Cafe Hanoi Menu

Cafe Hanoi has been a Britomart fixture since 2010, and in 2020 it moved across the street into the former home of the 1885 nightclub at 27 Galway Street, a heritage warehouse building in the city’s oldest commercial district. Guests find it halfway down Tuawhiti Lane, which runs off Galway Street. Cheshire Architects shaped the space as a nod to the faded elegance of Hanoi’s Old Quarter, and it takes in a large dining room, an open kitchen with counter seating at a chef’s table, a conservatory looking onto Galway Street and a separate bar. A private dining room called The Parlour hosts bigger gatherings, and the restaurant belongs to the Comensa group, which also runs its sister restaurant, Ghost Street.

The kitchen sets the street food that made Hanoi famous beside more modern dishes that apply Northern Vietnamese techniques to New Zealand produce. Executive chef Nathan Houpapa describes the menu as the result of a sixteen year journey through Vietnamese food, inspired by street vendors in Hanoi and Saigon, quiet beachside restaurants in Hội An and Phú Quốc, and the many chefs who have passed through this kitchen. The French colonial imprint on Vietnamese cooking is explored in several dishes, alongside fresh takes on classics, and the kitchen buys free range pork and chicken along with line caught fish. Plates are meant to be shared just as they would be in Vietnam, so a table might order a spread of raw and small dishes first, then larger plates with rice.

Raw farmed kingfish with lemongrass, palm sugar, Thai basil and toasted rice powder, and Angus sirloin lightly cured in lime juice with prawn crackers, make a bright opening, while the phở bò is built on a beef bone broth simmered for 27 hours and served with roasted Wagyu brisket and rare sirloin. Smaller plates include rice paper rolls filled with roast duck and salted pineapple, tiger prawn cutlets coated in young green rice, chargrilled octopus with green chilli and lime, and crisp bánh xèo tacos with lemongrass caramel pork shoulder. Among the larger plates are shaking beef made with Angus eye fillet and watercress, coconut braised pork belly with pickled mustard greens, roasted duck with a bitter orange sauce, and turmeric and galangal fish with coconut nuoc cham.

Vegan and vegetarian dishes are marked throughout, and a separate plant based set menu features turmeric and galangal tofu with rice noodles and dill and an aromatic root vegetable and coconut curry, while a signature set menu suits tables of three or more. Desserts include a Marou chocolate lava cake with coffee coconut ice cream, a pandan and coconut panna cotta with palm sugar sago, and hot coconut milk doughnuts with salted caramel. The Vietnamese coffee list runs from iced coffee with condensed milk to egg coffee, salted cream coffee and coconut coffee. The bar pours Bia Saigon beside local tap beer, house cocktails including a gin and tonic built on a house gin blended with makrut leaf and green peppercorn, aperitifs, alcohol free drinks and a wine list drawing on both New Zealand and French producers.

Address: 27 Galway Street (halfway down Tuawhiti Lane), Britomart, Auckland CBD, Auckland 1010

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