Hansan (Northwest, Waitakere, New Zealand)

One of the last few restaurants that we haven’t tried here in Westgate was this Vietnamese chain called Hansan. If you remember in the past, we shared Hansan a lot but that was in North Shore, it was one of our family favourites until something changed, now that branch was not delivering the P09that we used to love before. When we first moved to North Shore, I remember this was one of the best Vietnamese places we tried, the soup on their Pho was simply phenomenal, it has a lot of layers where you can individually taste the spices used, from the charred onions, the cinnamon, white pepper and dried squid. But during the recent years, it looks like the management had changed, so was the recipe. That was Hansan North Shore, now that we are in Westgate, the Hansan here might be a different story.

I came here for a quick lunch, located in the Kohuhu Lane of Northwest Shopping Centre, it was on a good spot beside the library and all of the other outdoor restaurants. First thing you will notice if you had been to the different Hansan branches, this one was the nicest of them all. Great ambiance, nice decors and looks modern, it looks promising.

As I sat, I was also welcomed with a new menu, still same offering but it was redesigned. I opted for my favourite which was the P09 Pork Spare Ribs Fine Egg Noodles Soup (NZ$17.90), basically a Pho but instead of a rice noodle, fine egg noodles were used. The meat was also served out of the broth and in the form of Vietnamese Style Grilled Lemongrass Pork.

In addition to that I also grabbed some A03 Shrimps & Pork Summer Roll (NZ$7.80) and D03 Banana Sago (NZ$7.90) served on Coconut Cream topped with peanuts.

The verdict, well it was the same as the North Shore one, it was not the taste that made us love Hansan. The soup used on the noodle dish was quite plain and simple, feels like it’s a usual stock beefed up with MSG, no layers or what so ever. To make things exciting, I have to season it further with chillies to give it some excitement. As for the summer rolls, again it’s not as exciting, you will be better of the summer rolls you get in the food court, again it was bland, the only flavour it has was from the dipping sauce. And for the dessert, this was the best I got from my order. It was creamy, sweet with nice texture from the nuts, great to have while still warm. There you go, I probably won’t be back here again anytime soon, I just wish they bring back the old recipe.

Hansan Westgate
Address: 2 Kohuhu Lane, Westgate, Auckland 0814, New Zealand
Website: http://www.hansan.co.nz/