If you haven't been to this longtime Columbia City Vietnamese spot yet, you likely know it from hushed, excited local chatter. Maybe your friend heard from a coworker about the legendary fish-sauce wings, or a tipsy private chef at an omakase bar said it was their favorite meal of the year (okay, that last second one happened to us). But the praise is warranted. Billiard Hoang is a bonafide classic that hasn’t missed a beat over the years. Almost everything at this bare-bones pool hall with a large dining room is phenomenal—and under $20. Artistically assembled lemongrass chicken vermicelli bowls could feed you for lunch and dinner, rice plates with char-marked short ribs rival those of a fancy steakhouse, and those buzzed-about crispy fish sauce-slicked wings continue to be among the best of the best. Billiard Hoang also holds up at the intersection of excellence and ease. There's always a table available, whether that’s for an early lunch with the soundtrack of pool table clanking or a weeknight dinner with a big group of friends. And you know that, no matter what time you go, there will be outstanding Vietnamese dishes waiting for you—and maybe an intense game of nine-ball, too.