Lady Chu takes street food back to the street in Potts Point

The term "street food" is thrown around a lot by chefs, especially those who take it away from the streets and serve it in nice, sanitised, air-conditioned restaurants.

Enter Nahji Chu, of Miss Chu fame, who is determined to take it back to the streets with a tiny bolthole in a Kings Cross laneway.

In Hanoi, all the best food is eaten on the street, where it's made. You may be perched on a plastic kiddie stool on the footpath, but the food is freshly cooked right next to you by people who know what they are doing because they've been doing it for a long time.

It's the same here, but in a surprise move, the tables that line the footpath are clothed and papered, big umbrellas shield from sun and rain (but not wind), there are cloth napkins to boot – and there is even a drinks list.

Nahji Chu started with a little hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese tuckshop in Darlinghurst in 2009, which she soon turned into a bustling chain with outlets in Sydney, Melbourne and London. Then, in 2014, it all went belly-up and she lost the business. It's been a long, hard crawl, but she's back.

"I want to take it slow," she says now, but I'm not sure she means it. The born entrepreneur has just signed the lease of a space three doors up that she will turn into a bar, and taken on a partner to open Lady Chu in Wollombi, Hunter Valley.

Chu herself might bring glasses filled with ice cubes for your Saigon Bia ($7), cheerfully announcing, "We're flying to Hanoi tonight".

The menu makes it easy to mix Vietnamese favourites such as rice-paper rolls, banh mi and beef pho rice noodle soup with Thai laksa and Chinese dumplings and, as you'd expect, there are lots of rolls – fresh, fried and in a baguette as banh mi.

Crunchy little crab net rolls ($14) are encased in vermicelli lacework, with a clutch of leaves for wrapping and a thick, dark, peanut-hoisin sauce for dipping. Yep, I've landed in Hanoi.

Banh cuon ($15.40), four slippery, silky, rice flour rolls filled with minced pork and topped with crisped shallots, are served with loads of leaves and a terrific nuoc cham of fish sauce, lime, garlic, chilli and sugar. They don't displace Marrickville's Banh Cuon Ba Oanh as my favourite, but they're delicate, light and fresh.

Bo la lot ($14), those moreish Southern Vietnamese grilled betel leaf rolls stuffed with minced beef, are a bit dry, but wrap 'em in a handful of herbs and leaves and swish through nuoc cham, and you're laughing.

Chu has popped in a few Indo-Chinese influences such as chicken curry ($19), but I'm more enamoured of the Sichuan "ants climbing trees" ($19). Glass (bean thread) noodles are tossed with minced pork, cabbage and bean shoots, tanned with soy and chilli oil, and piled high.

The food is simple and fresh, with its abundance of herbs, quick crunch of peanuts or fried shallots, and fabulous dipping sauces.

Next-gen chefs tend to ramp up the flavours with ferments, pickles and strong, sweet caramel sauces, but Lady Chu's chefs, Nawin Kunlapha and Lina Tran, keep everything light and gentle. Ladylike, even.

It feels good, and right, to be out on the footpath when you're eating rice-paper rolls and pho noodle soup. It's a chatty place. The food comes fast, tables turn over quickly, takeaway orders get picked up, dogs are petted (everyone has one), and all of Kings Cross passes by.

Delivery scooters wiggle through the middle of the tables, and the council street sweepers' rotary gutter brushes whoosh by behind you, three times in a single hour (talk about cleaning up Kings Cross).

Lady Chu won't be for everyone – don't book if you can't cope with dogs, weather and street-sweepers – but it's a really fun spot for those who like street food to be street food.

The low-down

Drinks Iced coconut juice and coffee, Saigon beer, bottled cocktails, and an opinionated French/NSW eight-bottle wine list. BY0 $12 a bottle corkage.

Vegetarian Available across menu

Pro tip Pour your beer over ice as they do in Hanoi.

Terry Durack is chief restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald and senior reviewer for the Good Food Guide. This rating is based on the Good Food Guide scoring system.