Hello Auntie, Marrickville Review
Every family has an auntie with opinions. This one has a shopfront.
Every Vietnamese family has an auntie certain she knows how it should be done, and chef and owner Cuong Nguyen has opened a restaurant in her name at 278 Illawarra Road, Marrickville. The shopfront is narrow and low lit, with orange brick walls, shelves of old knick knacks, black and white family photographs and a run of mirrors set so you can watch the room watching you. Nguyen designed it himself, inspired by contemporary Vietnamese art, which explains why it looks less like a noodle bar and more like a gallery that has taken in relatives.
Authenticity follows Auntie around like a cousin owed money. The banh xeo, a crisp coconut and turmeric crepe with onion, bean sprouts and jicama, costs $18 and is as authentic as it gets. Others may decide the whole room exists for Westerners, but me, I love it. Vietnam is such a diverse place and Auntie reflects a modern and dynamic country, without the kitsch of rice paddy hats, retro-cool communist iconography and French colonial design.
The menu answers every critic, with twice cooked pork belly with onsen egg and cuttlefish jus at $45, a rice paper roll kit at $51 that politely warns you to allow 25 minutes, pho, boozy slushies and banquets for diners who would rather hand the decisions to the kitchen. This is modern Vietnam on a plate and it is done incredibly well.
It is, however, far from perfect. You might forgive service a little hard to flag down. There are two sittings, walks ins or the unbooked are punished by delay. Even the most gifted of users might find an onsen egg a challenge with just chopsticks and the plates may be a bit small for the price, which in the inner west is the nearest thing to a national anthem. None of those things matter when the proof is in the pudding.
Across town the family has a second restaurant at Darling Square, billed as Hello Auntie 2.0, where a UV torch at the bar has been known to reveal a secret menu in invisible ink on your coaster. It is the best use of a coaster since the beer mat and a reminder Auntie is not above theatre.
Whether the cooking is authentic, inventive or merely expensive depends on which relative you ask, and Auntie seems comfortable with the argument continuing at the table.
Felix Marrow eats on his own dime. Venues are not contacted in advance. — Scoffermag.au
Price Banh xeo $18; twice cooked pork belly $45; rice paper roll kit $51
Bookings Recommended, two sittings
Good for Winning or losing an argument about Vietnamese authenticity
Not for Diners who need a knife and fork
Hello Auntie is at 278 Illawarra Road, Marrickville NSW
Open Weds-Sunday lunch (times vary,) Weds - Sun dinner from 5.30.
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