Brother and sister Pauline and Luke Nguyen along with Pauline’s husband Mark Jensen are the minds behind Red Lantern.

Through family recipes, skills and cooking techniques, this family owned restaurant produces some very good quality Vietnamese food in Sydney.

Now I have been to Phamish before and found their food impressive – however, Red Lantern is a few levels above the quality of service and presentation. But does that matter? Well, read on to find out.

I called up Red Lantern on Tuesday, to reserve a table for 4 that same week Friday. I was told the last table available was at 8:30 – “I’ll take it!” was my reply.

After a couple of drinks at the Dome Lounge at the Crown Hotel (just around the corner from Red Lantern) – we strolled along and arrived in time – worried that even a few minutes delay could make us to loose our table. As we took our seat, a waiter with a French accent was assigned to our service, and presented us with a extensive, but not overly confusing wine list and food menu.

As we ordered our wine, we immediately looked at the menu to humour ourselves by attempting to read the dish names in Vietnamese (the alphabets were in English). To start off, we ordered 3 entrees – a vegetarian rice paper roll with glass noodles (Cha Gio Chay – $15), and another of the same but with roast duck instead (Goi Vit Cuon – $16.5). Along with the rice paper rolls, we also ordered a salad of papaya with crispy tofu (Goi Du Du Chay – $17).

I must say that the tofu and papaya salad left and impression on me and is one that I highly recommend. Don’t get me wrong – the rice paper rolls were great, however I believe I’d had better at Phamish.

Our mains included a whole snapper shallow fried (Ca Chien Don – $38), beef cooked in lemon grass and Asian sauces (Bo Luc Lac – $29), Vietnamese marinated crispy skin chicken (Ga Chien Don – $32) and tofu with Asian vegetable in sesame and soy sauce (Dau Hu Voi Nam – $23) – all this served with Vietnamese red rice.

The food in itself comes with some very bold and authentic Vietnamese lemongrass citrus taste. Add that to the various textures of soft meat, crispy skin and well cooked vegetables and you have a mouthful of some very tasty Asian food.

The food felt decently light even after a reasonable second serving, so much so, that I was looking forward to dessert – banana fritters coated with coconut shavings, served with vanilla ice cream (Chuoi Chien – $14). The ice cream was my favourite element in that dish, while I found the fritters a little too crunchy for my liking. The coconut crème caramel would be my recommendation.

Overall, the service was impressive, the food had some memorable tastes, and the interior decor kept simple. Two bottles of wine ($60 and $75) with the above mentioned food (only 2 servings of desserts ordered) comes to about $90 per person.

So let me answer my above mentioned question of whether Red Lantern makes it over Phamish. In my opinion – it didn’t.

You see, there is that impression of Vietnamese food that you have tried before – it’s tasty and it’s cheap. At Red Lantern – it tastes almost the same but it’s more expensive. Phamish allows BYO of your preferred wine (with a corkage fee) and it’s food, while limited in options, is very well priced (mains under $20). Sure you have to wait for a table at Phamish and can’t book in advance – but getting a table at Red Lantern requires a good few days notice.

At Red Lantern, you pay for service, you pay for their margin on wine, you pay for the reputation of it’s chef.

At Phamish, you pay for the quality of food – period.

If you wanted a more comfortable dinning experience for a group of friends and can fork out the extra cash – then go to Red Lantern.

Otherwise, don’t regret waiting that extra longer for a table at Phamish.

Atmosphere – 7/10
Food – 8.5/10
Staff – 6.5/10
Value for money – 7/10

After having been to Tabou, L’etoile and Vamps, I figured I should try Assiette. After all, there’s no better way to compare restaurants unless you indulge yourself in their finest food.

Making a booking was a breeze – I thought I’d give their online enquiry form a shot, and surely enough, within 24 hours I got a response from a very courteous Rachel McShane, the manager herself.

We arrived as promised, at 8pm. Rachel showed us to our table, and as we sat – the first thing they asked was “Would you like some water or a glass of champagne?”. Clever, I thought. What a way to start off as soon as you sit down. Champagne, of course, was what we preferred and they got back with an impressive wine list – to choose both our champagne and wine for dinner.

After ordering and receiving our glasses of French bubbles, they left us with the menu and gave us ample of time before we ordered.

