Yen Linh is a second-generation Vietnamese restaurant. The first-generation restaurant, with the same name, was opened on Days Road in Croydon in 2004 by Tri Le and Mai Luong, who migrated to Adelaide from Saigon in 1983.
The couple named their restaurant after their daughters, Yen and Linh, who were both born here and now run the front-of-house at Yen Linh in Field Street in the city. Their father still manages the Days Road restaurant and their mother, Mai, cooks in both. They say her specialty is Vietnamese beef noodle soup (pho).
“The Croydon restaurant is more of a traditional style, similar to other Vietnamese restaurants in the western suburbs,” says Yen.
“The city restaurant is a modern take on tradition; it’s the kind of food we grew up eating from market stalls on the streets of Saigon.”
A view into the kitchen.
So how does the family modernise traditional Vietnamese dishes such as banh mi, pho and rice? According to Yen, it’s all in the presentation and use of fresh, local ingredients.
Yen Linh is located within 200 metres of the Adelaide Central Market, where they source most ingredients, and is housed in a new cluster of restaurants which take the space of a former car workshop and warehouse. The fit-out is fresh and light-filled, with lots of different textures and colours; the bright, modern crockery adds a striking edge.
Yen Linh interior view.
“The interior was designed by Mike Darvill at Faculty Design,” says Yen. “The brief was to reflect street food in a modern, funky and really bright way.”
Natural timber, polished concrete, glossy white tiles, black powder-coated steel, tiny green mosaic tiles, monochrome upholstery, pendant lighting and large photographic images of traditional Vietnamese market scenes cover entire walls, adding depth and intensity to an otherwise compact and spotless space.
Yen Linh seats 20 downstairs at tables and chairs along one long banquette. There is a moodier dining space upstairs which seats 30, plus seating for 10 at tables and chairs on the footpath.
“We’re getting customers who are in their 20s, families and lots of locals,” says Yen. “We see some Vietnamese regulars, and at lunchtime a lot of business people come in to grab the bread rolls.”
The menu is extensive and is divided into Small Plates, Sharing Plates, Rice Dishes, Vermicelli Salads, Noodle Soups, Pho, Wraps and Rolls. We took Yen’s word about the pho and decided to try some of the more unusual dishes.
Green rice prawns.
Favourites: Ga kho gung (caramelised ginger chicken in claypot; $16; pictured at top) – this dish doesn’t taste of fish sauce, but the secret ingredient is fish sauce. Thigh fillet is braised with garlic, ginger and black pepper, then sliced and served in a claypot with its juices, which you need a few servings of steamed rice to soak up. “This is the kind of dish I eat at home,” says Yen. “One protein, one plate of vegetables and some rice and maybe some soup as well.”
Tom lan com (prawns in green rice flakes with kumquat dipping sauce; $22) – Vietnamese green rice flakes (com) are made from toasting freshly harvested glutinous rice and are often used like breadcrumbs on fried food. Nine prawns arrived on a plate looking like the claw of a monster clutching a handful of lettuce. The generosity of this dish was overwhelming: so many plump prawns to wrap all that fresh lettuce around and dip in the spicy, sweet kumquat sauce. It just didn’t look great on the plate, so for the purpose of the photo we deconstructed the dish, placing three on a separate plate (above).
Fish scotch eggs.
Other dishes: Intrigued by the Cha ca trung cut (fish scotch eggs; $10) after enduring the fist-sized scotch eggs made with sausage mince during the 1970s, we just had to try these. Four golden balls the size of large walnuts arrived in a bright red bowl with a sweet chilli dipping sauce. These presented a fishy, salty, sweet mix of flavours in a warm fried shell, with the hard-boiled quail yolk providing a velvety texture at the centre. “The inspiration for these came from one of our girls who tried them in Vietnam,” explains Yen.
Hanoi-style spring rolls.
Yen Linh offers spring rolls made with rice paper (“Hanoi style”) and wheat wrappers. Five spring rolls ($5) were served with more lettuce in which to wrap them before dipping in the nuoc mam cham sauce. The rice-paper wrappings were thicker and chewier than expected, but were not short on flavour.
Something sweet/to drink: With Vietnamese food, the lines can be blurred here. We had Che ba mau (three-colour bean drink; $4) to as a kind of aperitif, but we could have also had it as a dessert. Three layers of beans and jelly are served in a long glass. The bottom layer is sweetened kidney beans, then there’s a layer of purple and green agar jelly, then a yellow slodge of mung beans and all that is topped with shaved ice and coconut milk. Delicious and a meal in itself.
Three-colour bean drink.
If that’s not the kind of drink you’re after, Yen Linh has an interesting list of smoothies ($4.50) made with tropical fruits such as custard apple, durian, jackfruit and avocado. There is also Vietnamese filtered iced coffee ($4) and a really good list of nearly all local wines and beers by the glass and bottle, plus one imported French champagne if you’re having that kind of occasion.
The dessert list is short. There’s an affogato made with Vietnamese coffee ($5), a sticky rice pudding with sweetcorn and coconut sauce (Che bap; $5), and another sticky rice pudding with taro and coconut sauce (Che khoai mon; $5).
Sticky rice pudding with taro and coconut sauce.
We went for the taro. This was as sweet and comforting as a bowl of hot porridge on a winter’s morning, but better. The cubes of taro stirred through the sticky rice added a texture and taste that is surely acquired, but the rich, warm coconut milk saw to it that there was nothing left in the dish at the end of lunch.
Actually, there was nothing left in any dish.
Yen Linh
Open Tuesday to Sunday for lunch (11.30am to 3.30pm) and dinner (5pm to 9ish).
23 Field Street, Adelaide, 8211 8985
