In a city where pho is a goliath of comfort food, Hoang Yen on Victoria Drive takes a different tack and serves up underdog bowls of bún. Bún is a thick, versatile rice noodle found in a plethora of Vietnamese dishes, most typically in fiery red bowls of soup called bun bo hue. Hoang Yen focuses instead on seafood soups that boast an array of flavours not commonly found in most Vietnamese noodle restaurants joints.

The bún cá, for example, sees gently poached fish in a steaming hot broth loaded with tomato, water celery, tofu pocket, scallions and dill (traditionally a Northern Vietnamese ingredient, dill and bún cá go together like “The Dude” and his rug. It, like, really ties the flavours together, man), while the punchy bún riêu replaces dill with crab paste and cubes of pork blood. My personal favourite is the bun cha ca aac biet, a tasty bun ca variation that trades in the poached fish for slices of fish cake.

Hoang Yen | 5083 Victoria Drive | 604-321-2711 | No Website

AH, BUT HAVE YOU HEARD OF THESE?