Cafes / Reviews
Hanoi Coffee Company – cafe review
With the sweet smells of south-east Asian street food, rising steam, and clattering pots and pans, Hanoi Coffee Company now open on St Stephen’s Street does a remarkable job of passing for a backstreet cafe in Vietnam.
The speciality here is handcrafted banh mi sandwiches, similar in style to French baguettes but made with rice flour as well as wheat flour and filled with homemade pickles, aioli and sauces, and other delights depending on what you choose such as pickled daikon, hoisin sauce and coriander.
All costing £6, the anglicised names give a clue to what’s being made inside by the same team behind Sticks & Broth on Baldwin Street and the soon-to-open Bangkok Joe’s on Portwall Lane.
is needed now More than ever
The shroom mi has roasted mushrooms, two options of cluck mi contain tumeric or soy chicken, the moo mi has Asian braised beef brisket, the oink mi contains slow pulled pork or caramelised pork belly, and the veggie mi consists of roasted vegetables.
But it says coffee above the door of what used to be one-third of Mr Wolf’s (and now joins Cupp and Proven in an intriguing trio of new food and drink businesses) so that’s what a visit on a recent morning entailed.
There may be lattes, cappuccinos and flat whites here, but Vietnamese drip coffee is recommended.
Served in a glass tumbler with a metal dripping contraption on top and either served black or with condensed milk, it is more syrupy than watery – with notes of dark chocolate and liquorice.
It’s a coffee to be consumed in a few gulps rather than savoured and is also strong stuff, rocket fuel needed to start another working week just like they do in the backstreets of Vietnam.
Hanoi Coffee Company, 29 St Stephen’s Street, Bristol, BS1 1JX
07969 601801
Photos by Darren Shepherd
Read more: Proven – restaurant review