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Restaurant of the Month, Denmark
Discover the best Vietnamese restaurant outside of Vietnam Vietnamese cuisine, known for fresh ingredients, unique dishes, and an array of tastes, has been gaining popularity all across the globe. It is considered one of the most varied and seductive kitchens on the planet – a delicious mix of the food of its colonial visitors and age-old native flavours and techniques. Many forces of climate, trade, history and immigration have influenced Vietnamese cuisine. By Louise Older Steffensen | Photos: depositphotos.com
Just by Det Ny Teater at the southern end of Copenhagen’s famous three lakes lies a little piece of Vietnam. Run by Truc Quynh Tran Choleva and her mother Loan Nguyen, the restaurant Bonjour Vietnam has won several international awards over the past few years, for the authenticity and quality of its North Vietnamese cuisine. The restaurant provides pleasant surprises for all the senses. Its warm, bustling atmosphere is apparent even before you step through the door. With its excellent, authentic food and atmosphere, Bonjour Vietnam brings you a little piece of Vietnam − at prices that can102 | Issue 118 | November 2018
not quite compete with Vietnam’s, but are very reasonable indeed for a highend restaurant in Copenhagen. Main courses are little more than 150 DKK (around 18 GBP), while the three-course theatre menu comes in at just 249 DKK. Open and welcoming of everyone, it fits in well with the trendy Vesterbro setting as well as tourists and traditional theatre-goers, without compromising on its distinct identity, carried by the talented ladies at the helm. Loan Nguyen, who has more than 30 years of experience as a hotel chef in Vietnam, runs the kitchen with a loving but strictly traditional hand. “I may be
biased, but I think what my mother does exceptionally well is picking out subtleties of flavour,” says Quynh Choleva. “We have been to many Vietnamese restaurants across Europe, and some of their dishes were quite tasty, but my mother will insist that there’s just a little bit of this or a pinch of that missing. Everything has to be done just right, and exactly the way she used to cook it back in Vietnam. That’s what gives her cooking the edge.” Loan Nguyen (left) and Quynh Choleva (right). Photos: Bonjour Vietnam