We visited the restaurant at lunch time, when it was packed with customers. The restaurant owner was calling waiters and waitresses to bring food to customers and personally arranging seating for new arrivals.
Lancy Nguyen, whose real name is Nguyen Thi Tuyet Lan, impressed us with her short hair, slander figure, and brisk gestures. She said she emigrated from Vietnam to Hong Kong in the late 1980s. Then she introduced us to her restaurant in a casual way as if we were long-time acquaintances.
She said, “In Hong Kong, there are as many Vietnamese restaurants as in Hanoi, Da Lat, and Saigon. But nobody else cooks Hue dishes, which are characterized by royal cuisine. I like very much Hue beef noodle, pancakes, and spring rolls. They are so yummy. That’s why I opened a restaurant named Hue, which is rare here.”
Lancy’s customers include both Hong Kong residents and foreign tourists. Her business motto is “clean, delicious, eye-catching, and affordable.” Thanks to the word-of-mouth, her restaurant is always busy, at lunch time and dinner time.
The menu includes 40 dishes. All the ingredients and spices are brought from Vietnam, like basil, shrimp paste, and fish sauce. Lancy cooks the food herself.
She said, “I flew 7 times in one year to Vietnam to learn how to cook Vietnamese delicacies. When the food is served here in Hong Kong, locals like it very much. It’s not very flat, not very salty, not pungent, and not too sweet. Hue food is usually spicy, but I cook only a few spicy dishes and add some dishes from the northern and southern regions like Pho rice noodle, spring rolls, and steamed rolls made of rice flour. All are special because I make them.”
