Restaurant Review: Good morning, Vietnam!

Or good evening, more like. Pictured above is what I had at a recent dinner visit to Ha Noi, hailed as the only restaurant to serve Vietnamese food in Prague's center. The place had Vinohrady residents buzzing a couple of months ago.

The main lure for me to finally visit were the spring rolls of the Vietnamese, non-fried variety, also known as Gỏi cuốn. Those things are lighter, more refreshing than and in my opinion superior to their fried cousins, because the flavors stand out very distinctively.

In the US, my favorite Vietnamese restaurant, New Orleans' Pho Tau Bay, served a perfectly executed version of this appetizer and often, I'd have them as a light summer lunch. They came with peanut dipping sauce and I'm drooling at the memory of their perfection. Sigh.

Anyway, here in Prague, Ha Noi is the only place within the city center that serves summer rolls. They come in pork, shrimp, chicken and beef, are 22 kč a pop and the best reason to go to this otherwise mediocre, if cheap restaurant.

We ordered the pork and the beef variety, both were filled with the meat, vermicelli, cilantro and pineapple and came with a sweet and sour, very liquid dipping sauce. I like to dip my summer rolls in peanut or plum sauce, but Hanoi's version also did the job of making the sticky surface a bit more moist.


For a main, I had the beef pho. If prepared properly, I think a bowl of pho could bring you back from the dead. Something about the spicy broth just opens up your sinuses and kills any germs.

That said, Hanoi's version did not have the allmighty powers that pho can sometimes have. It was not spicy at all. On the upside, the beef slices were tender enough, the noodles plenty and the serving overall was generous.


I'm a sucker for cilantro, too, so I was glad to see some lime and cilantro came on an extra plate. But: There were no soy sprouts or holy basil leaves and while I could make out some flavors of star anise, the ginger note was quite weak. Overall, the broth just wasn't the flavor explosion that pho should be.

I should've asked for some chili sauce to bring some spice into the soup, but I was too lazy. The server was friendly but elusive and seemed quite amused by everything I said, which is a nice touch.



My dinner companion ordered the fried pork and vermicelli. The pork was cheap quality but had a nice char to it, and the meal came with the same sauce that was included with the spring rolls. Meh. It was okay.



Ha Noi's biggest selling point is that it's really cheap. A meal with appetizers and two beers each came to about 350 kč. I would go back for the summer rolls. Even though they don't live up to the near perfect execution I've been spoiled by, they are quite a nice snack, especially with the warmer weather approaching.


Ha Noi Restaurant
Slezská 57
Praha 2
Tel.: (+420) 728 774 637