Restaurant: An Nam @ Festival Walk, Kowloon Tong
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Meal: Dinner
📍: Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong
Shop L1-20, L1/F, Festival Walk, 80 Tat Chee Avenue
Executive Chef: Giang Muoi
An Nam has been serving up Vietnamese food in 2 locations in Hong Kong (Causeway Bay and Kowloon Tong).
It was 8pm New Years Eve when my friend and I were figuring out dinner options before the countdown madness. We knew we needed to avoid Victoria Harbour at all costs due to road blocks because of the midnight fireworks.
We finally decided on Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong, a little ways away from the action. Kowloon Tong is a residential area for the rich and famous (ie. Bruce Lee, etc) in Kowloon back in the day when the local film studio was situated there. It is now an area known for it’s expensive single homes, top international schools, and discreet lovers’ dens for the rich and famous. It’s a place you can find the rich, their kids, their kids’ teachers, their wives, and their mistresses all in the same place!
But I digress.
An Nam is nestled in Festival Walk, a large shopping center with a big food court situated in the heart of Kowloon Tong, it is the only reason for a simpleton, outsider (like me) to venture into the area. The food.
Our Order:
Price:
Seated right away, we decided on the Deluxe Set for 2 for $668HKD ($85USD), which came with:
- An Appetizer Platter
- Soup
- Main Course platter
- Dessert Platter
- Drink – additional $30HKD/drink ($4USD)
The waiter later moved us to a table situated right above the shopping mall ice rink where a junior hockey game was going on. Sports entertainment while enjoying fancy Vietnamese food…nice!
Appetizers:
Overview
The appetizers came out looking like what I would get at Le Soleil (an upscale, vietnamese restaurant serving patrons at the Royal Garden Hotel in Hong Kong)! We are off to a great start An Nam!
Chargrilled Pork Steamed Rice Roll
This was my favourite item on the appetizer platter. The filling was like a Vietnamese salad roll (gỏi cuốn) but instead of the thin paper rice wrappers that we all know and love from salad rolls and viral Tik Tok rice paper recipes. They used steamed rice rolls instead, which is more technical by first making a batter with rice flour and tapioca starch. The technique is in the balance of the starches, getting that thin, but silky smooth slighty chewy texture. In Cantonese we call this 腸粉 (Cheurng Fun).
This type of rice roll is normally use in bánh cuốn, giving a more hearty element to the appetizer platter, excellent for winter.
The outer steamed rice roll was indeed, thin and soft, something that takes a lot of skill to do. Very impressed.
The stuffing was lemongrass marinated pork that you normally get on skewers. It was paired with paired with julienned (a fancy culinary term for things cut in matchstick sizes) cucumber, pickled daikon and carrots. With some lettuce giving not only a tangy, sweet freshness to the dish, but a crunchy freshness. A flavour bomb of a dish that packs a bit of heartiness and freshness.
Minced Pork Lettuce Wrap (Laab)
Unlike the usual Laab (sometimes called Larb), originated in Lao and Thailand. It is a cold, refreshing, vinegary mince meat dish (spicy in the thai version), with onions and basil wrapped in lettuce. An Nam’s take on this dish is more catered to the local palette. Instead of the sour, slightly spicy filling, they filled it with that of Vietnamese steamed rice roll (bánh cuốn) a warm minced pork, onion, basil. It was cooked with some sort of binding agent, like starch or egg, a technique similar to “velveting” that gives the pork that ultra-soft texture that the local Hong Kong diners love. Very smart choice for the location of the restaurant.
Crispy Cuttlefish with Corn
A fried fishcake with bits of corn, but unlike regular fishpaste, the cuttlefish gives it a creamier, firmer texture. Paired nicely with their slightly spicy fish sauce, it was a nice fragrant start of the meal with a tangy, sweet, spicy sauce to open the appetite.
