Hanoi Chicken: The QC Hole-in-the-Wall with a Michelin Pedigree
They serve a small menu of Vietnamese staples done really, really well.
Hanoi Chicken
Il Terrazo Mall, Tomas Morato Avenue,
Diliman, Quezon City
Open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Visit their Instagram here.
(SPOT.ph) Tucked in the back of the Il Terrazzo in Tomas Morato, QC is Hanoi Chicken. It is a small space, seating maybe at most 16 people at a time. The menu is small as well: four starters, two rice plates, two versions of Bahn Mi, two versions of pho, and two versions of Bun Cha, the Vietnamese cold noodle dish. Those options for the mains all involve choosing between two meats: chicken or pork.
It may not seem like much at first whiff, but this little hole-in-the-wall has a real pedigree behind it. The chef consultants behind the place are Ric Ramos and Jon Hrinyak, who both have extensive experience in the restaurant industry here and abroad. They cut their teeth in the kitchen of Bouley in New York City, cooking contemporary French cuisine for chef and restaurateur David Bouley.
Their partners in Hanoi Kitchen, Cristine Orocio and Ken Gallano, are also chefs with impressive resumes, claiming experience at Boulud Sud, Alder, and WD50.
This is all to say that there is a lot of culinary talent behind this place. All that high-end restaurant experience has resulted in a streamlined, very focused menu; the type that indicates real thought put into the logistics of running an eatery. This isn't one of those places that wants to serve everything: instead, it wants to serve a few things really well.
In the beginning
“We thought about a cafe at first,” Chef Ric says. But eventually, he thought about going back to his roots. “Why don’t we do Vietnamese? Yung mom ko, Vietnamese. She was born in Saigon, but they moved here after the war. I grew up eating Vietnamese food.”
He recalls the meals that his grandmother prepared for him. “She makes very good homey Vietnamese meals – pho, bahn mi, bun cha, the fresh vietnamese spring rolls. Yun yung mga naalala ko sa childhood ko.”
With those basic ideas in mind, the group set about sharpening their concept. “Nag-experiment kami sa bahay. We decided to smoke the chicken para unique siya. Parang wala pang gumagawa nun dito.”
And it is the smoke that ties it all together. All the familiar Vietnamese flavors are there - the soy, the ginger, garlic, lemongrass and fish sauce. But it is that tinge of apple wood smoke that gives the meat an extra layer of savory flavor. Both the chicken and the pork get the smoke treatment, and that quality manifests differently in each application.
Holy smoke!
On its own, the chicken makes a fine companion for a serving of rice (Gà Nướng, P260) with plenty of big umami notes that will have you inhaling carbs. In the Banh mi (P250), the smoke plays counterpoint to the fresh flavors of the quick pickled vegetables. In the Hanoi-style pho (P280), the smoke seems to lend the broth a certain sweetness. And it is what creates harmony among the many different components of the bun cha, adding a distinct warmth to the cold dish. The same notes apply to the pork, but with the added decadence of pork fat put into the mix.
Served alongside these dishes are their homemade sauces. They have their own sriracha at Hanoi Chicken, which looks looser than what one might be familiar with. But it packs a spicy punch, and is much brighter than what you can typically get in the market. Sauces are part of the business, and they are selling little jars of chili sauces in the restaurant. They have a sate chili that is seriously hot, a much milder lime chili sauce, a perfectly balance chili garlic, and the aforementioned sriracha.
It all just feels very well thought out, with none of it feeling extraneous or unnecessary. One can almost taste the calculation put into every dish, all of it somehow mixed in with the memory of a childhood meal. It feels personal, while also being the kind of food that feels like it was designed to be scaled up. And indeed these chefs do have the ambition of spreading Hanoi Chicken all over the city, with equally small spaces serving up the same streamlined menu.