La Sen Vietnamese Restaurant
41 Perouse Rd
Randwick, Sydney
Vietnamese food is fresh, vibrant, flavoursome and the cuisine trend of the moment. La Sen Vietnamese restaurant hooks into all of these qualities with its winning combination of tradition, friendly service, delectable meals and a buzzing location at The Spot in Randwick. Walking inside La Sen, it is an overwhelming sense of style and cosy-ness. One of our favourite ways to dine. Duke ordered a Vietnamese beer - Hanoi Premium, which was crisp and much needed after a working week. Duchess ordered a fresh young coconut juice, which couldn’t have been fresher if it was cut straight from a coconut tree! Served in the shell itself, the coconut had been cut open just for her. Sipping on drinks, we perused the extensive menu, excited for the meal ahead.
Choosing from a good menu is possibly one of the hardest tasks in existence - first world problems, right? - but we finally chose the banh xeo - the traditional Vietnamese crispy pancake filled with prawns, pork, mung beans, onions and bean sprouts. Served with fresh lettuce, cucumber, carrot, mint and tangy fish sauce - this dish was a visual delight! The pancake itself was such an unusual combination of flavours, but felt typical of the Vietnamese freshness and incredible cuisine. We demolished the pancake, loving the contrasts, and the undertones of coconut milk in the pancake. Banh cuon - warm rice noodle rolls with lemongrass beef - were our second entree. These looked and tasted fresh, full of fragrant lemongrass flavour which was infused in the beef. The tangy fish sauce had a nice kick in it which only enhanced the flavour of the rolls. Overall a delicious and fresh dish, which felt healthy and naughty for you at the same time!
To kick off our main dishes, we were served a Vietnamese beef stew. Wow. Just wow. This stew was absolutely unreal. The flavours were fantastic - a tomato base with a kick of ginger, beautifully tender beef that literally fell off the bone, soft carrots and white beans and sprigs of mint just fitted together perfectly in this stew. Eaten with rice, we felt like we could’ve eaten this dish for the rest of our lives. The stew would be hard to follow, but La Sen delivered. A beautiful sizzling chicken dish arrived - this was both aromatic and colourful! Red and green capsicum, onion and chicken made up this dish - all fresh, tender and flavoursome. There was a bit of a kick to this dish, but we loved it.
Finally, we had the most popular dish at La Sen - Shakan beef. Again, this dish was colourful and full of vegetables. The beef was in small chunks - super tender and tasty little morsels in each mouthful. The beef was just a delicious, hearty dish.
La Sen Vietnamese is the ultimate hidden gem - authentic food, friendly service, and just a great meal. Jessica and John, the owners, have owned and run La Sen for about a year, and they’re doing an amazing job.
Duke and Duchess, who review for Sir and Mlady Dine Out, dined as guests of La Sen. Big thanks to owners Jessica and John for their hospitality. Special thanks to Michael Heavener and Tony Hollingsworth from Ompty.com for this invitation. (Click the ompty link here to check out their great deals)