Khôi’s — Restaurant in Sydney

-3.7/5*

The Feed Punchers visited a Northern Vietnamese eatery, located on Crown street in Surry Hills, Khôi’s. We were taken back to the Vietnamese streets with the much appreciated, side of road seating.

The quail wings were very crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. They were served with a sour, peppery-lime sauce. They tasted like half chicken, half duck.

The lightly battered salt and pepper squid, while being crispy and cooked nicely with a soft squid texture, fell a bit short on the seasoning. They were seasoned lightly with salt, black pepper and slight hints of shallots, but came across quite bland with an overpowering batter taste.

-Next came the Angus beef cubes, being the favourite on the table and stir-fried to perfection. The beef was tender and infused with rich black peppery notes. The dish was accompanied by capsicum and onions which helped in balancing the dish with its strong enrichment of a soy based sauce.

-The five spice marinated pork chops were slightly overcooked on the inside but had a nice crispy-fried crust. The flavour in the pork was lost in the frying process, perhaps they didn’t marinate the pork for long enough.

The stir fired Chicken featuring tasty pieces of chicken mixed with shallots, which were enhanced by lovely hints of lemon grass and chilli. Served on a plate full of jasmine rice, the chicken was quite scarce in quantity.

-The fried rice was a nice staple dish, homely, tossed and lightly charred with shallots, spring onion and prawns.

Overall, it was an average feed with some high points and others to work on, nonetheless, the Feed Punchers were satisfied....

I discovered this Vietnamese home-cooked restaurant late last year, and have since returned three times. It's that good. I'm keen to continue working my way through the menu, not only because of the quality of the food, but also because it's peppered with regional specialities I'd not encountered before (despite having worked and travelled throughout Vietnam over many years). This, I learnt, is because the matriarch - who runs the kitchen - hails from Haiphong. Highlights for me so far have been the stir-fried Gai Choy pickles with mushroom and tofu, the slow-cooked chicken curry with taro, and the quails with lime and pepper. The drinks list is functional and matches well, and they mix good cocktails (the Vietnamese gin - worth a try - combining the fragrance of a decent English gin with the kick of an acquavit).

Khoi's is on Crown Street Surry Hills, with a mix of indoor and outdoor seating. Whilst it's on the strip with other restaurants, it maintains the feel of a family business, with a relaxed and attentive atmosphere (it's so enjoyable, especially as I age, to be neither under-attended nor over-attended!). Portion size is good and it's good value for money. I am therefore happy to accord Khoi's 5 stars across all categories and wish them...

Food. Bland is the word. The lemongrass chilli chicken was the only one with any flavour. Crispy chicken was good but again needs spices. The food was a massive letdown and came so quickly we didn't even get to order a bottle of wine before we were finished. Ordered more to go with a bottle of wine and a glass came out then of course a bottle came and later wine glasses. Yep ok. Never again. Service not great. 3 starters and 5 mains and we were finished in 45 mins. Seriously there was no flavour. I hope it was just a bad night but this should never be all dishes. edit: I would most certainly come back but you need to test your food and up your game. The restaurant is clean and very nice. The staff seemed lovely as well but the food had no taste, it looked good but no taste at all. You have great potential but to have a table of 5 all walk out saying no way would we go back due to the bland food. I hope you can improve that because it would be great to see you do well with awesome tasty dishes.

Edit. That was one of the best most encouraging replies I have seen and speaks of integrity. Thank you. I will be back on Saturday so fingers crossed it has improved. There is so much potential if the kitchen has improved and food...