Foodie Log 5, date July 5, 2010

Ahhh holiday Mondays ... SO much better than work Mondays (by leaps and loads!) What better way to cap off a long weekend than a dinner with friends at a lovely restaurant?

We first visited Four Sisters in its previous location, Eden Center. There wasn't much to the decor in that location - it just seemed like your average Vietnamese restaurant (kind of a bare-bones cafeteria feeling) - but the food, the food was great! We never made it back to the Eden Center, but thankfully Four Sisters felt our love and came closer to us to its current location in Merrifield :) Apparently, it also felt the need to dress up because the restaurant looks completely different - with a more upscale-feel to it (lovely paintings spanning the muted cream walls).

Now, enough decorator talk, about the food - it's awesome! I can't speak to their pho due to my little pho thang long filter, but everything else is lovely. In the winter, I like to get their clay pots (generally the ones with chicken #96 or #97, sometimes fish #113). With warmer weather, I like to start off with their green papaya salad (#12 or #134 for vegetarians) and go for one of the vermicelli noodles (#30 or #37) or grilled chicken (#77). The food just seems so fresh and they don't skimp on the portions - always a plus in my book. I also like to get their jasmine tea - not that it's anything special, it's just jasmine tea, but they bring out the pot for you and it's nice and jasmine-y (oh yeah, I am so impressing everyone with my foodie words! haha).

Their menu is quite the tome, so I would recommend studying it before you get there. Also, call for reservations if you are planning a trip, the place is generally packed on the weekends and you don't want to be one of the ones staring longingly and drooling at everyone else's food.

Stats:
Four Sisters, Vietnamese
Merrifield plaza by the closed movie theater
the bathroom is a continuation of the lovely ambiance in the dining area (without the food, of course) and has good trash placement so you can open the door with the paper towel and throw it out in the trash without trouble (the sink however has some wetness issues - so stay away from the edge)