DD Mau Vietnamese Eatery

DD Mau built its name on South Grand's Vietnamese corridor, and the Webster Groves room carries that standard into a bigger space, the former Weber Front Row Grill location, with room to seat a lunch rush without a wait. The pho is the fair test of any Vietnamese kitchen and this one holds up: clear broth, fresh herbs on the side, the kind of bowl that reads as considered rather than rushed. The banh mi does the harder job of balancing pickled vegetable, cilantro, and protein on bread that has to hold its structure, and the vegetables across the menu come through crisp and clearly cut that day, not soft from sitting. Spring rolls round out the order, the cold rice-paper kind that live or die on how tightly they are rolled and how bright the dipping sauce is, and the counter service format here favors that kind of made-to-order rice-paper work over a steam table.

The room itself is counter service, order at the register and find a seat, which keeps a bigger dining room moving fast at midday without needing table service overhead. That format also makes DD Mau a natural for takeout, and the takeout record holds: food arrives in good shape, vegetables still fresh, nothing wilted from the drive. Webster Groves has been punching above its size on the dining side for years, and a South Grand transplant setting up here says something about where Vietnamese food in this metro is expanding, out of the Tower Grove corridor and into the county. Prices sit in the moderate range, which keeps this a repeat lunch spot rather than an occasion room.

The crab-and-something combo plate at the counter suggests a menu with some range beyond the three headliners, worth exploring on a second visit. This is a room built for regulars: quick in, fed well, quick out, with the option to sit and stretch out in a dining room that does not feel cramped even at capacity.