I HAVE lots of favourite restaurants and now I've got a new one.
Saigon Lotus is a Vietnamese restaurant run by Vietnamese in a rundown range of shops on the fringe of the city centre on Oldham Road. It lies opposite the Post Office's main sorting depot and a little up from the Wing Yip supermarket and Glamorous Restaurant. It sits two or three doors away from Vnam (click here).
Also nearby is the Vietnamese deli. This part of Ancoats was once Little Italy, perhaps it's time to talk of Tiny Vietnam.
This is a new star for Manchester, a finely crafted, elegantly delivered, restaurant. Those who love food should deviate into Ancoats to sample asap.
Despite the semi-dereliction or 'redevelopment potential' of the neighbouring properties, Saigon Lotus is a super-slick operation.
The former shop unit hasn't been given a fly-by-night sticking plaster make-over but has been transformed into a crisp, well-formed, neighbourhood restaurant with gentle Eastern references. It hit the ground running too with an elegant website complete with a contact page already loaded with Twitter and facebook.
Several well-known major players in Manchester with casts of thousands have opened in the last couple of years. Strangely, they arrived with a splash but without those customer winning social media commodities. Saigon Lotus is a step ahead.
Nice work
The menu is as crisp and to the point as the interior.
"Teach us Vietnamese food," I said to the waitress. "What would you recommend?"
With genuine astonishment on her face the waitress said with a lovely lilting accent, "But I like it all, it's very genuine, just like we cook it at home."
She seemed sincere. No bull here, goat yes, but no bull.
Clarity on the menu
Eventually she confessed she was a big fan of the rolls and the salads for starters. So we went with that.
Timed to perfectionThe spring rolls (£3.40) are the best I've had in Manchester for years. The description on the website is spot on. 'Seasoned ground meat, mushrooms and diced vegetables such as carrots, kohlrabi and jicama, rolled up in a sheet of moist rice paper. The roll is then deep fried until the rice paper turns crispy and golden brown'.
I had to lock one of my sons in the car outside to stop him stealing them all - by the way there's free car parking after six on weekdays and Sundays and after 12.30pm on Saturdays.
The key to the rolls - we had the pork and prawn - was the rich flavour between the perfectly timed fried rice paper.
Spring rolls
The summer rolls (£3.90) were very different, a translucent skin of rice paper this time over carrots, cucumber, prawn and herbs plus a dip of sweet fish sauce that lifted the whole. A spring onion stem stuck out from one end so they resembled edible butterfly cocoons. Marvellous again, lovely-looking too, but missing that crunch of the spring rolls; still high class nosh though.
Summer rolls
The mango salad (£8.40) was right up there with the rolls. This felt like you were eating a cool breeze on a humid summer's day. The way the ingredients were mixed, mango, prawn, meat, vegetables, herbs and crushed peanuts, was a marvel. The palate boost of mango was balanced just so, delivering a refreshing liquid feel to the dish.
It's a mango salad
Mains came as a threesome. Hue vermicelli (£7.40), pho beef (£7.90) and rice and goat meat (£9.40).
My absolute favourite was the rice and goat meat followed by the pho. Had the goat meat been marinated? Certainly there was some sort of magic that made it very easy to eat, the opposite of tough as old boots. This seemed to come from something way beyond a quick stir fry. The key here was the lemongrass content which added finesse and then heat which added kick. The rice was divine.
Goat - not a silly billy
The pho was a mighty noodle soup. We chose it with brisket that had again been so well prepared it tickled and broke in the mouth without resistance. Side plates delivered herbs, bamboo shoots, chillis and lime for us to add as we wished. The Hue vermicelli was as good with beef and a more spicy broth, but both dishes will leave you full and uplifted.
Friend and pho
For pudding we were presented with a fresh orange, segmented and placed simply on a plate. The feeling of well-being continued, as though food in Saigon Lotus was part of a health diet as well as being delicious.
Leaving the place we felt strangely worthy. This food is the opposite of our Best of...Dirty Manchester Food article we posted last week.
There are other desserts, the lotus seed and soft green lentil sweet soup seems a real winner, but there was a large party in the restaurant and things were slowing up. We had to get on.
We'd seen enough anyway to know this is a new star for Manchester, a finely crafted, elegantly delivered, restaurant. Those who love food should deviate to Ancoats to sample it as soon as possible.
One last point, Saigon Lotus is waiting for its licence so in the meantime they offer a Bring Your Own service - £2 corkage. Or you could continue the health theme - the homemade lemonade at £2.90 is gorgeous.
You can follow Jonathan Schofield on Twitter here @JonathSchofield or connect via Google+
Saigon Lotus,146 Oldham Road, Ancoats, Manchester. M4 6BG. 0161 914 6777
Rating: 16/20 (please read the scoring system in the box below, venues are rated against the best examples of their kind)
Food: 8.5/10 (spring rolls 8.5, summer rolls 8, salad, 8.5, pho 8, goat 8.5, hue vermicelli 8)
Service: 3.5/5
Ambience: 4/5
Hue vermicelli
Light in the night
