This Vietnamese restaurant is located in Lee Garden One. Even though it has many tables, since it is very popular I would recommend making a reservation beforehand. The dim lighting created an up-scaled atmosphere, and the decoration is also of contemporary and elegant design.
We were seated at a small 2-person table, without any space to keep our bags and so having to put them on the floor. For someone having many bags after shopping it would not be ideal, but I can understand they would try to maximize the seating because of the high rental.
For appetizer we had Steamed Rice Paper Rolls, which is something most Vietnamese restaurants serve and a good test of how good the quality of their food. For An Nam, this dish is overall acceptable, with the steamed rice paper roll soft and not overly chewy. The fillings of minced pork, shrimp and Chinese fungus is tasty but not in any way remarkable. And the two different style of Vietnamese salami is also nice but not special.
We also had Lotus Root Salad, which is much more interesting in the flavors, with lotus root, banana flowers, shrimp, pork belly, carrot and basil, served in a lime dressing. It has the right tartness to showcase the freshness of the ingredients, and the vegetables giving a crunchy texture to the salad. The shrimp is also very good, not those frozen quality ones which essentially has no flavor at all, a good complement to the mouth-watering salad.
For the main dish we have the Clay Pot Lemongrass Clams, served in a clay pot as its name implied. The clams are very big in size, very fresh and tasty, and the stock used to cook the clams is prepared from lemongrass and young coconut juice, adding lemon leaves and chili to further enhance the flavors. It is my favorite on the night, with the stock having a good hotness from the chili and highly fragrant, but it is well-balanced with the sweetness of the coconut juice. We basically finished the whole soup after the clams to demonstrate how good it was.
The other main dish is An Nam Roasted Chicken, which is honey-glazed chicken fillet roasted perfectly. The meat is juicy while the skin is roasted nicely, not exactly crispy but in good golden brown color and having a nice sweet honey note. On the sides there is also several pieces of crispy sticky rice cake, with an crunchy deep-fried golden brown outside,
but a chewy sticky rice interior. A very unique contrast but in good harmony, and overall this dish is also a very nice one highlighting the quality of the restaurant.
The service is decent in HK standard though I cannot say there is anything I would compliment. And the price is also a bit on the high-end, with the four dishes above costing $673, without any drink. But if you want to have some good quality Vietnamese food, this restaurant is still one I would recommend.
My overall rating is 65/100.
I ordered the Fish Belly and Chicken Congee, while Ivy went for Liver and Beef Congee. The congee was very good, full of flavors, with a nice creamy texture where the rice fully 'melted'. The fish was fresh, with a generous portion, and paired with the soy sauce and spring onion it further enhanced the fragrance and taste. The chicken pieces are marinated with Chinese yellow wine and is fairly good.
