Author: Kevin14

Team Food Soc came here for an early dinner and we had the following: Kangaroo Kebab ($5.50) Prawn Spring Roll (Cha Nem) ($5) with 6 kinds of veggies, clear noodles and wrapped in egg roll pastry and served with fish sauce Grilled Lemongrass Chicken Salad...(Goi) ($7) with daikon, carrots, roasted crushed peanuts, fried onions, herbs, and fish sauce Vietnamese Style Agedashi Tofu ($5) Pho with rare beef, beef brisket, and beef ball ($8.50, regular) (Pho Tai Nam Bo Vien) Starting with the Kangaroo Kebab, this is the first restaurant in Vancouver where I’ve seen kangaroo on the menu. The free range meat tasted a bit like beef but a little gamier; it had a nice aftertaste and the fact that this meat was juicy and tender also helped. On a second visit I’d like to try the Elk Kebab and compare the gaminess. It’s this funky choice of meat that has me curious. The Prawn Spring Rolls came with full-sized prawns and while I couldn’t name the six veggies inside, they had a good crunch to them and didn’t explode all over the place as I bit into it. I usually prefer spring rolls with rice paper but the shrimp made these spring rolls a lot better. The Grilled Lemongrass Chicken Salad was a pleasant surprise. After emptying the sauce bowl into the salad, I found the chicken to be tender and had an herby taste to it. The daikon to chicken ratio was a little high for my tastes so I recommend dunking all the sauce into the salad to make it easier to eat the whole salad. The Vietnamese Style Agedashi Tofu essentially mixed Japanese fried tofu with a Vietnamese beef broth. The result? I had to submerge my tofu into the broth to get as much flavour as I could but in the end I think these taste best with some hoisin or sriracha sauce on top. The Pho was my favourite part of the meal. The noodles were almost as chewy as I liked but the broth blew me away. This beef broth only contained about 4-5 grains of MSG and tasted like a full beef broth. I usually don’t drink the soup from a bowl of pho (either it’s too water, too salty, or I find something to complain about), but I could keep drinking the soup here. It was that good. The beef toppings were also juicy and full of flavour. I added hoisin sauce for an added boost in sweetness. Full review at: http://noshandnibbleblog.com/post/127010690478/hanoi-bistro-vancouver-review-vietnamese-dinnerMore