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2021-01-18
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When it comes to Vietnamese food, I always think a simple bowl of pho. It's what I grew up with in Canada. Where cheap but filling bowls of pho was my staple comfort food. As I grew into adulthood, I realized that Vietnamese food was more than expansive than I ever knew when I did a trip to Vietnam. It was fantastic but not fancy. Just simple, down to earth but delicious. And now living in Hong Kong, I'm always on the look out for new Vietnamese restaurants that open up to give them a try. Nam V
Nam Viet Nam Cafe was listed as new so I decided to give it a try for an early dinner. Located in Mong Kok, it's actually in a building with a number of other restaurants. We arrived for an early dinner and it appeared to be half full. Quite a good sign for a new restaurant during these times
Seating is quite spacious with lots of light.
Menu is in English and Chinese. There is no 10% service charge.
I ordered an Egg Coffee ($28). Definitely a more fancy version of the one on the streets of Vietnam. But it tasted delicous. The top had a custard like texture, sweetned by the condensed milk. The coffee was strong, strong enough to counter balance the sweet topping.
It came with a mungbean cake to compliment the entire item. Sweet and powdery, this was perfect with the coffee.
Boyfriend had the Ice Microalgae, Lemon and Ginger Tea ($28) out of curiousity at what was a microalgae. Apparently, that is what creates the blue color in the drink. No food coloring was used at all. The drink was refreshing with a hint of ginger. The microalgae didn't leave any strange after taste.
We shared a couple of starters. This is the Crispy Rice Paper ($48). A more fancy version of the one we had on the streets of Vietnam. It was fantastic finger food. The the rice paper was thin and super crispy. Not oily at all. It was topped with Vietnamese Chinese sausage or lạp xưởng. I liked it more than the usual Chinese sausage and reminded me of the Canadian Chinese sausage I had. It was sweet, the skin not as thick. It didn't feel like biting into a whole shard of fat. There was also some pickled vegetables and dollops of siracha mayo. Beautiful plating and perfectly balanced in flavors and textures.
We also ordered another starter: Spicy Braised Pork Belly with Crispy Rice ($48). We didn't expect it to be so generous. The pork belly was glistening and if you love fat this is for you as it was sweet and savory, garnished with a spicy jalapeno and sircha mayo. The rice cracker was crunchy, giving it texture to all the gluttony.
At every new Vietnamese restaurant, we have to try their pho and chose Granny's Signature Pho ($88). Though the bowl not big as most places, it was packed with stuff! There was sliced beef, beef cheek, beef tendon, beef shank, beef balls and a fried dough stick. The staff informed us this was a recipe passed down from the chef's very own grandmother. And it was definitely different than most pho I've had. This was very rich in flavor, a bit more oil than most. There was a subtle hint of spices (star anise??) that made it feel more like a beef brisket broth. The meat was tender and soft. The tendon itself literally melted in my mouth. I liked the addition of the fried dough stick, giving it a crunchy element to soak up the delicious soup. The noodles were springy. This was a really good bowl of pho.
The food was not just beautiful to look at but it tasted fantastic as well. There were textures and various flavors. Nothing was one dimensional. Will be back for lunch as I saw they offered value for price lunch sets.
张贴
