Featured as one of Seattle’s Great Neighborhood Restaurants of America.
— September 2002 Bon AppÉtit Magazine
Fine Alsatian and German Rieslings in a Vietnamese restaurant? What a match they make for the artful cuisine of Monsoon, on Capitol Hill, where the Banhs, two siblings from Saigon, have created a hip cafe with real soul.
A select group of New Yorkers is about to get a taste of what Seattleites already know and love: the imaginative cuisine of Monsoon.
— James Beard Dinner : Northwest Asian Weekly
If the fancy wine list makes you doubt Monsoon’s authenticity, think again: The food here is as good and genuine as it gets.
— Wine Pairing with Vietnamese Food : Sunset March 2005
In addition to his renewed pride in authentic preparations of Vietnamese food, Banh wants to convey that pairing diverse wines with Asian flavors isn’t as difficult as people think.
— The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Both dishes were so confidently conceived, and so honestly good, I lost myself in their flavor.
Eric Banh’s cooking refreshes a jaded palate, reminding one that great eating has nothing to do with complication or exaggeration, let alone excess.
— The Good Rain : Seattle Weekly
At Monsoon, Banh artfully merges the traditional flavorings from his native Vietnam with the bounty of the Pacific Northwest, and neither component is overshadowed by the other.
Award of Excellence
Nearly two decades later and after distinctive paths, siblings Sophie and Eric found themselves together again, this time in Seattle, not Saigon.
Monsoon’s wine list demonstrate remarkable imagination as well as a refined palate.
— Seattle Weekly
Chefs Sophie and Eric Banh rely heavily on organic ingredients to illustrate the clean, fresh flavors of their native cuisine and never fail to astound me with their contemporary, seasonal, Northwest take on Vietnamese food, backed by Eric’s deep, fare-complementary wine list.
— Nancy Leson’s List : Pacific Northwest Magazine
Small and serene, this family-owned restaurant in the Capitol Hill neighborhood also proves a lovely feast for the senses.
Vegetables are downright sexy at Monsoon.
— Metropolitan Living Magazine
Hip, quirky, creative—this may be the most enjoyable Seattle neighborhood of all.
— Sunset Magazine : April 2000
This is gorgeous food.
— The Seattle Weekly