Vietnamese Restaurant and Cafe sits on Jackson Street in the heart of Petone, Lower Hutt, serving the Vietnamese classics locals keep coming back for — and earning a 4.6 rating along the way. The kitchen runs seven days a week from midday to 9pm, with the full menu available for online preorder and pickup.
The menu reads like a tour of Vietnam: Vietnamese Special Noodle Soup (Pho Dac Biet) and the lemongrass-chilli Spicy Hue Noodle Soup (Bun Bo Hue) lead the broth section, while coconut-cream curries — chicken, prawn and a four-hour slow-cooked lamb shank — come with your choice of roti or jasmine rice. The wok side covers shaking beef, lemongrass-honey chicken rice, tamarind prawns, fried rice, stir-fried noodles and Pad Thai.
Lighter plates get real attention too: herb-heavy chicken, beef and seafood salads, plus starters like summer rolls, spring rolls, crispy squid and grilled mussels. Vegetarians have a dedicated section of nine dishes, several served with vegan sauce, and the menu flags gluten-free, vegetarian, sugar-free and dairy-free options. Secure online payment via Visa, Mastercard or PayPal keeps pickup simple.
On Jackson Street — Petone's busiest eating strip in Lower Hutt — Vietnamese Restaurant and Cafe covers both ends of the Vietnamese craving spectrum: slow-simmered noodle soups on one side, wok-fired rice and noodle plates on the other, with coconut curries, herb-loaded salads and a deep vegetarian list filling the space in between. The kitchen holds a 4.6 rating from diners and keeps the same simple schedule all week: doors open midday, service through until 9pm, seven days.
The format is refreshingly straightforward. The whole menu is available for online preorder, orders are pickup only, and payment is handled securely online through Visa, Mastercard or PayPal. That makes it an easy stop on the way home, a working lunch sorted from a desk, or a full spread collected for the table at home.
If there's a house benchmark, it's the pho. The Vietnamese Special Noodle Soup — Pho Dac Biet — pairs rare beef tenderloin and well-done beef with vegetable pork balls, onion and coriander over soft rice noodles. Like every soup here, it lands with a fresh side of lettuce, bean sprouts, herbs, lemon and chilli, so you can season the bowl your own way as you eat.
For something with more heat, the Spicy Hue Noodle Soup (Bun Bo Hue) builds a lemongrass-and-chilli broth around rare and well-done beef, ham pork and pork balls. Lighter options include a ginger-scented Prawn Noodle Soup with poached prawns and a Chicken Noodle Soup finished with Vietnamese mint — both served with the same fresh side salad.
The curry section is the comfort-food corner of the menu. Chicken, prawn and lamb shank curries all simmer with kumara, pumpkin, carrots and greens in lemongrass-scented coconut cream — the lamb shank slow-cooked in the oven for four hours until it gives up entirely. Each comes with a choice of roti or jasmine rice, which is a genuinely difficult decision.
Over in the wok section, Shaking Beef is the showpiece: seared beef cubes tossed with red capsicum and onion, served on lettuce with a bowl of chips and mayo. Elsewhere there's lemongrass-and-honey chicken roasted in the oven and served over jasmine rice, tamarind prawn cutlets with Thai basil, grilled BBQ pork with a vermicelli-stuffed steamed egg, fried rice with shrimp and sausage, stir-fried noodles with a seafood option, and a classic Pad Thai with ground peanut and lemon on the side.
The main-dish salads lean bright and fresh: grilled chicken with mango and coconut dressing, beef sirloin with Thai basil and lime, and a seafood salad of prawns, squid and scallops with papaya and sweet and sour dressing. The appetizer list covers the classics — summer rolls with peanut hoisin, golden wheat-paper spring rolls, five-spice chicken popcorn, crispy squid, dumplings, panko-crumbled prawns and grilled mussels under cheese and herbs.
Vegetarians get far more than a token dish or two. The dedicated vegetarian section runs to vegetable summer and spring rolls, a tofu and avocado salad, a vegetarian curry with eggplant and lemongrass, egg-noodle stir-fries, fried rice, mixed vegetables on rice and a vegetable Pad Thai — with the tofu vermicelli salad served with vegan sauce. The menu also flags gluten-free, vegetarian, sugar-free and dairy-free items, which makes navigating for dietary needs simple.
To drink, there's Vietnamese coffee, smoothies, juice, tea, ginger beer and canned soft drinks, with roti, jasmine rice and extra sauces on the extras list for anyone customising a plate.
Everything is available for preorder online, with secure payment via Visa, Mastercard or PayPal and pickup only from the Jackson Street address, any day of the week between midday and 9pm. Order ahead and your pho, curry or shaking beef will be ready and waiting — no counter wait required.