Welcome To Namchester

The face steaming Pho bowls and brilliant Bánh Mí’s transforming the North West into a slice of South East Asia.

“Vietnam. It grabs you and doesn’t let you go. Once you love it, you love it forever.” – Anthony Bourdain

The late, great Anthony Bourdain was seldom wrong when it came to identifying cuisines and cultures that simply demanded the attention of the masses. And his repeated, passionate championing of Vietnam is one that has been echoed with increasing fervour across Manchester over the last few years.

Anyone who has paid even the slightest bit of attention to the city’s burgeoning street food scene will now be instantly familiar with crisp, crunchy Bánh Mí, translucent summer rolls and beds of sticky rice piled high with fragrant salads, saliva inducing BBQ meats and a drizzling of fish oil, chillies and crispy shallots. Furthermore, countless instagrams have been populated with picturesque Pho bowls and papaya salads, each more effervescent than the last.

Pho, the national dish of Vietnam, with it’s glacial clear, bone broth, usually of beef, chicken or oxtail (with seafood and vegetarian variants also popular) drawing you in like a siren, all furiously flavoured scents and hypnotic colours, now inspires debate across countless tables up and down the city, with almost everyone you ask having a differing opinion on which establishment offers up the best bowl. Rather wonderfully, each place will provide a recipe with a slight deviation from everywhere else, given that they will typically be family inspired, passed down through generations. Ask for the ingredients and never expect to be answered with a complete list. The only sore spot for us when it comes to Pho in Manchester is that, unlike in it’s homeland, we don’t seem to have any breakfast availability for it. Yet.

Such a delicious, meteoric rise of Southeast Asian flavour enveloping Manchester has been a most welcome addition to the city over the last decade, with bowls of beef bone broth warming many a drizzly Mancunian day, leaving us lapping for more.

Fortunately, with the city’s various Vietnamese establishments becoming more prominent, successful and diverse, it’s become evident than Pho is no fad, with cafes, restaurants and market stalls populating the city from Palatine Road to Chinatown and beyond…

Ancoats’ not so hidden gem is well worth the trek

Whenever anyone utters the line “…it’s in Ancoats” nowadays, thoughts immediately turn to the newly developed bright lights guiding Millennials and Gen Z’ers out of the Northern Quarter’s densely populated neighbourhoods, where you can roll out of your flat straight into a seat at Sugo, Elnecot, (the soon to be discussed) Vietshack or Rudy’s (with a bit of a wait). Not many people will cast their minds towards the outer reaches of Oldham Road.

But this is what makes Vnam such a success story and such a vital part of Vietnamese culture’s emergence in Manchester. Established in 2010 as the city’s first Vietnamese restaurant, a decade later and it’s location on the sidelines has done nothing to dampen enthusiasm, with a second site being spawned at The Market in Manchester University’s Renold Building.

The diminutive den is tucked out of sight, but not out of mind, opposite the almost omnipotent Wing Yip Chinese superstore, fully bedecked as it is with its faux temple roof of terracotta and emerald green. What was once Manchester’s Little Italy, stretching back to the end of the 19th century when Italian immigrants settled in the city, has become a haven for Southeast Asian businesses over the last 15 years, with Wing Yip’s emergence proving to be the driving force, as Vietnamese business owners discovered that they could source the essential items they required that were nowhere to be found in British supermarkets.

 And if you’re opting to shun the bright lights of New Islington for your noodle soup fix, then it’s best you book ahead, as Vnam fills up quicker than it’s Pho bowls empty once they hit the table.

“Ten years ago, it wasn’t doing that well,” explains owner Jason Hoang as we pull up to a table in the deserted Oldham Road O.G, pre-service. Two hours before opening, this is most certainly the calm before another storm.

“I saw the potential and the owner at the time asked if I wanted to take over and I took it from there.  I started just changing simple things with the menu, using my mum’s recipes and tweaking them and business started to catch on. We were featured in the Manchester Evening News and The Guardian, then were given the opportunity to open another site at the University a few years ago, which has taken off really well.

“Everything we make is so fresh. Our soup base simmers for a minimum of 12 hours with the bones, the beef, the herbs. I think that’s why it’s caught on so well, because it’s healthy, it’s not greasy or fried and everything’s sourced locally, so it comes through the door and goes straight into our dishes.”

