This is it, this is my favourite Vietnamese restaurant in Perth. In the next few paragraphs I will go into specifics as to why it is my favourite, basically I just find the atmosphere electric and the food is delicious.
On a saturday morning I received a message out of the blue from one of my buddies paul. The message simply said “HVS today?” Now ‘HVS’ is actually our code for ‘hardcore Vietnamese soup’. My answer was a simple ‘hell yeah!’ and a few hours later we were talking about food on a destination to eat food (we probably have a problem with food but meh!).
As we walk up to the restaurant we see a scene which very much resembles typical restaurants in Vietnam. A small restaurant without much frontage and a small group of people mingling around the front, half of them smoking and the other half playing on their phones.
As we enter we see a long communal table down the center and individual tables along the left and right. There is a constant buzz of Vietnamese chatter between both the diners and the waitresses. The decor is fantastically barren with unpolished tables, a few coloured A4 sheets with menu specials and of course the little condiment and chopsticks that decorate every table.
After a short wait we are greeted by a very friendly waitress who takes our orders. Paul and I have both had HVS enough to know what we like, so ordering is pretty much a formality from now.
We talked about food for a little longer and we were soon joined with our drinks. We both shared an iced coffee. Much like I said in my Lido review, Vietnamese iced coffee is both rich and sweet at the same time. You can pretty much feel your body waking up as you drink the cool, thick liquid.
More talking about food and life happened and then our entrée arrived. This is something that paul knew he wanted to order as soon as I mentioned we were going here. This is a little sign of how inventive the Vietnamese people are, so they take a chicken wing then debone the last joint. The deboned meat is wrapped around mince pork and wood ear mushroom, then the whole thing is battered and deep-fried. Pretty sinful but absolutely fantastic. Better than any KFC in my opinion.
My bowl of goodness arrived not long after that. I wasn’t exactly feeling like soup that day so i ordered a cold noodle salad. The noodle salad had chopped up bits of really fresh spring rolls, something called ‘bi’ in Vietnamese (pickled pork skin that has been mixed with ground toasted rice) and a little mixture of carrot, radish and cucumbers. This was fantastic mixed with some fresh herbs and some chilli sauce, it’s the sort of bowl of goodness that you actually feel quite healthy and full of energy after eating.
After a little bit of considering paul decided to go for one of the classics, pho with raw beef, brisket, tendon and tripe. Paul’s opinion of this dish was “It was fantastic, the broth had so much flavour and I enjoy the side of fresh herbs and bean shoots that always accompany the meal.”
We chatted for a little bit longer and after our food had settled we left feeling very content, as I was leaving I thought to myself “this is still the best Vietnamese restaurant in Perth.”
