Little Hanoi

LITTLE HANOI CAFE AT HOLLAND PARK HAS PERMANENTLY CLOSED AS OF MARCH 2020.

Little Hanoi Cafe brings authentic Vietnamese street food from the capital of Vietnam to a corner of Holland Park.

Inside, a wall mural of Hanoi’s Old Quarter overlooks the small space which seats about 20, with additional tables on the footpath and take-away available.

Dishes, which range from pho and bun char to nanh mi, are made with fresh, local ingredients. Popular items include Hanoi spring rolls made with special rice paper filled with carrots, shallots, black mushrooms and select vegetables or chicken, seafood spring rolls with fresh crab meat, tiger prawns, pork mince, shitake mushrooms, beansprouts, carrot, shallots and glass noodles, and steamed rice paper rolls with your choice of minced chicken, prawn or vegetables. 

Vietnam’s most famous fare pho - believed to have originated in Hanoi - is available with fresh beef, beef brisket, free-range chicken or tofu; all served with a side of beansprouts, basil or mint and lemon wedge.

Recommended meals range from special Vietnamese steamed rice served with mixed vegetables and your choice of  barbecue duck, pork, pork crackling or lemongrass chicken and Hanoi kebab or bun cha (made famous when Barrack Obama visited a Vietnamese streetside restaurant in 2016) with grilled pork slices and pork meatballs with sour carrot, papaya and veggies served with rice vermicelli noodles.

Not to be missed is Little Hanoi’s signature dish – Very Famous Cha Ca Ha Noi (fresh barramundi, turmeric, red ginger and fish sauce served on a sizzling plate with fresh dill, shallots and roasted peanuts.

Open six days a week for lunch and dinner, lunch-time diners can enjoy authentic banh mi – baguettes stuffed with fish cake, barbecue duck, barbecue pork, crackling pork, pork meatballs, grilled chicken or tofu. 

Drink wise, there’s homemade lemon iced tea, lemon soda, fresh coconut water in coconut shell, freshly squeezed orange juice and Vietnamese drip-filter coffee served hot or with ice.

*Opening times correct at time of visiting in March 2017.

By Deb Lidster