Handy Andy’s

For those who work downtown, lunch is often a choice made with blinders on, governed by whatever corridor—J Street, Capitol, Alhambra, etc.—they happen to toil near. It’s good to break the monotony every so often by journeying over to Broadway, where Andy Nguyen’s serves food that is anything but monotonous. Andy’s bills itself as both a Vietnamese and a vegetarian restaurant, one reason I was able to bring along the VIP (who enjoyed the rare luxury of me paying for the lunch, since I had spaced out our previous date), who chose the No. 71, otherwise known as the vegetarian spicy: broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, tofu and peanuts in a spicy noodle soup. She silently wolfed (she’s gonna kill me for that verb) it all down, as I did my No. 95, charbroiled shrimp and chicken saté on vermicelli. I’ve never had a bad meal at Andy Nguyen’s, and that makes Andy quite handy indeed.