On any given night, a jaunt past Vnam’s window proves Jason was right to see the potential in the place, with tables teeming with customers eagerly hunched over soul nourishing bowls of broth, tastebuds suitably invigorated and hearts sufficiently warmed.

As for the next 10 years, Jason is eyeing more potential, telling me as we wrap up, “The only problem here is our size, I would like somewhere bigger in the centre, that’s my next step.” It’s a step we’re sure all his customers will willingly take with him.

From The Shack to the Strip

Six years ago, Nelson Lam and his best mate Leo had nothing more than a summer BBQ in their diaries. Little did they know their annual summer gathering would soon see them winning awards at Manchester Food & Drink Festival, while struggling to hold customers back at not one, but two immensely popular sites that have developed an almost religious following since 2015.

“Me and Leo were sat in my back garden thinking of career changes. We were organising our annual summer party and we realised how good we were at throwing these epic BBQ’s, so that’s when the idea of Viet Shack was born.

“We were one of the first places to put Vietnamese food onto the Mancunian palette and are so happy that the vibes around Vietnamese food are getting stronger in Manchester. Now that more and more people have travelled to our country and tasted flavours that they’ve never experienced before, I guess that’s why Viet food is fast becoming so many people’s favourite cuisine.”

But what of the people who, instead of travelling to Vietnam to experience these scintillating flavours firsthand, have ventured the opposite way and traded Southeast Asia for North West England. What do they make of Nelson’s modern take on traditional Viet fare?

“We get a lot of Vietnamese customers and yeah, they might say ‘this is not 100% authentic, why the hell are there fries? Our country has never had burgers before’, but they are always really happy with the taste and the flavours we produce from our kitchen are authentic. They understand that we’ve combined Western favourites with traditional Vietnamese flavours.”

Taking a seat in Viet Shack’s Ancoats spot, bang on the main strip of Manchester’s most popular new neighbourhood, you can’t help but cast your mind back to their Arndale Market stall, slinging the notorious ‘Cow Burgers’ and ‘Viet Wraps’, all accompanied by THOSE fries that were eulogised about endlessly in the lunchtime queues that snaked past the nearby stands. ‘Pork Crack’ and peanut butter chicken would be hurriedly guzzled down in the streets of NQ before the midday crowd had even landed back at their office desks. But that is worlds away from what greets you in Ancoats.

Oh no, what greets you here can be anything from Bach Tuoc (charred octopus, fried egg and spicy grilled broccoli with chilli oil and fermented soy aioli. Yes please) to Com Ca Chien Xot Ca (perfectly grilled Sea Bass fillet accompanied by a spicy Vietnamese salsa and pickled carrots. Once again, yes please) to Xa Lat Chay (a ridiculously good Vegan salad offering of crispy fried tofu, grilled mushrooms, fresh greens, apple and mango slaw, crispy shallots and a sweet chilli glaze). It’s a whole different beast we’re talking about here, with all the old Shack favourites on board and some new modernist creations thrown in for good measure (soft shell crab tacos, anyone? How about an oyster mushroom kebab or even a portion of Viet nachos?).

Given the whirlwind that has propelled Nelson and Viet Shack’s ‘East meets West’ hybrid into the public’s palettes over the last five years, we can’t wait to see what he has in store for the next five.

Underground with Over The Top Taste

Nestled in the back corner of the not so subtly christened Pho Cue with a cold beer and a plate of grilled lemongrass lamb chops, liberally squirted with fresh lime atop fish sauce doused Bun noodles deserves to be anyone’s happy place. A ferociously good hip hop playlist soothes you over the speakers while being punctuated by a cacophony of sizzling from a kitchen that is cooking up some of the best offerings anywhere in Chinatown.

Opening amid a global pandemic is no easy feat, but Que Tran’s family owned and run restaurant has proven to be an instant hit on Faulkner Street. This hidden slice of Hanoi is, similarly to Viet Shack, looking to offer a modern take on authentic flavours, serving up family recipes alongside more daring efforts such as ‘Banh Xeo’ Vietnamese tacos and current instagram favourites, Vietnamese Katsu dipped Bánh Mí sandwiches (DISCLAIMER: You will make involuntary noises watching videos of said dipping).

