Hanh Phuc Vegetarian Restaurant ~ Vietnamese - Surry Hills

Hanh Phuc used to be naughty. Once it was The Naughty Chef, an all singing and dancing meat happy pho and stir fry joint. Those folks have shifted operations over to a stall in a Martin Place food court and branched out into banh mi, keeping this place to operate as vegetarian. May the cows sing and dance in celebration!

The first dish we tried here was a cracker, one of these meals where you walk away feeling righteous and all is good with the world. Lemongrass tofu bún ($11) is a bowl of rice vermicelli noodles topped with deep fried tofu, still a little warm with a silken softness inside each strip. Peanuts and chilli are optional, both come seperate and topped onto the bowl on request. A sweetish chilli dressing for pouring over means you can add extra flavour to the start, middle or whenever.

While the house muzak pumped out 'Guantanamera' and 'Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps' we tried the garlic pumpkin with aromatic curry rice. This was another miraculous moment in food, one where we walked in feeling a little bit poorly but walked out feeling great. There's something about the comforting texture of pumpkin, served as a seperate dish to the rice and vegetables. It doesn't have much done to it besides a steam and a coating of peanuts, and that's all it needs. The rice is curried, fragrant but not overly spiced and the side veggies are cooked with a little bit of stock (veg we presume) for extra flavour.

For a restorative soup, the seasonal veggies and tofu in hot and spicy lemongrass broth is yet another soul stirring winner, as uplifting as the quotes up on the wall 'No matter how bad the past, you can always begin again'. If you've had that kind of day or the night before, begin again here with a veggie laden soup chock full of healthful goodness. The soup wasn't overly chilli hot or spicy, but it sure was winning.

Hanh Phuc Vegetarian Restaurant is at Shop 8, 242 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills. Ph: 9029 9908.