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2012-03-10
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The last time I've been to Lo Chiu was more than a decade ago. The only item on the menu which I still remembered vividly was the half-fertilized chicken egg 半生熟蛋 - a dish which I did not try then and perhaps will not try in the future. Life have moved on since but the shop location remained the same. My wife wanted to try Vietnamese food so I figure, why not give Lo Chiu another try?There was no Open Rice a decade ago but there is Open Rice now. A brief check seemed to show that their menu hav
There was no Open Rice a decade ago but there is Open Rice now. A brief check seemed to show that their menu have changed - I didn't notice anyone commenting on the half-fertilized chicken egg nor did I see it on the menu inside the restaurant.
And my wife and I went there at about 9:00 p.m., there were plenty of tables available. They have renovated since I last came here but nevertheless still looked a bit dated. It felt perhaps a bit like a Vietnamese style "Cafe' de coral" with pretty nice paintings and photographs from Vietnam.
There were a number of tables and might be a bit crowded when it's full. But at 9:00 p.m., it was fine. The waitress gave us a table near the entrance. They were quite friendly and easy going. The staff didn't mind us choosing another table at a corner further inside the restaurant as we prefer a quiet table.
The menu might be a bit different from what you'd expect when compared with newer Vietnamese restaurants like Rice Paper, Nha Trang and Pho Vietnamese Restaurant. Most Vietnamese restaurants focus on "pho", i.e. rice noodles, especially beef pho and shredded chicken pho. The menu at this Lo Chiu branch specializes in prawn dishes - baked prawns, prawns in spicy sauce, prawns in tamarind sauce, prawn cream fried rice...etc. Of course you could still find pho, but it appears not to be the restaurant's focus. Sets for two persons and three persons were available too at a fairly reasonable price - about HK$120 for each person with about 3 to 4 courses plus dessert and drinks. We chose À la carte instead. The menu was in Chinese and English and with a lot of photographs, which was good. Without further ado, a beer for me and a coconut juice for my wife:
I've always found Vietnamese beers like 333 and Tiger on the light side. It's similar to Carlsberg and lighter than San Mig. It's the first time I tried Saigon beer and it's equally light. Interestingly, my wife tried it and she thought it tasted a bit like champagne Her coconut drink was quite nice. The coconut meat inside were very soft and east to peel off for eating.Back to the food, we ordered the "Stir-fried Vietnamese rice sheets (粉皮)", "Spring rolls with Bun Hoi (濱海)", and "Prawns in chilli sauce".
First came the Stir-fried Vietnamese rice sheets:
I loosely translated this as rice sheets but it's actually made with rice, water and green bean. Imagine this as a pho chopped in thick pieces. It's fried with chopped cabbage, egg, fried garlic, spring onions and some fried prawns. The texture of the rice sheets were very chewy - a lot chewier than the fried Chinese "ho fan" (rice noodle) and more similar to "Char Kwai Tieo" or Pad Thai but even more chewy. I quite like it. It's not too oily and on the dry side, which is also good. Please note that the chef put quite a lot of Maggi sauce into the stir-fry, which, being a Hong Konger, I don't mind at all. I personally find it quite a tasty and hearty combination but some may find the Maggi taste too overwhelming.The prawns in chilli sauce came next:
We ordered one prawn which was sliced into half. The prawn came with a light chilli ketchup sauce with onion, a small amount of chilli, red pepper and spring onions. I didn't think it was spicy at all. The size was about what you'll get at Hong Kong style steakhouses (like "Tai Ping Koon"). The prawn was quite big, meaty and tasty. Unfortunately, it was slightly dry. I believe the sauce was made separately and then spread over the prawn after the prawn was slightly (over)cooked. The price was also about the same as the Hong Kong style steakhouses, i.e. about HK$100-$120. I didn't regard this as very good value for money. Overall, the prawn was just OK. Other ways of cooking the prawn might be better.Then came the highlight of the dinner:
The bun hoi, that is, pressed vermicelli cakes with spring onions and peanuts, was OK. I've tried better bun hoi at Cambo and other Vietnamese restaurants in Kowloon City. The better bun hoi would come with some sweet and sour sauce or would have more toppings on the bun hoi like shallots, different types of meat...etc. This was a bit bland and nothing special. This was really meant as the carbohydrate for the dinner. On the other hand, the spring rolls were really good. I could say it's the best I've had so far. I think the spring rolls were excellent. The outside was crispy but not overcooked. It had quite a lot of ingredients wrapped inside the spring roll and was slightly bigger than average. So the shape and how it was wrapped was important. It was well done on this aspect. Most readers who tried spring rolls might have the experience of dropping all the food inside the spring roll all over your plate as you are about to eat it despite using your best endeavors. Actually this is quite common if the spring rolls were not wrapped tightly and not cut into halves properly. No such problem happened here. The spring rolls were wrapped compactly and were sliced properly before they were fried which makes it a lot easier to eat, dip into sauce and wrap in lettuce.
The taste of the spring roll was very complex. Other than the normal ingredients such as vermicelli, carrots, it also had Vietnamese preserved sausages, a bit of pepper, a bit of mint leaves, some other pieces of pork and possibly a bit of prawns too (??). Perhaps some special ingredient which did not exist in all other Vietnamese restaurants I've ever tried. Recommended.
We concluded our dinner with a Vietnamese coconut cake:
It's chewy with strong coconut flavour and light taste of cane sugar. A plate of coconut milk with peanut and sesame sauce was served with the coconut cake. This was quite an interesting way of enjoying this dessert. Again, better than many Thai and Vietnamese restaurants I've tried in the past due to it's light and aromatic taste. You can tell it's pretty fresh and possibly homemade as the layers were not mashed together (if it's not fresh) but could be easily separated (if you chose to do so). The portion was also large and value for money.
The waiters at Lo Chiu were all pretty laid back and smiley. They were quite flexible and efficient. Someone would come immediately when I turned my back towards them ever so slightly. Otherwise, they would not obstruct you from having your dinner. Notwithstanding the small table, they would not make it an event whenever a new dish arrives but will skillfully and silently arrange the table for you to accommodate the new dish, to take away the completed dishes and to change your plates - all done without you noticing much, and will not obstruct your conversation and dinner. Very well trained and professional service - much better than many so called "high class" hotel restaurants. All in all, a nice option for casual dining especially if you wished to try less common Vietnamese cuisine.
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