Just after we ordered, Rachel suggested we move our table a little to the north as she was expecting a birthday group behind us. This allowed us a little privacy by avoiding their loud conversation.

Having cracked open a beautiful bottle of 2007 St Clair Omaka Reserve Pinot Noir (Marlborough, NZ), oysters were presented on the table (I skipped this bit due to my lack of appetite for seafood).

For entree, my plate consisted of goats cheese sprinkled with spices served with tomatoes cooked 3 ways. One of the tomato were presented in jelly form and was quite remarkable – something that I’ve never had before. I’ve tried beetroot jelly – but not tomato jelly that wrapped itself around some tomato puree. Beautiful textures and flavours.

Following my entree, was sliced lamb fillet on top of mashed eggplant, served with onion puree and deep fried pieces of lamb placed on top of wilted spinach. Individually, each of them tasted great. However, I didn’t find that the entire dish came together as one. The onion puree was quite overpowering and deep fried lamb bits were just there for the sake of presentation I think. Although, the lamb and eggplant were perfectly matched. Overall, it was very enjoyable.

I must however say, that the choice of wine did very well suit the main course.

Finally for dessert, we shared a glass of dessert wine accompanied by a serving of vanilla compote. The taste was perfect to end a meal and each bite just melted in your mouth.

The staff were very good at what they did. They paid good attention to your table and knew when to top up the wine and water. They even explain each dish as it was placed on the table.

With each person having a glass of champagne, bottle of wine, entree, main, dessert and a glass of dessert wine, expect to pay about $150-$180 each.

To top it off, I had a good experience – but did I find it better than the others? Unfortunately, yes. I still prefer Tabou and L’etoile. I would have also hopped that Assiette updated their website showing their latest menu, as I went with the expectation of their existing online menu.

Atmosphere – 7.5/10
Food – 7.5/10
Wine/Cocktails – 8.5/10
Staff – 9/10
Value for money – 7/10

http://www.restaurantassiette.com.au/

The first impact of this French restaurant was that it was busy – very busy! We had a booking for 4 made days in advance (just to be safe) and I recommend you do the same, don’t just turn up.

The staff immediately attended to you once you stepped in and we were seated pretty much in the middle of the lower level. The upper level has more tables and a bar.

The menu was perfect with not too much variety, but just enough to make your selection easy from 6 options for each course.  In fact, you can view it here – http://www.tabourestaurant.com.au/menu.pdf

We ordered some white wine, and if memory serves me right, I believe we a 2006 Andre Kientzler, Pinot Gris – actually, we had 2 of those!

To start, I had the cheese soufflé – which was perfectly cooked. I was told prior to coming to Tabou, that this could be quite a heavy dish. It wasn’t too heavy, but then again – I had a good appetite built up before leaving home. With each spoonful, the cheese just melted in your mouth and the taste was exceptional, I could do it again for mains.

My mains contained slices of roast lamb loin served with aubergine (eggplant), courgette (zucchini) and anchoiade (?). The lamb was cooked really, medium-rare – just how I like it. The vegetables and sauce however, was quite bland – a bit too simple in my opinion. The vegetables had a nice bit and complimented the lamb well – without them, it would be a plain meat dish with tomato paste. Might try the pork next time.

To top it off, I had another soufflé, but this time it was chocolate and I can’t say that this was my favourite dessert. While the soufflé itself was very nice, the surrounding chocolate sauce was quite bitter – almost tasted of coffee, not what I expected (or maybe I didn’t read the fine lines of the dessert description). But the dates flavoured ice cream served beside it, saved my tongue. We also had a bottle of dessert wine to leave a sweet taste on our palates.

Overall, I enjoyed dining at this restaurant. Yes, it is expensive – especially when 4 of us order 3 bottles of wine at $60 a bottle. If you get a 3 course meal alone, be prepared to fork $70 out. If you have French bottle of wine or two, you’ll soon be looking at 3 digit figures per head. Overall for the quality of food, I may have preferred elsewhere (like Vamps). But the overall experience in itself, was well worth it.

Atmosphere – 8/10
Food – 7/10
Wine/Cocktails – 9/10
Staff – 8.5/10
Value for money – 7/10