Bluff City Vegan Eats: Phuong Long

Gosh, it's been ages since I've done a Bluff City Vegan Eats post. I only do these when I try a new vegan-friendly Memphis restaurant, and I guess I've been eating at the same places over and over lately. But a couple Fridays ago (yes, I'm quite behind in postings some things), I joined my co-workers Susan and Alexandra in checking out Phuong Long for lunch.

Susan, the managing editor of the Flyer, wanted us to eat there so she could blog about it for work (which she did here on Hungry Memphis), but I wanted to piggyback off her post so I could make sure to include it in my vegan-friendly Memphis restaurant guide.

Anyway, this is a newish Vietnamese place located just a block from my house, so I've no excuse for waiting around to try it. My neighborhood in Crosstown/Evergreen is just around the corner from Memphis' Little Vietnam, and I tend to stick to the Vietnamese joints I already know and love. Plus, the Vietnamese restaurant that previously occupied Phuong Long's space wasn't very vegan-friendly, which is strange for that cuisine. I guess that kept me from trying the restaurant under its new ownership for a bit.

Long story short, Phulong Long is very vegan-friendly! They have several veg dishes under the "Tofu & Vegetarian" section of the menu. Since I have a personal goal of trying every Lemongrass Tofu dish in town, that's what I ordered.

Since we were there for lunch, we ordered the lunch special, which comes with steamed rice and an eggroll. The eggrolls have meat unless you ask for a veggie one, but they're happy to sub. Also, I rarely inquire about the vegan-ness of eggroll wrappers because it seems that many Vietnamese places interchange the words "eggroll" and "spring roll," and many wrappers (especially the Asian brands) are made without eggs. I seriously doubt these guys are using the eggy Nasoya wraps. That being said, feel free to ask and let me know. I tend to shy away from asking too many questions when there's a language barrier.

Anyway, the lemongrass tofu was fantastic! It was saucier than I'm used to for lemongrass tofu, but I enjoyed that. And their tofu is fried to perfection. Pho Binh still makes the best lemongrass tofu in town, but Phuong Long isn't far off.

Susan ordered the Tofu with Bok Choy.

And Alexandra had the Curry Tofu.

Both agreed that the food was really yummy. Since I can walk to Phuong Long from my house, I'll definitely be going back soon.

Phuong Long is located at 306 N. Cleveland. Call 901-725-5079.