The Most Iconic Vietnamese Restaurant in Vancouver
Has it ever happened to you when you visit a new city and there’s THAT one restaurants everyone keeps on talking about & recommending? Well for my little trip to Vancouver, it was Anh and Chi – a well-designed Vietnamese restaurant that stole my heart. Hell I even saw it in the hand-written local guide from my Airbnb host!.
Growing up in Vietnam, I can never say no to a platter feast – it’s the best type of feast where meat skewers, greens, toppings, wraps and vermicelli are beautifully laid out in one serving. Our cuisine involves people deeply in the meal. But before we get into the hand actions, let me walk you through the skewers from left to right: pork & shrimp spring rolls, pork sausage, grilled shrimp, grilled beef in betel leaf, and grilled chicken. Or "one of each" as Leslie Jones put it. :D
Now for the action, let me introduce the very first (and iconic) item of a grilled platter feast – the rice paper. Traditional rice paper is made from thinly steamed rice batter. The steamed paper then gets a sun-drying treatment after. To use, one will simply dip the paper into a bowl of water. Remember to make it a quick dip and not to leave your paper soaked in, else it’ll be all soggy and you won’t be able to wrap food after.
The 2nd most iconic item is pressed vermicelli or “Banh Hoi”. Fresh vermicelli is pressed and layered on top of each other to create this cake-like look (like a lasagna!). It makes the handling and rolling job much easier. The pressed vermicelli tends to be a little bit drier than usual making it super well-absorbent to meat juice & any dipping sauce. She is then served with glazed spring onions and roasted peanuts.
It’s rolling time! Gently layout your wet rice paper and top with green, pressed vermicelli, meat from the skewers, and lastly some pickled roots vegetables.
If all goes well, you can now dip that delicious fresh roll you’ve just made into And and Chi’s house fish sauce. The sauce is made of fish sauce (duh), ginger, garlic, lime juice, and MAYBE some tangerine juice (if my tastebud is correct!). Boy you have no idea how delicious she tasted!
Next up is one of Vietnam’s most iconic dishes – the Vietnamese pancake or “Banh Xeo” or “Sizzling Cake”. The batter is made with rice flour, eggs, coconut juice (optional), and depending on the region in Vietnam, beer! A successful Banh Xeo is one with extremely crispy and aromatic pan-fried batter. And and Chi BLEW me away with how amazing they’ve executed this dish. It was almost iconic I teared up a little bit.
Inside the filling you can find mung bean, bean sprout, shrimp and pork. A good Banh Xeo must have mung bean and the placement of the shrimp and pork must be strategic so that you will have a piece of meat in every single cut. Trust me, it’s a very, very hard dish to master and this place just brought down the house.
Lastly, we ordered the grilled snapper. I loved the way they treated the fish here after grilling. She was bathed with house’s fish sauce and topped with bird eyes chilli along with deep-fried shallots. The dish was smelling SO GOOD and I believe this presentation is how you elevate a simple dish.
All in all, I could not recommend this place enough. My family and I were lucky enough to get seated right away but there was a line throughout our dining time. I also would like to send my thank-you to our server Alisha. Alisha, you are the definition of great hospitality. I wish you all the best!
All photos are taken by Huy Tran. More info at https://anhandchi.com/
