Ms Trinh Diem Vy, a renown Vietnamese chef and restaurateur, known for her Hoi An restaurants including Mermaid, Morning Glory, Cargo Club and Vy’s Market Restaurant & Cooking School has stepped into Melbourne with a new restaurant located just off the busy streets of Chapel Street, House of Hoi An.
As you sit down, everyone gets a complimentary hot ginger tea and this had a strong ginger flavour. I quite enjoyed this and warmed me up on a Melbourne’s night. Mr D wasn’t a fan of ginger so of course he gave his tea to me (SCORE!)
Ginger Tea – Complimentary
To start, we got a dish from the specials board: Roll your own springrolls – pork and crab meat. Now, I’ve never had springrolls like these before and I absolutely LOVED THEM! The springroll was quite light and crunchy and the filling was FANTABULOUS!
Roll your own springrolls
I’m generally not a fan of fried wontons but these wontons were AMAZEBALL! They weren’t too oily, the filling was magnificent and the sauteed crab meat, it was to DIE FOR! A definite must order dish if you come by.
Fried Wonton with Crab Meat
Chinese influenced dish consists of delicious fried wontons with sauteed crabmeat, spring onions and tomatoes
We got a pomelo salad to share and this was AMAZEBALL! It was refreshing, the sourness and the sweetness were all balanced and nothing was overpowering. We enjoyed this dish oh so much that we were contemplating if we should get another dish.
Pomelo Salad with Chicken
Pomelo segments, shrimp, sliced onions, sesame roasted peanuts, mixed with pulled chicken, tossed in with coconut dressing
Finally our main came out which was the eggplant claypot with mince pork. If you love eggplant, you’ll definitely love this dish. The eggplant was soft and full of flavour from the mince. Dip all that in the dipping sauce and you’ve got a meal made in heaven. Mr D isn’t a fan of eggplant so he passed all his eggplant to me but loved the mince pork.
Eggplant Claypot with Mince Pork and Spring Onion Sauce
Eggplant seared with chili, garlic, spring onions, soy and fish sauce topped with sauteed pork mince
Finally, Mr D could not go to a Vietnamese restaurant and not order Vietnamese ice coffee so of course he got that at the end of our meal. This was top notch and we loved it. Not overly sweet but Mr D wanted it a touch more stronger. The only complaint was that it didn’t come out in a drip but was already mixed in a cup. We were a touch disappointed but was told due to it being a Saturday night and that it was super busy, they had to deliver it like that.
Cafe Sua Da
Vietnamese iced coffee, drip filtered with ice and condensed milk
House of Hoi An delivers great quality Vietnamese food with great service and atmosphere. However, it is a touch on the pricey side for Vietnamese but we found that it was worth it if you were looking for good food with a touch of fanciness.
Disclaimer: I was honoured to be invited to dine by House of Hoi An and all opinions expressed are my own.
1/40 Green St, Windsor VIC 3181
Tel: (03) 9078 7448
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