Cafe Hanoi partie un: the vegan set-menu

Aromatic vegetable curry

This is partie un of a two-part series on Café Hanoi. In this part I sampled their vegan set-menu.

Sweet soy and black pepper tofu (top) and green papaya salad (bottom)

Café Hanoi needs no introduction. An Auckland stalwart that has been there since the beginning of the Britomart redevelopment, it still resides on the corner of Galway and Commerce Streets, behind a big red door. Inside the aesthetic is simple but effective, with rustic half-plastered brickwork, and white paper lanterns dangling from the ceiling like low-hanging moons.

As the restaurant’s name suggests, their food hails from northern Vietnam. There has always been historical rivalry between the south and the north, but many can agree that the north has the most culinary prowess. For those well versed in Vietnamese cuisine, on the menu there are dishes well recognised (such as shaking beef and Hanoi-style grilled pork or bun cha) and dishes more inspired by Vietnamese flavours (caramelised claypot salmon with palm sugar, shallots, red chilli and fresh dill).

During American Express Restaurant Month in August this year, Café Hanoi produced a special vegan menu ($40 per head) which I’m happy to report has remained when I revisited the restaurant a month later. The menu kicks off with fresh rice paper rolls filled with crispy kumara, cucumber, pickled cabbage and herbs, served alongside a hoisin peanut dipping sauce. These were refreshing morsels rich in textures: crunchy kumara; toothsome rice paper and crisp vegetables. The accompanying dipping sauce was bursting with savoury flavours and spice.

Twice-cooked eggplant

This was followed by four large plates to share, an aromatic vegetable curry, twice cooked eggplant, a green papaya salad and a sweet soy and black pepper tofu stir fry. The aromatic vegetable curry was the kind of dish that warms the cockles of one’s heart. A creamy yellow curry filled with shiitake mushrooms, eggplant, green beans, heirloom carrots of various colours, lotus root and new potatoes, it came peppered with crispy curry leaves and chopped peanuts.The table crowd favourite was the stir fried sweet soy and black pepper tofu with seared bok choy. This dish had a beautiful smokiness to it and full, umami-rich flavours with a touch of warmth lent by the black pepper. This is the kind of dish that should be served to tofu-naysayers. No one would be able to argue that it is not delicious. I have a personal weakness for eggplant and was well pleased by their version, which is initially steamed and then stir fried, again the breath of the wok hei leaving its mark in a wonderful way. The meltingly tender eggplant was nicely contrasted with toasted sliced almonds and spiked with refreshing herbs and a tangy soy, garlic, ginger and lime dressing. Much to my disappointment, the green papaya salad fell flat on its face. This is a salad ubiquitous to that part of the world, and done widely and well in a number of Auckland restaurants with a South East Asian slant. So I was surprised to find Café Hanoi’s version bland, and missing the zing that I have come to love about it. It was generously showered with chopped peanuts, but all the peanuts in the world couldn’t lift this salad out of obscurity.

After a short time deliberating dessert choices, it became obvious that we three women should order all three desserts to try. Asian desserts have often struggled to appeal to the western palate, and so too did these dessert struggle to rise above so-so. The chè was a traditional Vietnamese offering of sago pearls (for the record, of which I am a fan), dressed in coconut milk, and served with jackfruit, palm seeds, pomegranate, fresh coconut flesh and a mango sorbet. Whilst refreshing, the dish lacked a cohesive sweet element that would make it taste like a dessert and instead tasted more like an average chia pudding concoction aimed at the health conscious brunch-goer. The mango sorbet was sweet but without the necessary tartness to make it a great sorbet. The Marou dark chocolate delice veered more towards the more recognisable of desserts, but again was good without being great. Their delice lay somewhere between a chocolate mousse and a panna cotta but lacked that key luxuriant richness its namesake demands; it was topped with shredded coconut which added a tropical element to the dessert and crushed cocoa biscuit crumb reminiscent of Oreos. The crowning sour cherry sorbet was at least better than the mango sorbet before it, but again a touch tarter on the sorbet and a touch richer in the delice and then the stars may align for this dish. Our final dessert was the citrus and spice crème brulee which was interestingly coconut based. The caramelised top was a pleasure to crack through but, in the words of my friend Jamie, the custard was like eating a citrus-based body butter.

It is great to see a restaurant like Café Hanoi creating a vegan menu, especially in today’s environmentally conscious climate. The menu is fantastic value for money and I would encourage you to give it a go one day. Or, as you’ll read in the second part of this series, you could forgo the desserts in favour of sampling the main menu more widely.

Spice and citrus creme brulee (top), chè (right) and Marou dark chocolate delice (bottom)

Crispy kumara fresh rice paper rolls

Cafe Hanoi
Excelsior Building, corner Galway and Commerce Street,
Britomart,
Auckland

Ph. (09) 302 3478