Today I was out with a girl friend and decided to visit one of my favourite spots for not-your-regular-Vietnamese cuisine, Anh and Chi for dinner with a stop by their sister bar Good Thief for a night cap.
I had a gift card burning a hole in my pocket so thought to liberate it for this latest meet up. The best thing about a gift card is being able to order exactly what you want, without any reservations, and that is exactly what we did.
First we started with a couple of their drinks. As always, I love an unusual mix so gravitated towards the Sunday Disco as soon as the menu basically warns you that you need like cilantro to enjoy this one. I don’t, but did this. Pisco, akvavit, sour peach and cilantro citrus tonic, and spicy dill. This was a cocktail that leaned closer to savoury with just a whisper of sweet herbs. It was barely spicy and mostly refreshing with hints of citrus, a fantastic pairing with all the food we had.
My guest ordered the Sleepless in Saigon with patron reposado, solmano mezcal, amaro punt e mes, pandan, and strawberry. This was a stunning presentation with the restaurant’s logo stamped on to the king cube. The cocktail was described as smoky, fruity, and similar to a negroni.
My second cocktail was recommended to me by our server. The Orchard Cruiser was pear grey goose, tanqueray, fino sherry blanc vermouth, apple, and hojicha. I don’t know what I was expecting from this one, but was delightfully surprised by the above average appletini I got here. Herbal and syrupy maple notes seamlessly blended. Better alone as a sipper to have with dessert.
For food we ordered all the dishes that are only available during dine in service. This was done for the sake of quality and integrity of the product, and I can contest that all of it is worth coming in for.
Bánh Xeo is a Turmeric Crêpe and is available with your choice of filling from organic tofu and Shiitake mushroom for the vegetarians or Prawn and Pork at a little more cost. We had the latter with mung bean and bean sprouts; folded into a crisp rice flour, coconut milk, and turmeric crêpe. This is a served with lettuce, Vietnamese herbs, and Me’s Chilli Fish Sauce. All of it is basically a build your own lettuce wrap platter. Elegantly done this was like an elevated omelet with crispy and juicy elements. The highlight was definitely the subtly sweet and tangy fish sauce meant to inject flavour.
My favourite of what we had was the Bánh Cuôn which are Steamed Rice Sheets. Ground pork, Wood Ear mushroom, onions, and black pepper, folded in delicately hand poured steamed rice sheets. Served with shoestring yam and king prawn tempura, pork terrine, steamed sprouts, cucumber, fried shallots, Asian basil, and warm chilli fish sauce. The rice rolls had an amazing texture, a delightful gummy chew that was as fun to eat as it was tasty. The additional side ingredients made this plate fulsome with plenty to graze on in between the sheets. I liked the giant crunchy prawn that I ate completely from head to tail. The sweet potato shreds too offered some crunchy breaks to chomp on. And once again the fish sauce was essential and the main flavouring agent.
Our third dish was yet another one that had us building our own bite. The Bò Né was Vietnamese Steak & Eggs that was not as expected. This was basically a deconstructed banh mi with everything you need to build your own indulgent version with whole Vietnamese baguette. It came on a sizzling platter with two fried eggs, sliced AAA beef striploin, liver pâté, handmade pork meatball, onions, black pepper butter, Maggi sauce, and bird’s eye chilli. The beef was especially tender and saucy. All together everything was a perfect balance of savoury, rich and pickled and you make it your way.
For dessert we cleansed our palates with a couple scoops of ice cream. They don’t make it in house, but it was a complimentary end to everything else that they do make in house. All natural and plant-based passionfruit and coconut to cleanse the palate and end the meal on a sweet note.
As I mentioned above, we then moved our party next door to Good Thief.
Anh and Chi has been awarded the Michelin Bib Gourmand for three consecutive years, recognizing them for their high-quality food at a great value. And now their kid sister gets the same acknowledgement too. Good Thief now too has their own Michelin Bib Gourmand and their bar manager, Vysion Elter has won the Exceptional Cocktails Award in the 2025 Michelin Guide. Therefore it is as good of a time as any to revisit, and to introduce them to my friend.
I love how creative their menu is and can see why Vysion has won for his cocktail creations. It is so hard to choose just one, which is not a bad problem to have at a bar.
As I have often mentioned, I don’t like sweet cocktails, I prefer them savoury and Good Thief has options.
I have enjoyed their pho flavoured cocktail previously and was tempted by the Me’s Sweet Soy Sauce one today, but eventually I decided to go with my love of cheese.
The aptly named Jules Bel comes with a chunk of Laughing Cow Cheese and has it in their Distillation. Grey Goose ‘La Poine’, laughing cow distillate, umami pear-water, and sake. There is no predicting that all of that would give me a clear drinkable cheese product. It had the flavour of Cheeto dust that you lick off your fingers, when the bag is empty and you want more. I fully enjoyed this and thought it a great companion to the side of frog legs we also ordered.
As this was my guest’s first visit to the bar, I felt she had to try them. Not to mention this would also be her first time having frog legs. Each crispy with a light batter, meaty with little bones, and a sweet sticky glaze to finish.
Overall, we had an amazing time and can highly recommend doing both sister restaurants, one after the other like we did.
Anh and Chi
3388 Main St, Vancouver, BC V5V 3M7
(604) 878-8883
anhandchi.com
