not in any way affiliated with the hot dog joint in NYC of a similar name.

It's a nice little place that was fairly busy for a 9pm on a Tuesday. The main dining room was half filled and the patio only had a couple of empty tables, which made sense since it was a nice night out especially with their cooling misters.

I started with the Tropical Roll appetizer consisting of Shrimp, Snow Crab Meat, Mango, Jicama, Vermicelli and Lettuce Rolled in Rice Paper, served with Peanut Sauce. The roll itself was tasty but the peanut sauce could have been a little spicier for my taste. For my main dish I ordered the Hot and Spicy Pork with Baby Bamboo Shoots, Carrots and Onions. This was good with a nice spicy kick. The meal was big enough to take home half for lunch the next day.

Half way through the meal an interloper sat down at the table next to us on the patio. Anyone who has spent a Thursday night at the Blarney Stone would recognize him as the old, skinny, often shirtless, belligerent bum that stalks lower Greenville. The manager quickly came out to get him to leave but the bum merely barked -- and I'm not being metaphoric, he actually barked -- back at the manager. A few minutes later he stumbled off of the patio and back to his homeless oblivion.

Overall the food was good, but nothing special. I would like to go back and try some other items as there were several other items on the menu that sounded good.

B
3211 Oak Lawn Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75219