Brand new Hobart Vietnamese eatery’s menu is streets ahead

The flavours of Vietnam at this new Harrington St restaurant are both finely nuanced and robust and this menu offers a delicious selection that showcases them well, writes Alix Davis

ALIX DAVIS

3 min read

April 19, 2025 - 12:00PM

A selection of Ly Quan’s delicious, authentic Vietnamese dishes. Picture: Supplied

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Look around any restaurant kitchen and you’re going to find a wide variety of pots and pans in all shapes and sizes. There will be small pans for sauces, large pots for cooking pasta or noodles and a plethora in between.

In all my sneak peeks into kitchens over the years however, I have never seen a pot the size of the one that sits on the cooktop in Ly Quan, a brand new Vietnamese eatery on Harrington St. This stainless steel beauty has a capacity of 270 litres (your standard household bath holds 150 to 200 litres) and a large spigot at the bottom, to make accessing the slow-cooked goodness within possible without fear of falling in.

“And what’s cooked in this culinary behemoth?” I hear you ask. The bone broth and master stock that are the base for many of the dishes on offer at this eatery that aims to give customers the “true taste” of Vietnamese food.

You could grab a takeaway here, but we opt to eat in and take a seat in the sunlit dining room up a steep flight of stairs. I’m a little worried when I see a couple of very low tables and stools as I make my way up, and am relieved to see plenty of regular chairs and tables dotted around the room. Grab a menu and make your selection and then head to a machine where you can very simply input your order and pay.

A classic Ly Quan banh mi, which features tasty grilled pork and is dressed with lightly pickled veg. Picture: Supplied

Many of the dishes come with the option for “no chilli”, “less chilli”, “more chilli” and “extra chilli” and we decide to keep things on the “no chilli” side of the Scoville scale.

We begin with a Vietnamese street food classic – banh mi ($10). This short, baguette-style roll filled with grilled pork originated during the French colonial period in Vietnam when the French introduced baguettes and other ingredients like pate and cold cuts. The Vietnamese adapted these ingredients, creating the unique flavour profile we know today. The roll is a key component of any banh mi and this one is great – soft and fluffy on the inside and crunchy without being sharp, on the outside. There’s less greenery than I’ve had in other versions but the flavours are spot on and I love the crunch of the lightly pickled veg.

Some of Ly Quan’s delicious pork and prawn Vietnamese ricepaper rolls. Picture: Supplied

Next up is one of my favourite dishes – a rice noodle salad, called bun thit nuong ($18) – with grilled chicken. The traditional sweet-spicy nuoc cham dressing comes on the side and I immediately pour the whole lot over the salad, mixing together the rice noodles, lettuce, fresh herbs, peanuts, carrot and chicken. This is a salad that manages to be more than the sum of its simple parts and is hugely popular in southern Vietnam, where it originated.

Husband and wife team Andry Pan and Lily Tran opened Ly Quan as they saw an opportunity to offer Hobartians “home-style Vietnamese food”.

“It’s hard to find true-tasting Vietnamese food in Australia,” says Lily, who used family recipes and then made her own improvements to dishes she loves. They use many Tasmanian ingredients and the response has been excellent.

Ly Quan’s popular lemongrass Vietnamese beef noodle soup. Picture: Supplied

he beef noodle soup is very popular says Andry, and the salted Vietnamese iced coffee is also a hit. We don’t try the coffee but do try the young coconut juice ($7), which is freshly prepared and comes with slivers of tender coconut flesh in the bottom of the glass.

Ly Quan is Andry and Lily’s first hospitality venture (he previously worked in healthcare and she was a beautician) and happy customers are already asking them to extend their hours.

Chewy egg noodles with sliced char sui pork and pork mince ($18) are dense and flavourful, accompanied by a bowl of delicate broth that’s a nourishing palate cleanser.

Ly Quan’s tasty Sticky Rice is another popular item from the menu at the new Vietnamese eatery., Picture: Supplied

Our final dish is a bowl of steaming lemongrass beef noodle soup ($22), one of Ly Quan’s most popular dishes. Before we dig in, Andry offers us additional condiments – a fiery chilli and lemongrass sauce and a dish of pickled carrots, radish and chillies. The soup (a generous portion) comes with fresh herbs, beansprouts and a wedge of lemon on the side, which I add to the bowl. The broth is excellent – full of flavour without being too rich. The thinly sliced beef is tender and a couple of chubby crab meatballs are there for the taking as well.

The flavours of Vietnam are both finely nuanced and robust and this menu offers a delicious selection that showcases them well.