63-65 Great Ancoats Street, Manchester, M4 5AB
VEGAN OPTIONS: Listed on menu
CUISINE: Vietnamese, Noodles, Street Food, Asian fusion, Burgers
ATMOSPHERE: Dinner and drinks, casual, fast food
PRICE: ££
Back in 2014 when Viet Shack was more or less a shack, a friend and I had sauntered over to Manchester’s Arndale Food Market to eat Bánh mì, early doors, after discussing a ravenous craving for the sandwich the night before. We ate over a small table in the packed-out market hall and were joined by a couple of old ravers in the process of splitting a bottle of vodka between themselves. In exchange for some of our baguettes, they shared their selection pack of Walker’s crisps with us and talked non stop about their favourite things to eat while they were on one. Our strange picnic wasn’t exactly the kind of culture clash that catalysed the sophisticated and historic cuisine of Vietnam. But it did put my friend, a chef in an Asian restaurant, in a mind to brief our new comrades and I on how Bánh mì and other popular Vietnamese dishes brought together French; Chinese, and Indian cooking styles into such a well-rounded and coherent palate of flavours. And then again how they’d undergone a further process of fusion for that specific time in Manchester’s culinary history when the trending dishes on offer were either bombastic monster-burgers and or tarted-up kebabs that had unvaryingly been stuffed with an entire block of halloumi.
Every dish in the traditional repertoire of Vietnamese gastronomy is as storied as it is delicious. Each culinary element follows a distinct odyssey to arrive in the techniques or ingredients used in the cooking and yet there is such a sense of unity and interconnectedness held across the board of bánh mì, broths and bún that constitute the nation’s food. You only have to watch the recent Netflix documentary series Street Food (2019) or thumb through the pages of Vu Hong Lien’s Rice and Baguette: A History of Food in Vietnam to understand the unique and troubled conditions this diaspora of ingredients and procedures were brought together by, and how the streets subsequently ended up being the location to enjoy much of the food. Viet Shack’s OG menus in the earlier 2010s injected those flavours into England’s junk food scene to deliver a decidedly Manc spin on Vietnamese and pan-Asian street food which in turn introduced many of those traditional flavour combinations to diners who wouldn’t have necessarily accessed them in a purer way. Some hit, some missed.
Viet Shack’s relatively recent addition of a casual dining restaurant to their stable offers many of these flavours in translation again. The burgers and towering plates of fries they became known for are here, but so are more elegant, more restauranty, more 2019 takes on traditional Vietnamese dishes. ‘More’ is definitely a good word to repeat looking through the menu as the national cuisine’s emphasis on meat is side stepped in many cases to create a long and varied vegan menu with options as follows:
Small plates
Goi Cuan – Summer Rolls (£5.30)
Banh Xeo – Pancakes (£6.50)
Bong Cai Xanh – Asian Broccoli with Peanut
Sauce and Kimchi Ketchup (£5.90)
Ca Tim – Aubergine & Roasted Pepper
Sauce (6.50)
Du Hu Chien – Crispy Fried Tofu
(£4.90)
Bong Cai Trang – Crispy aromatic
Cauliflower (£5.80)
Big Plates
Pho Chay – Flat Rice Noodles in Broth (9.50)
Bun Bong Cai – Noodles with
Cauliflower (8.50)
Ia Lach Chay – Crispy Tofu Salad (£7.50)
Bun Cha Gio Chay – Vermecelli with Spring
Rolls (£8.50)
Com Bong Cai – Sticky Rice with
Cauliflower (£8.50)
Veganese Burger – Crispy Tofu Burger
and Fries (£9.90)
Buddha Fries – Vegan Stacked Fries
(£9)
Bun Cha Gio – Spring Rolls and Vermicelli
(£8.50)
Bun Thit Nuong with Cauliflower (£8.50)
Cum Thit Nuong – Sticky Rice with Cauliflower
(£8.50)
During my visit the restaurant is packed but efficiently managed and, like my first experience ordering from the market stall, I share my table with two other diners. The summer rolls, aubergine and Phở I order arrive at my table together after a short wait. A word of warning: the ceramics and slates on which the ‘small plates’ are served are more akin to serving platters and each takes up more table space than the substantial bowl of soup noodles – if you were to order a meal for two’s worth of these there isn’t really any comprehendible way they could all fit on the littler tables together.
I tackle the plate of shimmering Aubergine served up with peanut sauce first. Cooked well but alarmingly light on that sour and spicy freshness I’d expect from this kind of dish. The aubergine is ostensibly steamed, lightly battered and then fried. That’s it. The red pepper and peanut sauces are delicious in their own right, but there doesn’t really seem to be any thought in tying the components together. Nice enough, but nothing special.
Structurally the gỏi cuốn are a wonder, with bánh tráng and salty vermicelli that deliver a tacky, velvety, lushness and sandwich bouquets of avocado, crisp lettuce and herbs. These are summer rolls done right: the best I can do to describe the flavour is “vivid”. There’s more of the peanut sauce which features often on the menu, it’s very good and I would take as much of it as they’d care to line up in front of me.
The Phở Chay is a peculiar one: traditional on paper, but with all of the flavours amplified through the same hefting great marshall stack as the restaurant’s fusion food and burgers. It’s hot, sharp and blasting out anise and cloves. The noodles are spectral and a tad overdone so don’t really add any bite, but the burnt brassic greens and undulating tofu are absurdly satisfying. Further in, umami-rich mushrooms give an encore of slobbery satisfaction while the heavily dosed aromatics marble the flavour for a bit of counterpoint. It’s street food for the mancs: salty, exaggerated, steaming.
Many English-Vietnamese fusion restaurants throw fat and salt at you like you’re craving a fix. That’s all here at Viet Shack, but it isn’t exactly an act of compensation, there is depth in the food served. Everything is loud, swaggering and impetuous, but many of the flavours hit exactly the right tone.
Links:
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NEW VEGAN ORDER 