Sapa Hills: 112 Hopkins Street, Footscray, 9687 5729
My score: 4/5
Yesterday wasn’t only notable because Great Aunt Meg kissed the dog under the mistletoe then they both ran away leaving brandy butter footprints. It was also special because it’s the one day of the year Sapa Hills closes its doors. Today it’s back to business as usual. Aunt Meg is in her recliner, Blackie is waiting for the cricket to start and everything from the rice paper rolls with prawns and pork (item #1 on the menu) to fruit salad with icecream (#214 on the menu) is back on at Sapa Hills.
Holidays don’t always feel like cooking days. Sapa Hills understands this as it does many other things. It knows that Western diners love a look that goes beyond laminex – that’s why there are substantial timber tables, polished concrete floors, smart lighting features and an enormous, stylised photo of the Sapa Hills terraced rice paddies that loan the restaurant its name. Owners Tam Tran and Long Nguyen also know that Western diners don’t want to be in a room full of other whities so they balance the accessible sweet-and-sour bits of their menu with authentic Vietnamese dishes that ensure Asian customers fill a fair proportion of the tables. There are also high chairs, clean toilets and concerned – though not necessarily lightning fast or error-free – service. Vegetarians can feel confident that meat-free dishes really are: chicken stock doesn’t sneak in where it shouldn’t.
The food is fresh and carefully made. I liked the chicken wings with a peppery stuffing of chicken and prawn mince, vermicelli and mushrooms. Tangy sweet-and-sour ‘Sapa Hills sauce’ smothers good, juicy quail as an entrée and also the Sapa Hills chicken. For this Chinese-style dish, cubed meat is cooked with vegetables, then packaged in foil and set alight for an ‘ooh what are they having?’ journey through the dining room. Another chicken dish – ribs with red rice – comes with a dipping dish of spicy salt and a wedge of lemon. It made me think of tequila, though it’s much more chewy and you’re less likely to wake up tomorrow under a bridge. Rare beef coleslaw is hot, sour, juicy and crunchy in all the right places.
Sapa Hills has been open a year and has a strong following for good reasons. At a time of year when cooking feels like it should be optional, we’re lucky to have a place that makes holidays easier by forgoing its own.
First published in The Age, December 26, 2010
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