Soup:
Vietnamese Bouillabaisse
Bouillabaise is a fish stew for peasants, made popular in Marsaille, France. The French Bouillabaisse has a base of tomato and saffron. Vietnamese Bouillabaisse comes from French influences when Vietnam was a French Colony. The Vietnam version has a curry flavour profile and ranges throughout the region of Vietnam.
An Nam’s version is that of a thick, creamy, pumkin-like soup base full of fish and seafood. Delicious in it’s own right.
Shrimp Toast
Minced shrimp on baguette then deep fried. How can you fault fried baguette with shrimp?! You can’t.
It was the perfect vehicle to lap up the thick soup, the fried bread gave the soup an extra fragrant of flavour from the oil whereas the mince shrimp gave it a nice textural component. Usually the biggest problem is the bread will soak up all the oil, making the dish too rich and oily.
But it was perfect. Which meant they had kept the oil temperature hot enough to sear and not soak.
My only critique is that, they should have offered a bigger portion!
Main Course
Overview
Main courses should be the star of the show and this is the main part where it let everyone down.
The presentation felt rushed and “rustic” thrown together haphazardly. But it’s a mall restaurant and if I keep talking like this, I’m going to sound more like a Karen than someone who is objectively critiqueing the food. But maybe it was because the appetizer gave me Le Soleil vibes and the price was a bit more than I expected for a mall restaurant.
I digress.
Let’s talk overall flavours. The flavours were there. Chef Giang Muoi is an expert in flavouring and pairing. But it was the execution that failed them. I get it. An Nam has 3 restaurants across Hong Kong and this is the only one in Kowloon, so I can imagine, Chef probably spends most of her time on the HK side ones. Tonight, was definitely a chef absent night.
Baked Mekong River Prawn with Garlic
Prawns from Mekong River is a regional favourite (South Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, etc), known for it’s huge size and abundant amount of bright, orange head butter.
The prawn was cooked traditionally, on the grill with garlic to preserve the natural flavours and sweetness from the prawn. The head butter was rich and the prawn was meaty, but unfortunately overcooked. Unlike ocean prawns, river prawns need to be cooked meticulously. Because of the enzymes in the meat, if you overcook it, the head butter goes from liquid gold to a grainy hard texture. The meat starts to stick to the shell and the meat starts to become mushy while the tail part becomes hard adn fibrous.
When I say the prawn was overcooked, it was the head butter’s side of the prawn which had turned a bit hard and grainy. The meat was not mushy and had a bite to it, but it was becoming hard. There was so much minced garlic that I could not tell if I was eating the head butter or the garlic as the consistency was the same.
Unfortunate. Please watch the cook on the prawns as this was one of the more expensive items on the menu and it would defeat the purpose of a good meal that we are paying for.
Chargrilled Angus Beef Skewer
I don’t actually understand the use of Angus beef, a type of beef known for their marbling, which means it’s got flavour!!
Ok let’s talk marbling, it means thin strips of fat that runs across the meat, I’m not talking about big chunks of fat. They’re like little highways along the meat which is thin enough to keep the meat tender, juicy and flavourful without it being too fatty. So by using high heat, we sear (melts) the fat where it becomes crispy and yummy like the crispy cheesy bits of a lasagna. This browning process from the proteins and sugars hitting the high heat create loads amount of flavour where experts call this the Maillard Reaction. (Pronounced My-Yar). See! We can all start sounding like experts reading these reviews together!
Anyways, back on topic. The point of this maillard reaction is to sear the meat and render out the fat quickly. Keyword, “quickly” but because it was left on the grill for too long, the proteins of the meat dried up becoming chewy and the fatty flavours turned into liquid gold and left the meat! The expensive tenderness was lost, making the premium cut feel a bit wasted. Sadly, if they keep being careless like this, I can see this restaurant closing down soon due to high cost of the food but not producing the right results making customers not see how well the menu was put together and how well the flavours were. What saved the beef was the marinade, the lemongrass coming through well, permeating through the meat, it paired perfectly with the fish sauce (nước mắm)
Bahn Hoi
This is just thin rice noodles (vermicelli) that’s been weaved into a quilt-like shape and topped with scallions cooked in hot oil.
