| Sino shows depth of flavour and strong presentation
In what I see as an unlikely culinary development in Calgary, Vietnamese food has really taken off in the last few years. Restaurants and noodle houses are all over the city, especially in Chinatown and on 17th Avenue S.E., serving bun, pho and strong sweet coffee in quantity. At lunchtime you'll find landmen and computer programmers hunched over steaming bowls of soup or rice vermicelli in decidedly utilitarian environments – the food is cheap, nourishing and good.
In contrast, Sino (pronounced "see-no", phone 503-0474), in Penny Lane, and Indochine, its sister restaurant in Bankers' Hall, serve "Vietnamese fusion" cuisine (their term) in understated and elegantly designed spaces – the walls are olive green, and there are goldfish in large vases on the walls. The ownership and management of these restaurants have figured out that Vietnamese food is cheap and good, but it’s the presentation and the actual noodle house that freaks some people out – Sino and Indochine cater to those people, who are willing to pay extra for more upscale, familiar surroundings.
The food at Sino is largely approachable Vietnamese fare, influenced by other southeast Asian cuisine, and without the traditional ingredients unfamiliar to the Western palate – there wasn't any tripe or rare beef flank on the menu, for example. Instead, salads, soups, noodles and rolls are presented in a way people are accustomed to, using relatively small quantities of vinegar and heat. (If you're craving challenging, high-test Vietnamese cooking, Pho 88 in Forest Lawn or Saigon Y2K in Chinatown would be better choices.)
Some of Sino’s dishes showed lovely depth of flavour, however, and were the best type of fusion cooking: not too crazy, and choosing elements that work well together. Presentation is also a strength of the chef, and I love the fact that all the appetizers, for example, came with a fresh, fuchsia-coloured blossom and a scallion garnish.
The appetizers are mostly fried. The conical rocket spring rolls ($6.95) have pork, Chinese mushrooms and noodles with a shrimp tail poking out one end – the shape of these rolls allows the chef to include more ingredients (like the shrimp). These rolls were good and interesting, but needed something – maybe a dipping sauce with more oomph. The salad rolls ($5.50) were disappointing in that the rice paper was slightly crunchy (indicating a bit of age), rather than soft and malleable. The salmon and prawn spring roll ($7.95) was one of those fusion dishes which goes wrong – the salmon dominated the delicacy of the prawn, and I've become convinced that salmon is not very nice when it's fried. The appetizer that appealed to me the most, the sugar cane stick, isn't available anymore, as it's "too finicky" to prepare, according to our server.
The main courses are a tour of Southeast Asia, and the dishes were more successful than the appetizers. The vegetarian vermicelli ($9.95) had fabulous fried tofu and an excellent vinegar sauce, but unfortunately there were several uncooked green onions (the white end). The Vietnamese salad ($7.75) was small and elegant, and had a wonderful lime vinaigrette. The savoury beef ($13.95) tasted of Szechuan cooking rather than Vietnamese (that crazy fusion again!), and was also very good. The highlight, without question, was the chicken coconut soup ($10.95), a Thai-influenced creamy soup with broth fragrant of lime leaves, and filled with chicken breast and vegetables. There is a steak frites on the menu, which I thought was a great idea, given the French presence in Vietnam, but according to our server the steak was seasonal and wasn't available.
If there's one serious complaint I have about Sino, it's not the food, which is by and large good and well prepared – it's the chairs, which must be Calgary's most uncomfortable. That said, Sino, with its modern decor and its easy, approachable, attractive cooking, will no doubt continue to pack them in. |
