Two years after Anchovy closed, and nine years since it first launched, the much-loved Vietnamese restaurant owned by Jia-Yen Lee and Thi Le has reopened in its old home at 338 Bridge Road, Richmond.

Jeow, the Laotian restaurant that had occupied the Anchovy site since the winter of 2022, is now sharing the premises next door, at 336 Bridge Road, with Ca Com, the banh mi bar that started life in 2020 as a lockdown project.

How do you fit three South-East Asian eateries across two shopfronts? Here’s what you need to know.

Is Anchovy different?

Yes. Jia-Yen Lee speaks of Anchovy version 2.0 as the kid that’s taken a gap year and changed along the way. “You see the DNA, you still recognise them, but the person has altered and matured,” she says. Whereas the old Anchovy explored Vietnamese food, flavours and ideas, this version calls itself “Viet Kieu”, the term for a Vietnamese person who lives outside Vietnam. In this case, it describes a culinary identity that is both Vietnamese and Australian. “Anchovy is the product of where we are and who we are, neither native nor adopted, but acculturated,” says Lee. “It’s a reflection of what a Vietnamese person in Australia might do.”

What’s on the menu?

Noodles are at the heart of the short a la carte offering. “Anchovy used to be focused around rice, which is normal for a South-East Asian restaurant,” says Lee. “Now, noodles make sense to us.” Stubby, chewy silver needle noodles ($33) are hand-rolled from a gluten-free mixture of tapioca and rice flour and served in a bubbling claypot with papaya relish and a fried egg. Casarecce ($32), an Italian twirled pasta, is tossed with Lao sausage and snake beans in a perfect and perfectly delicious expression of the Viet Kieu amalgam. Small dishes are bright and punchy. Raw duck fish ($24) is paved with persimmon slices and seasoned with a mam tep relish lifted with galangal. Globe artichoke ($15) sits in a shallow puddle of burnt curry butter: eating it is both entree and finger-licking activity.

What can’t I miss?

The wontons (hoành thánh). A smoked pork broth is the rich, nourishing carrier for silky pork and prawn dumplings studded with water chestnuts ($30). It’s a comforting and enveloping dinner for one, or a beautiful dish to share.

Who should come here?

Anchovy has just 26 seats and the website pitches the restaurant as “best suited for solos and duos seeking an abbreviated night out or those simply in search of a fuss-free and nourishing meal”. It will suit diners who enjoy pondering the wellsprings and pathways of cooking and creativity and those who simply love to eat good things. There is an upstairs private dining space: call to discuss options.

Best seat?

I came alone and sat at the end of the bar looking towards the kitchen. It’s a great spot, in the midst of the spry energy of the restaurant and a great perch for watching the action, too. It helped that my friendly and kind neighbours let me taste their food!

What else is here?

Laotian grill Jeow has moved next door (open Wednesday to Saturday from 5.30pm). You can eat a simple meal of rice, condiment and vegetables here for $15 or expand the flavour party with duck salad, pork skewers and beef shin stew. By day, this space is Ca Com Banh Mi Bar (open Tuesday-Friday, 11am-3pm; Saturday-Sunday, 10am-3pm). It’s so hard to go past the pork belly, but have you tried the classic cold cut with house-made chicken liver pâté?

What’s the backstory?

In mid-2022, chef Thi Le told Good Food she was mentally and physically tired. She hoped to safeguard her longevity in the industry by pressing pause on Anchovy, which was extremely demanding, with its frequently changing set menu. In its place, she and partner Lee opened Jeow, a casual Laotian eatery, and continued to run Ca Com Banh Mi Bar next door at 336 Bridge Road.

Anchovy never shut down; it went on hiatus. The idea was always to reopen, perhaps in country Victoria, with attached land for farming lesser known ingredients. Lee and Le didn’t find anywhere affordable so “like the good Asian child not straying far from home”, they reopened in the original site. Along the way, liquor-licensing delays and a fire at Ca Com offered extra challenges and logistical puzzles. On the upside, the pair have spent the past two years working on their book, Viet Kieu, and further defining the way they want to present Asian food in Melbourne: unapologetic, storied, exciting.

Open Wednesday to Saturday from 5.30pm.

338 Bridge Road, Richmond, anchovy.net.au