An Nam’s version is eaten with the angus beef and with a slice of lettuce making almost like a lettuce wrap. The combination is savoury and fresh with great textures. Even though the beef was overcooked, it worked beautifully with the bánh hỏi and lettuce. Reminded me of a Korean saam.
Desserts:
Pandan Sago Pudding
This was my favourite dessert of the 3. But it’s by no means a pudding, it’s like a mochi consistency but firmer, probably from the sago. The pandan flavour comes out very nicely and the sweetness is mild. I suggest eating this before the other desserts as it’s the lightest.
Coconut Ice Cream
I LOVE coconut ice cream. But this one, didn’t have much flavour of coconut and I actually thought at the time, it was vanilla ice cream. Whoops. I would have loved to see more coconut milk used and possibly add some pandan infused in the coconut ice cream with a bit of flaky salt. This would have brought the whole dish to it’s south eastern end and tying the dishes together making it a cohesive story to end the night.
Purple Sticky Rice Pudding with Coconut Milk
I usually love this dish, a chewy texture that combines the sweetness of the coconut milk and a bit of saltiness. Purple/Black rice always pairs perfectly with coconut milk. But I found this one a bit sweet, I would have loved a little more pinch of salt to balance out the flavours. The rice for me was a bit harder, it needed a little longer time to cook for the starch to come out, giving it it’s famous sticky quality.
Drinks:
Grass Jelly and Red Bean with Coconut Milk
This drink was creamy from the coconut milk with freshness from the herbal taste of grass jelly which offset the sweet flavour and grainy texture of red bean. It’s a refreshing drink that’s creamy and somehow still maintain it’s lightness. Great choice for an Asian flavoured drink of red bean and grass jelly!
Lychee Pineapple Smoothie
A refreshing drink, perfect for summer, but since we are in the dead of winter, it was Brain Freeze Central for me.
The pineapple flavour comes through but overpowered the lychee a bit, still a great choice if you are looking for an icy refreshing drink of the tropics!
Ambiance:
The restaurant is situated right next to the skating rink. As much as it’s elevated, the long area next to it with it’s opened design makes it echoey and loud with the sounds of pucks hitting the ice and players screaming for a pass. It makes this elevated vietnamese experience a bit more casual then it tries to me. I suggest if you want the more elevated, intimate experience for a date, call in advance and try to get seating in the back. But be warned, the skating rink sounds are still loud.
Or make it a fun date and sit right up rink side and enjoy the views! But if it’s a first date, might not recommend it, she/he might concentrate more on the game than you! Like me, I remember more of the ice rink than the actual ambiance of the interior.
As much as it was fun with “built-in” entertainment, I felt the price point, the menu set up does not match the casual setting next to the ice rink, making it hard to figure out the positioning of the restaurant.
Who Should Try:
- If you’re craving refreshing, tropical flavours but don’t want the heat.
- If you’re on a date nearby and feel like you will embarass yourself choosing for your date
Final Words:
Compared to other Vietnamese restaurants in Hong Kong, this was by far, one of the better ones. Even though the chef has made some changes to the dishes to reflect the local palette, it was done in a very smart and refined way where the authenticity of the dish was not lost.
The Deluxe Meal for 2 felt like a tasting menu without the additional free bread and dishes, not the best for hungry hippos. The meal will leave you satiated but not entirely full if you are coming in hungry, which I felt didn’t fully justify for the price. But since it is a restaurant in Kowloon Tong, I guess I will let it slide.
But strictly talking about flavours, I will definitely come back again to try Chef Muoi’s other dishes!
Uncertified Rating:
Out of 10:
Ambiance: 9 (because the entertainment on the ice was awesome!)
Food: 8.5
Service: 8