WHAT do you do when you cannot find a satisfying Vietnamese restaurant? For several of Hong Kong's high-profile business types, the answer could not have been simpler: they opened their own. The result is Indochine 1929 in Lan Kwai Fong.
There are several Vietnamese restaurants in Hong Kong, but most are of the hole-in-the-wall formica and strip lighting variety. At Indochine 1929, Elite Concepts, is trying to lift Vietnamese food on to a higher plane.
According to culinary director Clayton Parker, this will be done by presenting traditional Vietnamese cuisine in a 1929 French colonial setting. The appendage '1929' was added because the owners felt it best captured the spirit of the French colonial rulein Indochina.
'We have taken the French attitude to dining, as well as culinary legacies such as baguettes, fresh coffee, fine wines and cognacs, and combined them with classic Vietnamese dishes,' Mr Parker said. These include grilled minced shrimp wrapped around sugarcane, and rare beef and rice noodles in soup. Other dishes, such as soft-shell crabs in tamarind sauce, or Nha Trang meatballs, will be more of an adventure.
Situated in principal shareholder Allan Zeman's renovated California Tower, Indochine 1929, not unexpectedly, has colonial-style decor. The designer, Tony Chi, of New York-based Tony Chi and Associates, was asked to create an atmosphere conducive to French-style 'hanging out'. He has translated the concept into a pale cream, raised dining area surrounded by verandah-style shutters.
The room is a difficult shape - long and narrow with a low ceiling. But marble and hardwood floors, rattan bistro chairs, white linen and Vietnam memorabilia give it a cool, terrace-like elegance.