Remember when Vietnamese food was not cool?
It is no secret that Vietnamese food has become trendy in the last twelve months. No longer do you need to venture out to Victoria Street, Richmond or Footscray or even Springvale to get your hands on some tasty, fresh rice paper rolls and a bowl of pho.
Whilst those three old school locations still provide the more authentic option, their grungy shops aren’t very appealing for a dinner date of any sorts. That’s where the new rice paper roll revolution steps in.
Hanoi Hannah in Prahran, Roll’d in the CBD and Miss Chu in Exhibition Street and South Yarra provide the best of Vietnam cuisine in a far more appealing setting. And they have an even deeper bag of tricks then their more traditional rivals such as the iconic I Love Pho 264 or Pho Chu The.
With a handful of quirky rice paper roll options, ranging from peking duck to thai beef to the traditional pork and prawn, this fresh wave of options has something to please everyone’s taste buds. The most prominent appreciation of Vietnamese food is in its healthiness. Nothing is deep fried and saturated in fat. In fact, vermicelli salads and big bowls of pho leave you feeling healthier than when you sat down in these tightly fitted food haunts.
For gastronomes in this city, the three venues that I am about to briefly examine have all become go-to places. With all three of them being firmly pencilled into our playbooks.
In one sentence: Hanoi Hannah is Prahran’s answer to Victoria Street. With typical pho haunts being dirty establishments adorned with minimal décor and even less friendly service, Hanoi Hannah was created to attract to the trendy crowd of Prahran.
There is no secret that Vietnamese food is deliciously simple but the team at Hanoi Hannah, namely Nick Coulter, Simon Blacher and Paul Nguyen, have coupled fresh, tasty food options with an attractive aesthetic and ambience that is sure to be a crowd pleaser for a long time to come.
The shop has been converted from an old DJ equipment store and still holds an old school feel that has been subtly decorated with Vietnamese adorning.
The hawker-style food is similar in style to many restaurants along the pho mile, Victoria Street, although it offers most things with a slight modern twist.
Widely regarded for their Pork Belly sliders, banh mi rolls and peking duck rice paper rolls, Hanoi Hannah has a menu to please everyone’s taste buds. With the prices dirt cheap, it is an option that has people lining up down the street on a nightly basis.
One word: convenient. In the heart of the city lies an answer to greasy takeaway lunches. It’s called Roll’d and if you haven’t heard yet, this Vietnamese canteen style café has become a thing of legend with lines bigger than outside the MCC before the Grand Final.
With a tight menu, Roll’d focuses on doing the little things right. Its small menu focuses on five popular dishes; pho, rice paper rolls, banh mi or baguettes, vermicelli noodles and salads.
As their name would suggest, the rice paper rolls are the crowd puller. They make a roaring trade with stylish cardboard boxes departing the shop at a rapid rate. Soft shell crab and avocado, BBQ chicken with sesame seeds and lemongrass pork and prawn are the options. Hard to go wrong if you ask me.
With such a frantic following of workers trying to tuck in to something fresh on their work break, it’s hard to be to critical of their quality. Whilst they’re not as jaw dropping as some of the non-city options, they provide a delicious healthy option to the worker on the go in the city.
Not afraid of stirring her main rivals with some eye catching banter, the founder of Misschu, Nahji Chu, has recently brought her Vietnamese tuck shops to Melbourne.
After finding wild success in Sydney, Misschu can be found at one of two inner city locations; Exhibition Street and in South Yarra. And they can easily be spotted from distance due to the constant queues flocking outside these Vietnamese hotspots.
The self-proclaimed 'Queen of Rice Paper Rolls', Misschu is like a loud mouth boxer who lives up to the hype - think Anthony Mundine but laden with success stories and not an underachieving, over-hyped chatterbox.
Described on their website as "modern day hawker takeaway with high end food at [a] low price tag" sums them up to a tee.
Misschu aims to please the modern eater who is short on time and who wants to feed their face with fresh, easy to eat options such as vermicelli noodles and rice paper rolls.
Misschu is at the forefront of the mission of transforming Vietnamese cuisine in to a sexy, trendy option. Void of the usual dirty, unhygienic stereotype associated with Victoria Street and Footscray options.
You simply can't go past the duck pancakes, satay chicken rice paper rolls and wild rice and quinoa with lemon grass beef. Oh, and did we mention their pho has wagyu beef. Think about it.
297 Exhibition St
Melbourne
276 Toorak Rd South Yarra
