Hong Kong – Nha Trang – Vietnamese Cuisine

Restaurant: Nha Trang Vietnamese Cuisine
Cuisine: Vietnamese/Fusion/Euro-Asian
Last visited: April 30, 2010
Location: 3 locations – Central, Hong Kong (Lan Kwai Fong)
Address:
MTR: Central Station
88-90 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2581 9992
Price Range: $70-140HKD/person $10-20CAD/person

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: n/a (didn’t try enough)
Service: 3
Ambiance: 4
Overall: n/a
Additional comments:

• Cuisine from Hanoi and Hue regions
• Traditional Vietnamese dishes
• French-Vietnamese fusion dishes
• Traditional Vietnamese food with contemporary twists
• Lots of variety
• Popular to tourists, but does attract locals
• Best with groups of 4
• Trendy atmosphere
• Popular/Busy/Line-ups
• Clean and contemporary
• Moderately priced
• Coffee beans imported from Peliku, Vietnam
• Fish sauce imported from Phu Quoc, Vietnam
• English/Vietnamese/Chinese menu
• Pictures of food
• Very detailed descriptions of menu items
• Small selection of home made Vietnamese desserts
• Daily 12pm-11pm
• Insider tip: La’ Taste Vietnamese Cuisine – 1/F 34-38 Stanley Street, Central HK offers almost the same menu for a bit cheaper. It’s opened by the ex-chef from Nha Trang Vietnamese Cuisine…DRAMA! 🙂 (I randomly came across it the next day)

**Recommendations: n/a I didn’t try enough, but the soft shell crab rolls were good. Nha Trang’s specialties are: Vietnamese sticky rice, Sizzling Crepes Saigon, Broken Rice Platter, and Cha La Lot Hanoi (Barbequed Cha Hanoi – BBQ pork patties with lemongrass)

Nha Trang Vietnamese Cuisine is a Vietnamese restaurant in Hong Kong specializing in traditional Vietnamese dishes with contemporary twists. The menu and restaurant suggest that it serves traditional Vietnamese food, which is true, but they also have several Euro-Asian and fusion specialties.

I came here for dinner #3 after dinner #1 at Kau Kee for their famous beef brisket noodles and dinner #2 at Wang Fu for their famous home made dumplings. I even ended off the night at one of my favourite dessert places in Hong Kong, Tong Pak Fu which serves shaved ice milk!

The line up was long and at this point it was around 9pm or later. The reason I wanted to come was to try the fusion salad rolls. I figured that Vancouver, BC has pretty decent Vietnamese places so it wasn’t necessary to come here for dinner. However when I looked at their menu I kind of regretted not trying a full dinner here. Everything looks and sounds really good and several items I’ve never seen or heard of before.

I don’t know how authentic Vietnamese the food is, given the touristy location, Westernized atmosphere and overall presentation – however what I had was still very good. It’s fresh food, clean, contemporary and moderately priced for the food they serve. I wouldn’t say it’s a must try, but I would go back to explore more items for sure.

On the table:

**Soft Shell Crab Rolls – 5/6

• The crispy fried soft shell crab is well balanced with crunchy and cool fresh cucumber and herbs in this salad roll $48HKD – about $6.50CAD
• This is the most popular fusion roll they serve. I can’t believe I haven’t seen these creative rolls in Vancouver yet – they’re delicious!
• There was lots of crab, lettuce, cucumber and pickled radish. Surprisingly no vermicelli which is different.
• The crab was juicy and tender with a lightly seasoned thin batter.
• It’s $6.50CAD for the plate above, which isn’t exactly cheap, but it’s what I expected.

This is home made Nouc Cham – Vietnamese salad dressing. This is what you eat the salad rolls with. The fish sauce in it is imported from Phu Quoc, Vietnam. I was a bit disappointed though because it was watered down.

Filet of Sole Salad Rolls – 4.5/6

• Strips of fried sole, tomato and cucumber salsa and spicy mayonnaise created this special salad roll $46HKD – about $6.50CAD
• It was deep fried cod and it tastes like a salad roll with fish and chips. In a good way!
• It was a pretty big piece and again there’s no noodles so it’s almost all fish.
• The batter was perfectly seasoned with salt or seafood seasoning and it was very crispy, yet the fish was still moist. Very fresh and made upon order.
• It had this thin layer of decently spicy mayo that was just perfect. It was like an Asian version of tartar sauce. It tasted better than it looked which is always good.
• I thought this was overpriced though. It should have been cheaper than the soft shell crab roll.

I zoomed in the table next to us because they ordered the grilled lemongrass beef rolls which I wanted to get a photo of. Grilled lemongrass beef salad rolls: char grilled lemongrass beef, fresh Thai basil and cucumber make up this Saigon favourite $46HKD

This is also from the table beside us – it looked AMAZING! Grilled Fresh Water Prawn: Mekong River giant prawn are halved and grilled with garlic and butter $89HKD.

Other delicious sounding items from the Nha Trang menu (descriptions from menu):

Ox Tail Ragout – The Vietnamese version of the French “boeuf bourguignon”, the Viet spice it up by adding star anise, annatto seed and lemongrass $78

Braised Pork Belly in Coconut Juice – A very traditional Vietnamese comfort food reserves for tet (Lunar New Year). Selected choice cut of meat simmered in young coconut juice for five to six hours for it’s tender savour $89HKD

Roasted Suckling Pig – Marinated overnight in am herbs and wine stock then slowly roasted to perfection with a crispy skin and a moist and tender meat served with basil pesto $118HKD

Hanoi Fried Fish with Dill – In this classic dish from Hanoi, the fill is just as important as the fish. We use fillet cod marinated in herb and spice concoction. Slightly friend then cooked in a light sauce $128HKD

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