Emilia reviews ‘Melbourne’s best Vietnamese restaurant’
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When I was in Vietnam I overheard a conversation between an old New Zealand couple and a Vietnamese born expat. They asked her where to get the best Vietnamese food. You know what she said? Melbourne. Hand on heart. With that said I made it my mission when back here to try and find some of the best Vietnamese Melbourne had to offer – first on the list won the Restaurant and Catering Industry Association’s ‘Best Vietnamese Restaurant’ last year… enter suburban, neon-lit, corner restaurant in Glen Iris. Not where I would’ve assumed the best Viet would come from.
Immediately I’m intrigued.
As I enter the first thing I’m met with is the familiar kindness of Vietnamese people I experienced while I travelled there. Full of energy, a bit cheeky and very generous. Their greeter met this standard in spades. He sat us down with a “darling”, “angel”, “are you sure you’re 18 and can order that drink?” — In a word, fabulous. The decor was French provincial at each warmly lit table with a large fishing net through the centre of the restaurant as a nod to the chandelier of sorts.
The Vietnamese playfulness translated into the drinks and dishes. All the cocktails are brought out in a smokey, beauty and the beast-like-dome that as you lifted the dome revealed your cocktail. My partner ordered a Vietnamese coffee which came with a penorkle shaped ice cube, slightly less classy than my drink but just as much fun to watch them bring to the table. The novelty / innovative servings and presentation didn’t stop there. They had a touch censored lamp on each table that had yellow and white light options, when you were ready to order you tapped the top to show the wait staff with a white light emitting rather than trying to grab them as they swanned past.
The way we tried to tackle this huge menu was by getting a single serve of almost all the starters (at about $8 each) and then a couple of mains to try and give everything a fair go. Seared scallop was served in a shell, topped with fresh ginger and a XO sauce. One of our favourite dishes whilst we were in Viet Nam was their savoury pancake – they did a mini version with prawn. You wrapped it in fresh lettuce and they had a mini syringe for you to put nước chấm sauce over it. I could eat a whole dinner of these babies to be honest.
Duck skewers and lamb skewers were both delightful in different ways. The lamb is a balsamic glaze and grilled duck skewers are a native spices and satay sauce. We had to try their Vietnamese Fried Chicken, VFC wings. Sashimi was a little thicker than how I normally like it but the quality of salmon was so good I didn’t even mind, it was topped with wasabi mayo and yuzu ponzu dressing. We also tried their signature spring rolls, which is more like a fried pork sausage with green rice outside. Ooft, I’m puffed just getting through it all
For mains I wanted to try the pho but the waiter, quite correctly told me that the pho was much better as a lunch dish. Noted, I’ll be back for lunch. Instead we got the XO sauce fried rice as per our waiters recommendation, it had fresh prawns and scallops too. All I will say for this one is, if you’re on a first date avoid this – it’s heavy on the garlic.
Overall, I would say it’s not the most authentic ever, but it is beautiful. They’re certainly not prices I was paying in Vietnam for things with mains between $25-$30 and most starter being per piece for around $8-$12, but the service, food and novelty absolutely won me over.
QT Kitchen
Shop 2/10-12 High St, Glen Iris VIC
qtkitchen.com.au
9885 2009