House of Hoi An – Dani Valent
restaurant review hoi an hotpot

House of Hoi An’s hotpot

Back to restaurant reviews
1/40 Green Street, Windsor, 9078 7448

My score: 4/5

“It’s my destiny,” says Trinh Diem Vy, when I ask her why she opened her first restaurant outside of Vietnam in lucky, lucky Melbourne. Ms Vy (say ‘Vee’) is from Hoi An, the graceful, coastal, central Vietnamese town where food is an obsession. In Hoi An, she’s a restaurant rockstar with four eateries, a cooking school and a boutique hotel. There were three big lures to Melbourne: excellent produce, her business partner is here and, most powerful of all, Ms Vy’s daughter came to Melbourne to study.

I’m grateful for the enticements because House of Hoi An is not your typical pho joint. It’s a brilliant addition to our Vietnamese dining scene, offering a fresh, impassioned take on familiar south-east Asian flavours in a colourful factory space, just off Chapel Street. The building (it used to house Stickybeak cafe) is beautiful inside and out. The exterior is painted with lanterns, which make the two-story edifice look buoyant despite its bulk. The interior is strung with lanterns too and the open kitchen is framed by colourful tiles. Only the service lags: it can be tentative and functional, which is a letdown given the thought and care evident in every dish.

Key snacks include DIY rolls, either fragrant prawn mince wrapped around sugarcane skewers or juicy barbecued pork, served with dry but quick-softening rice paper, noodles and greens. The ooh-I-wish-I-ordered-that dish is the prawn curry, sautéed with coconut cream then piled into a young steamed coconut. The curry is gentle and enticing; scraping the soft, sweet flesh from the coconut takes it to the next level. Fish in caramel sauce is subtle but winning: palm sugar, fish sauce and pepper are cooked to a caramel, then thinned to a braising liquid for mackerel fillets, which are coaxed to sweet surrender. I can’t write about it without drooling. Country chicken hotpot is studded with ‘eight treasures’, various medicinal dates, spices and roots such as ginger and ginseng. It’s served in a claypot over a gas burner so diners can finish the dish by adding mushrooms and noodles: it’s fun, tasty and has purported ‘cooling’ properties. There’s also a succulent, aromatic cinnamon beef stew and Hoi An’s classic ‘cao lau’ rice noodles served with pork (or tofu) and crispy croutons. And – oh my goodness – there’s squid stuffed with an addictive mix of minced pork, shrimp and mung bean vermicelli, so ridiculously delicious that I plan to sneak in and eat one all by myself.

Ms Vy is back and forth between here and Hoi An but when she’s on site she’s a delightfully poised presence, sunglasses hooked over her apron, standing in ferocious kitchen heat but merely glowing, likely to pass by to make sure you’re ecstatic. Next time she visits my laden table I’m going to tell her how glad I am that her destiny made this lovely food part of my destiny too.

See their website.

More Vietnamese:

Nhu Lan, 116 Hopkins Street, Footscray, 9689 7296.
Sometimes nothing but banh mi (filled baguette) is going to hit the spot and you could do much worse than the speedy, cheap, fresh pork rolls at this popular Vietnamese bakery.

MoPho Canteen, 197 Carlisle Street, Balaclava, 9531 7145.
Balaclava rightly celebrated when Uncle opened up with its mod Viet food. Now there’s also low-key MoPho with sparkling clear broths and summer-friendly noodle salads.

The Brass Coq, 470 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, 9640 0035.
A little bit glam and colonial, the food is more traditional than the cocktails (mangosteen and pineapple sling). Consider the grand upstairs lounge for end-of-year parties.

First published in The Age, November 2nd, 2015.

2018-05-04T09:58:59+10:00

Leave A Comment

© Dani Valent 2024