Restaurant: Nara Thai Cuisine @ 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 and 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:
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:
Chargrilled Pork Steamed Rice Roll
This was my favourite item on the appetizer platter. The filling was like a Vietnamese salad roll (goi cuon) but instead of the thin paper rice wrappers, they used steamed rice rolls they normally use in buan cuon, giving a more hearty element to the appetizer platter, excellent for winter.
The outer steamed rice roll was 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, paired with pickled daikon and carrots, accompanied by fresh lettuce and julienned cucumbers giving it freshness. A flavour bomb of a dish that packs a bit of heartiness and freshness.
Minced Pork Lettuce Wrap (Laab)
Unlike the usual Laab which is a cold, refreshing, spicy, vinegary mince meat dish, with onions and basil wrapped in lettuce. An Nam’s take on this dish is more catered to the local palette. Instead the filling is like that of Vietnamese steamed rice roll (buon cuon) filling with warm minced pork, onion, basil. It was cooked with some sort of binding agent, like starch or egg giving the pork a very soft texture (that the local Chinese love).
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. My only critique is that, they should have offered a bigger portion!
Main Course
Baked Mekong River Prawn with Garlic
Prawns from Mekong River is a Thai favourite, 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 creamy and the prawn was meaty, but unfortunately overcooked. 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.
Chargrilled Angus Beef Skewer
I don’t actually understand the use of Angus beef in this dish as it’s cut up and cooked until well overdone. Angus beef is known to have more marbling and more tender, but the way this dish was prepared, I feel the meat was wasted using this method of cooking. But to each their own.
The meat is marinated in a nice lemongrass marinade just like the pork. The beef was overcooked so much, it tasted quite hard, but the marinade on it was excellent and paired well with the fish sauce.
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 bahn hoi 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.
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 with coconut milk with freshness from the grass jelly which offset the 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!
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
Food: 8.5
Service: 8