If Pagolac ended up closing in August 2005, it would have been entirely understandable, but all too tragic. That’s when Phuong Thi To, the Vietnamese restaurant’s longtime chef and brand new owner, was struck by a car on the way to work in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. Her children ultimately decided to persevere, and the family continues to reward San Franciscans with one of the best Vietnamese restaurants in the city.

Pagolac resides on a stretch of Larkin Street that’s rife with Vietnamese restaurants. The casual spot doesn’t take reservations, and they’re only open for dinner, so there’s a decent chance you’ll have to sign your name to a list and wait. In all, the family offers 22 different dishes, not counting Bo 7 Mon, seven flavors of beef.

Pagolac prepares good Cha Gio ($5.50), crispy imperial rolls filled with minced taro, vegetables, chicken, pork and glass noodles, all wrapped in rice paper and deep-fried until golden. In the past, I would have dipped my rolls directly into the fish sauce, but over the years, I’ve learned to appreciate the added benefits that herbs and lettuce bring to the dish. Wrap the rolls in romaine with cilantro, rice vermicelli and pickled vegetables (carrot, daikon), then dip for added crunch and tang.

Goi Ngo Sen Tom Thit ($8) was a refreshing, well-balanced salad involving sweet shrimp, strips of lean pork, mint leaves, cucumber, daikon and tiny lotus roots with chambers that look like rotary phone faces. Yes, crushed peanuts and scallions factored into the dish, and in Vietnamese food, they usually do.

Pagolac offers a number of intriguing rolls, perhaps none better than Banh Hoi Chao Tom ($9). The showpiece of this dish is steamed shrimp paste wrapped around cuts of sugarcane. Peel away the juicy shrimp, which absorbs sweetness from the sugar stalk. Bite down on the cane and get a sweet hit, but it’s otherwise inedible. The plate also contains loosely packed rice vermicelli patties that are sprinkled with peanuts and scallions.

The idea is to dip dry sheets of rice paper in hot water, which makes it possible to fold them around the shrimp cakes, vermicelli, pickled vegetables, crunchy bean sprouts, cucumbers, mint and cilantro leaves. Take the fresh roll and dip it in fish sauce.

Banh Hoi Nem Nuong ($9) is the same idea, but involving skewers of house-made pork sausage, which are marinated and grilled, pairing sweetness with sear.

Bun Bo Xao ($7) consisted of a noodle bowl that was filled to the rim with springy rice vermicelli and lean beef slices stir-fried with lemongrass and onions, plus the usual complement of herbs, lettuce, pickled vegetables and crushed peanuts. The caramelized onions added some sweetness, and the dish of fish sauce, which we emptied into the bowl, added tang.

Our final plate involved Com Tam Bi Suon Cha ($8), a heap of broken rice topped with a lacquered BBQ pork chop, a pile of salty shredded pork (and gelatinous pork skin) and a delectable egg quiche studded with bits of mushroom and pork. Fish sauce and pickled vegetables (carrots, cabage) helped to tame the dish’s richness.

My first (and by no means final) beverage for the evening was Soda Chanh Muoi ($3) a refreshing salted plum drink served on the rocks with soda water and some floating mint leaves.

Pagolac offers desserts like warm sticky rice pudding with taro topped with coconut dressing, but we were too full to comply. We ended up waiting an hour for our table, which was pushing it, but at least everything tasted good, and we got to spend some quality time with colorful Tenderloin denizens.

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