Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - Co Thanh

This Vietnamese restaurant is located in Central Kau U Fong, and from the outside you would see an interesting decor, with a large sign on the outside of this old building, like bringing you all the way to the street side in Saigon. 

The interior also matches with the theme, with rough concrete walls, steel tables and stools, and even a food cart like those selling beverages on the street. It certainly brings about a local ambience to diners looking for authentic Vietnam food. 

After ordering our beverages, including Fresh Young Coconut ($50) and Fresh Lime Soda ($32), we had the appetizer for sharing. Nem Nuong ($78) is marinated pork sausage skewers, with roasted peanuts, fried shallots, fresh herbs and tamarind nuoc cham dressing. This is my favorite on the night, with the sausage very tasty, having great flavors and a nice mix of savory and umami. The herbs giving a refreshing balance to the meat, while the peanut provided the toasted nutty note with also a good bite. 

Then we had the Banh Mi Truyen Thong ($98), with the Vietnamese baguette having five types of pork charcuterie, pate, mayonnaise, spring onions, cucumbers, pickles and cilantro. The baguette is very crunchy, but the fillings are not particularly impressive in taste. I would say overall it is not bad, but in my opinion would be better to try out the roasted chicken baguette instead.

My wife had the Bun Bo Hue ($118), with robust Hue style beef broth, roasted shallot and ginger, lemongrass, pineapple, beef brisket, beef balls, rare beef, cha hue pork sausage, fried shallots, fresh herbs and rice vermicelli. The taste is so-so, quite different than the other pho you might experience in other restaurants. But it seems to be a bit too oily, with the layer on the broth. Not sure this is the authentic local style however.

For me I had the Bun Thit Ga Nuong ($118), with cold vermicelli noodle salad, lemongrass roasted chicken, fresh herbs, roasted peanuts, fried shallots, pickles and cucumbers, and nuoc cham dressing. The chicken is quite good, juicy and tender, full of flavors as well. The dressing is always the essence of this dish and I like the great balance of its sweetness and acidity. I let my wife sampled a piece of the chicken and she definitely prefered this over the beef vermicelli. 

After I ordered the dessert Kem Chuoi ($58), which is a banana coconut popsicle, with roasted peanuts and lime zest. The staff told me the dessert is on the house as they missed one of our order. While I cannot say I find the popsicle amazing, it is certainly interesting in taste. I think if they use more coconut cream to highlight its more intense flavors it would make the popsicle more tasty. But I certainly appreciate they make the effort to compensate for even a minor mistake.

Service is good, not only because of the free dessert, but when my wife was eating her vermicelli, the staff came and offered her with a piece of tissue to put around the collar, to avoid the soup from spilling onto her T-shirt. A very thoughtful and caring gesture. 

The bill was $543, and I agree that it is a bit on the high side. The food has its good and bad, but overall still decent. The atmosphere is definitely fun and interesting, and seeing all the tables were occupied with people waiting it is apparent that the restaurant did have a big group of followers.