Vietnamese food has not made its presence felt in Auckland to anywhere near the extent that it should and is sometimes run by non-Vietnamese who serve a bland McChinese surrogate. More fragrant and less fiery than Thai, though still packing a punch when it wants to, and lighter and leaner than Chinese, real Vietnamese is my favourite Southeast Asian cuisine, so new authentic places are always welcome.
The folks at Parkside are the genuine article - chef Billy Dan is a Hanoi native - and our waitress, attentive and courteous but just sassy enough to be fun ("I don't think you should order the summer rolls," she said at one point, with a wink, "because I like the fried pancakes much more") was from Saigon, which she doesn't call Ho Chi Minh City "because it takes too long".
I was keen on the summer rolls, those cool and crunchy rice-paper-wrapped delights that I have always regarded as a compulsory part of a Vietnamese meal, but she was right about those pancakes. The rice flour batter had been quickly fried to a golden-brown crispness, not unlike the South Indian dosa, but the filling was pure Vietnam: zesty, clean tastes in which the braised pork and flash-fried prawn is accented by crunchy beansprouts. The chillies floating in a bowl of nuoc mam, stinky fish sauce brightened by garlic and lemon, sharpened things up a bit.
We'd started with a bowl of pho, the beef broth staple that is a measure of a Vietnamese place, and realised we were in good hands: the meat was lightly poached in the fragrant liquid and a squeeze of lemon juice opened out the flavours.
Parkside styles itself as an upscale neighbourhood eatery - the tables are nicely dressed and the crockery is not plastic - but the food delivery has the feel of a much cheaper place. The only fault I could find with the evening is that the dishes (which are, to be fair, billed as shared plates, not entrees and mains) arrive as and when it suits the kitchen rather than the diner. It added up to a slightly harried experience, as we were constantly having to make room on the table for the next arrival.
But it was hard to grumble, even for me, when what came was so good: a salad of delicately flavoured lotus stem, prawn and Vietnamese mint, so much subtler than its Kiwi namesake; pork belly caramelised to a sugary dark brown by long claypot cooking; small mouthfuls of tarakihi, marinated in turmeric and ginger's more mild-mannered cousin galangal and then quickly grilled and served with cold rice noodles. Perhaps my favourite was a richly sauced casserole of eggplant and large, agreeably leathery cubes of tofu.
Parkside has been open at night (Thursday to Saturday) for just a few weeks and one of the waiters told me they're doing "better than they expected". They're certainly not doing better than they deserve; it was packed the night we went - and rightly so.
