Unlike the majority of Vietnamese eateries that feature Central Vietnamese cuisine, Ha Noi Corner, favors North Vietnam cuisine from Hanoi. The owners immigrated from Hanoi in 2016 and created a menu reflecting the cuisine they enjoyed back home.
Visiting Ha Noi Corner, I was pleasantly surprised at the attractive interior. Unlike the stark, minimalist interior of many Asian restaurants, the interior is bright with brick decor highlighted with earth tones. Colorful paintings and decor depicting Vietnamese life are featured inside.
Ha Noi Corner fancies itself also as a tea house and includes many teas, lemonades, boba, and coffee drinks on two pages of its menu. The Cream Foam Thai Green Tea ($4.25) is a tasty upgrade to the standard Thai Ice Tea.
They recently added new seafood items such as Sea Snails (Periwinkle Escargot) with Tamarind Sauce ($12). Beautiful Periwinkle shells arrive at your table, and you have the fun experience of prying them out with the escargot fork. The sweet tamarind sauce includes fried garlic, salt, pepper, and sweet chili oil.
Shrimp spring rolls are ubiquitous, and what caught my eye was their Grilled Sausage Spring Roll ($8). Sausage is formed into rectangular pieces, grilled, and placed into the spring roll wrapper with fresh basil, mint, cilantro, and lettuce. I enjoyed the additional flavor provided by the grilled sausage over the shrimp.
Bún Chả ($12) is a popular noodle dish from North Vietnam and is one of their more popular dishes. “Bún” refers to the rice vermicelli noodles, and “Chả” means grilled meat, typically pork. Their Bún Chả Ha Noi includes many other ingredients, such as fresh herbs. What makes this dish exceptional is the Nuoc Mam Pha dipping sauce. It is salty, sweet, and tangy.
Bún Riêu Can ($12) hit the spot as it was chilly that day. This minced crab noodle soup is a variation of Bún Riêu, usually made with tomatoes and often served with a whole freshwater crab. This hearty soup includes thick vermicelli noodles, crab balls, tofu, crispy pork, and fresh ong choy greens.
Ha Noi Corner is modern, clean, and welcoming and its expanded menu is appealing.
Ha Noi Corner, 12119 Brookhurst St, Garden Grove, CA 92840; gochanoicorner.com