Win a Dinner for Two at Hello Auntie | Marrickville

Hello Auntie is a cozy Vietnamese restaurant who is modernizing the traditional take on Vietnamese  cuisine. Located it Marrickville, Hello Auntie's bold creations will have you both satisfied and left with an empty wallet at the end of the night!

While the service time was quite slow, we thoroughly enjoyed our evening, the wait staff were friendly and helped by explaining the menu and offering recommendations to select. The atmosphere is great! It is very lively and it seems the locals know the value of Hello Auntie as there was a long wait to be served if you didn't reserve a table, lucky we did! We had a voucher from Zomato to dine at Hello Auntie and we had to bring along the two experts in traditional Vietnamese cuisine... the parents! No one knows Vietnamese food better than they do.

Vietnamese Iced Coffee 

With Whipped Cream and Ice Cream

Daddy the critique ordered his usual Vietnamese Iced Coffee and made sure it came with both whipped cream and ice cream! He was a bit disappointed, saying it wasn't the traditional iced coffee he was used to, that said he did finish it off. Perhaps he is a harsher critique than he looks! It looked quite tasty and creamy from our perspective!

Non Alcoholic Slushies

 Be Like Water (Coconut Water and Pineapple) and Whatchamacallit (Longan and Apple)

We were on best behavior dining with the in-laws and decided to order non alcoholic slushies. When restaurants get creative with their menu names, it brings much joy to Matt. It sets the restaurant apart from the others and sets the expectation of a very creative and well thought menu item.

Christie was in love with "Whatchamacallit", it was a real sweet fix which tastes like my favourite longan drink with the added texture of candy rock pieces on top, the best slushie I've ever had. Matt on the other hand had the "Be Like Water" which satisfied his coconut drink craving with a splash of pineapple. It was quite refreshing, but all the sugar settled at the bottom making the final sips sickening sweet!

Spring Rolls

Pork and Prawn was our selection

The spring rolls were a great start to the meal. The spring rolls were tasty with a super thin and crispy wrap. Thy were lightly fried so no oily fingers afterwards and served with pickled white radish on the side. Served along side this dish (along with every dish we ate) was Nuoc Cham. We find that this fish sauce is different at every restaurant, some being too sour, sweet, salty or chilli. The fish sauce at Hello Auntie was just right. It was very mild, not as strong as other places which made it perfect for our preference.... oh and I love how it was served in a little bottle!

Banh Khot

Coconut and Turmeric Pikelets, Prawns and Spelt Roe

After Que Hong in Cabramatta closed down, we have never been able to satisfy our Banh Khot craving. That is why this dish was the first item to be selected from the menu, we knew we were in for a great treat! Again, Hello Auntie gave this dish a modern twist to it. The roe was definitely quite different to the traditional take which is served quite crispy and topped with fried shallots only. This Banh Knot was quite softer than we imagined and the coconut flavour was evident. While it is different to what we expect, we loved everything about this dish! It is definitely taken a change for the better! 

Banh Xeo

Crispy Coconut and Turmeric Crepe filled with onion, beansprout and pork.

You will see us comparing this food to the traditional Vietnamese take throughout the remainder of this post because it really is the only reference we can compare the food with. The experts at the table had much to say about Hello Auntie's contemporary take on Banh Xeo and how it didn't quite measure up to the traditional take. However the people writing this review (Christie and Matt) had a completely different experience, in fact we really liked the Banh Xeo and thought that the only item missing was the lack of lettuce!

We loved the presentation of this dish, never before have we seen Banh Xeo presented like this. It is presented almost like a pizza being served in front of you. The waitress cuts up the Banh Xeo into pieces and explains how to eat the Banh Xeo. We found that towards the end, we had no more lettuce to wrap the Banh Xeo in. While we enjoyed this dish, we do have to agree with the experts and admit that we do prefer the traditional serving of Banh Xeo.

Hello Uncle

Cirspy Coconut Polenta, Braised Beef, Chipotle Mayo and Shaved Foie Gras

Finally we get to write about this dish. This has won our dish of the night award (sorry no prizes!). Not only does this tick the "polenta" box, but the polenta was cooked with coconut and was very crispy. It was quite fragrant as well, you can really smell the coconut with each bite. To accompany the polenta, there was quite a large serving of braised beef with chipotle mayonnaise. The beef was tender and had a very salty '5 Asian spices' taste to it, but in conjunction with the polenta it was heavenly. This is best eaten with your hands so get stuck in and enjoy!

This is the real deal and i'll gladly say hello to any uncle if they made us this dish time and time again. We highly recommend it to not only the polenta lovers of the world, but just anyone who enjoys good food!

Com Dac Biet

BBQ Pork with house made shredded pork rind, chicken loaf, house made pickles, and fried egg

The presentation was great, I mean, just look at that perfectly fried egg made want to ignore the pictures and dig in. We all tasted this dish and had very mixed reviews. The experts found it quite interesting especially the chicken loaf. The pork was quite dry and very chewy but it had a lovely charred taste. Traditionally speaking, this dish is overpriced compared with most Vietnamese stores in Cabramatta. We enjoyed the flavours, but there were too many elements to this dish that were lacking for us. Best to taste the dish for yourself and make your own judgement, we may be a little picky when it comes to this type of food.

Ginger Chiffon

Scorched Walnuts, Raspberry Gel, Salted Caramel and Vanilla Ice Cream

We all decided on tasting a very light dessert to end the meal. The chiffon cake had very little ginger flavour but was quite fragrant with ginger. The complimentary items on the plate took the race however, that salted caramel sauce was outstanding. We quite literally scooped it all up to finish the meal and could have eaten alone with a scoop of the vanilla ice cream and roasted walnuts. This was a great dish but for all the wrong reasons. More of that caramel sauce please :) 

INSTAGRAM COMPETITION

Win a dinner for two at Hello Auntie. To enter, head over to our Instagram and find the Banh Khot image, then all you need to do is: Regram the photo

Follow @helloauntie2204, @zomatoaus, @snapshotsoffood and #ZomatoxHelloAuntie 

Competition ends 7 August 2016 and the winner will be announced on Instagram.