O MAI []

158 NINTH AVE. (BETWEEN 19TH AND 20TH STREETS) (212) 633-0550

————

‘HOW are you supposed to eat that with chopsticks?” my friend asks about hefty caramelized shrimp and bone-in pork ribs.

Good question, and not the last one we’d have about O Mai, the latest Vietnamese hotspot spawned from the insanely popular Cyclo and Nam.

On later visits, we’d ponder why one sullen waiter barely spoke and another lobbied for a bottle of wine when all we wanted was two glasses.

Perhaps the new Chelsea outpost, a snug, dimly lit space packed with a steady stream of fashionable foodies, is simply too “in” for its own good.

The food should be wow-inducing, given the reputation of its siblings. And it all sounds so good, you might just start gnawing on the menu.

Wok-seared monkfish certainly lives up to the hype ($8). The wonderful, porklike cubes play against mint, peanuts and a sesame rice cracker.

But you’ll wonder where the main ingredient is in mushroom ravioli with shallot and basil ($6) and where the taste went in bland rolls of seared tuna and mustard greens ($7).

Grilled prawns and scallops over mixed vegetables with noodles in a chili-lime-basil sauce ($17) caught our fancy, but the seafood was cooked to the Dupont stage.

Caramelized shrimp in pepper sauce suffered the same fate, while companion pork ribs were unfortunately rosy ($12). A better choice: Grilled barbecued pork Hanoi style ($12).

And pho bo is simple and satisfying, fragrant oxtail broth with beef and noodles ($9). That’s a bowl that can leave you saying, “My, O Mai.”