There’s a new spot for modern Vietnamese food in the Fraser area of Vancouver. Hai Chi Em is serving up elevated versions of traditional Vietnamese classics. I went by last week to try out some of their dishes and I was impressed by the flavours and friendly service. The staff were very friendly, and open to giving suggestions on what to order. Check out my full review of Hai Chi Em below!
Hai Chi Em – Starters and Salads
While there are your typical dishes like Crispy Garlic Butter Chicken Wings, Salad Rolls and Spring Rolls, Hai Chi Em has some unique starters like Crispy Fried Oyster Mushroom in Chili Salt and Sweet Potato Fries with Lemongrass Salt. To start our meal we went with:
- Crispy Garlic Butter Chicken Wings ($18.00)
- Beef Salad ($20.00)
The Crispy Garlic Butter Chicken Wings were light and crispy and covered in a mountain of deep fried garlic. This was a definite hit. A nice big squeeze of lemon really adds a nice acidic punch to the rich garlic taste of the wings. I actually may like these more than Phnom Penh wings!
The Beef Salad features carrots, red onions, cilantro, Thai basil, mangoes and more. This is the first time I’ve tried a salad like this, and I really like it! It’s light and refreshing with plenty of herbaceous punches. The rice cracker is the perfect crunchy component.
Hai Chi Em – Noodles and Rice
For our mains we went with:
- Spicy Beef Noodle Soup ($19.00)
- Seafood Pineapple Fried Rice ($25.00)
The Spicy Beef Noodle Soup isn’t very spicy, but there’s plenty of chili condiments to doctor up the noodle soup the way you want. The noodles were slippery and perfectly cooked. Ingredients wise there wasn’t a whole lot, but I appreciate that there was all the typical accompaniments of Bun Bo Hue in this soup – including pig’s blood.
Normally, I’m not one to order a Seafood Pineapple Fried Rice at a Vietnamese restaurant, but this dish came highly recommended by our server. The rice had good ‘wok hei’ flavour and was full of seafood bits. The rice was fried perfectly, and you can still see each individual grain.
Hai Chi Em
Address: 6181 Fraser St, Vancouver, BC V5W 3A1
Website: https://www.haichiem.ca