“For anyone coming here for the first time I would definitely recommend the broth with the noodles,” starts Marketing Director Jay Tran, as I ponder the menu, somehow resisting the urge to just declare “the lot, please”.

“That’s the signature obviously, but once you’ve gone through all the traditional dishes like the summer rolls and Bánh Mí, I would say get onto the BBQ but then some of our own creations like the Vietnamese Katsu, which we’ve given a twist with the fish sauce and some Vietnamese salts. It’s the same with the tacos, everyone loves tacos so we decided to do our own version and the pancakes are a traditional dish that we’ve then turned into something different. Everyone usually serves the pancakes flat in Vietnamese restaurants, but we wanted to do something a bit more creative and innovative.”

And while creativity and innovation are clearly at play with Pho Cue’s food, Jay explains how their family lineage is what drives the restaurant’s success.

“Our parents and grandparents, when they were growing up, all it would be was whacking out the table, wheel out the cooker and make it fresh and people just stuck to that. In America, Europe, wherever you find a Vietnamese community they will still feel that way. Our parents taught us that the rougher it looks, the better the food is, so somehow it’s ingrained in us to feel like that. But we can’t do that here with this place because it’s not the same mindset for other people, but the mindset behind the food is the same, definitely.”

Beyond Broth And The City Limits

While the city centre Pho offerings are more than worthy of your time, attention and taste, there’s more to Manchester’s Vietnamese scene than broth and bánh mí. And you don’t even need to remain in the city to experience it.

Venture out to Northenden and, situated on Palatine Road will be award winning hot and sour soup, papaya salads and salt and pepper dishes at Mi & Pho. However, if you find a table hard to come by, which is likely given the location’s devout cult following that it’s amassed over the last few years, Freight Island are bringing South Manchester to their new Ticket Hall, opening on the 30th October.

Meanwhile, only a few doors down from Vnam, Cà Phé Víet, a ‘Little Vietnam’ original since 2014, can sort you out with lobster dishes as well as a more laid back, condensed milk driven Vietnamese coffee. Sat with your back to the window, eyes closed, the chattering of a regular Vietnamese contingent (the cafe is reassuringly popular with the city’s Vietnamese community, many of whom live around Ancoats and Miles Platting) dancing around your ears, you’re transported to Ho Chi Minh for a brief, brilliant few seconds. That is of course before you peruse the in store grocery, deciding what items to take with you to replicate the experience from your own kitchen. And let’s face it, any cafe that also offers Vietnamese groceries is a winner in anyone’s book, so why wouldn’t you stock your cupboards with as much Southeast Asian fare for the winter months?

A similar vibe can be indulged in on Oxford Road, with Bánh Mí Cô Ba’s thin, golden baguettes willingly crunched by a throng of delighted customers, from lunching office workers to passing students. The homemade patê accentuating everything from braised, sliced pork to fried egg to marinated salt and pepper tofu alongside pickled veggies, herbs and cucumber. And if you’re hungrier for more than a sarnie, this no frills joint cranks out face steaming bowls of Pho, vermicelli salads and Cơm tấm broken rice dishes. It’s location opposite the Thirsty Scholar has often made for an idyllic tag team on a weekday, when an afternoon session sounds so much more rewarding than the last few hours at the office.

Speaking of butties, sandwiched between Second City and Se7en Brothers in Ancoats’ prolific Cutting Room Square is Nam, where all the usual traditional fare can be enjoyed alongside lesser seen delights such as duck fried rice (featuring braised duck being saturated by the oozing yolk of a fried duck egg) and Cá Ri – a yellow curry of fresh ginger and turmeric, seasonal veg and coconut, served with steamed rice. Hardly alternatives that are easy to ignore. A suitably lengthy cocktail menu is on hand to cool you down afterwards as well.

So while the Mancunian Vietnamese experience may not quite be the ‘low plastic stool, tiny little plastic table, something delicious in a bowl’ deal that Anthony Bourdain would wax lyrical about on a regular basis across his numerous visits to the country, it’s safe to say it’s still as good a dining experience as you can achieve in the city. 

“Nice burning feeling around my lips, flop sweat, check. I’ve achieved my happy zone. It’s really all downhill from here.”

With a very uncertain few Autumn and Winter months heading our way, follow his example and go burn your lips on some Pho and, if only for a few fleeting moments, all will feel right with the world.

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