Mr.Red Café is a humble Vietnamese restaurant on East Hastings that serves up authentic Northern Vietnamese food. Their specialties are Hanoi-style so you can expect the dishes to be very nice and light in taste but full of flavour from the combination of fresh herbs and spices.
Petes has never tried Northern Vietnamese food before, so Char and I met up with him at Mr. Red Cafe for dinner. Mr.Red Café offers staple Vietnamese dishes like pho and regular banh mi sandwiches, but we didn’t come here for that! Between the three of us we ordered a couple of appetizers and an entrée to share.
Bun Bo la Lot ($13.50) Vietnamese Grilled Beef wrapped in Betel Leaf with vermicelli, mixed herbs, cucumber, bean sprouts, and fish sauce. The rolls were super flavourful and juicy. The grilled betel leaves helped seal in the moisture and released a pleasant herbaceous aroma to the dish. I enjoyed dipping them in fish sauce.
Deep Fried Crab Meat Rolls ($8.50). We ordered the crab meat rolls as an appetizer instead of the entrée size ($12.50). Their crab meat rolls are wrapped with rice paper which gave them a nice golden brown exterior. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really taste any crab meat in the filling but they did turn out light and crispy!
Spicy Pate Banh Mi ($4.50). Their spicy pate sandwich is served open-face with chicken-pork pate, crispy fried shallots, and dollops of sriracha. They’re not your average banh mi’s that you get from regular Vietnamese establishments here in the Lower Mainland. Definitely on the unique side and I would totally order these again.
Banh Gio ($5.00). The most disappointing dish of the night was the pyramid rice dumpling. It was served unwrapped with sriracha sauce for dipping. The filling consists of pork, mushroom, onion, and quail egg. There was just too much rice dough to filling ratio.
Mr.Red Cafe recently opened their second location in Kitsilano offering a larger menu that showcases more authentic Northern Vietnamese food! If I’m ever in the area, I would definitely bring a guest or two!
Location:
2234 Hastings St E
Vancouver, BC
Rating: 4/5
Price: $ ($0-20)
Reservation? Yes
