Red Lantern on Riley

Fragrant perilla and fish mint leaves, purple amaranth, spicy pennywort, serrated sawtooth and the intriguing rice paddy herb - a cheap breakfast in a workers' cafe in Ho Chi Minh City comes to the table accompanied by a basket overflowing with lush leaves and herbs. The small leaves are there for flavour, the large ones for wrapping. Together, they make every mouthful taste clean and fresh.

Outside Vietnam, however, most restaurants are so mean with the herbs and lettuces, I've taken to buying a bunch of rau ram and a couple of limes on the way to lunch or dinner. So the bun thit nuong of minced chargrilled pork marinated in honey and shallot ($28) at the new Red Lantern on Riley is right up my alleyway because it's as much about the garnish - a crisper's worth of lettuce leaves, herbs and bean shoots - as it is about the meat. The savoury pork mince is pleasant enough on its own but bundled with a few rice vermicelli noodles, perilla and mint leaves, bean shoots and a drizzle of sweet/sour/spicy nuoc cham sauce, it's magic.

Red Lantern on Riley is the latest offering from the Nguyen clan - Luke Nguyen, his sister Pauline, brother-in-law Mark Jensen and partner Suzanna Boyd. The charming Luke is one of television's naturals, Pauline is a gifted writer and chef Jensen brings an environmental conscience to the kitchen. Together they have done much for the standing of authentic Vietnamese cuisine in this city.

Mind you, to be properly authentic, you would be sitting on teensy-weensy pink-and-blue plastic stools tucked between parked motorbikes on a dusty footpath with the sound of 1000 motorbikes pelting by, instead of ensconced in this darkly woody, softly glowing dining room. It's a beguiling mix of padded banquettes, dark wooden tables and bentwood chairs, a long marble communal table, Nguyen family memorabilia and a miscellany of hanging lights, including, yes, some red lanterns that nostalgically reference Vietnam's French-colonial past. Tucked away down the back is Red Lily, a racy little cocktail bar.

The menu meanders through classic Vietnamese standards, past a few favourites from the original Red Lantern in Surry Hills (now 10 years old), and slips in a few new party tricks. There's wow factor in a shallow-fried whole snapper, served upright and bathed in a sweetly sour tomato and 333 beer sauce with young jackfruit ($42). It's surprisingly easy to get the flesh from the bones, although its price will slow food-lovers in their tracks.

There's top value in a piled-high mound of goi ga chicken and jellyfish salad ($22). The chicken is great - a master stock-poached Burrawong bird, shredded and tossed with shredded cabbage and peanuts. And don't let the jellyfish put you off; its gelatinous resilience works so well, I keep thinking it's a wonderful, new sort of noodle.

Equally generous is a prettily arranged dish of crisp quail ($26) fried with five spice, the legs and wings interleaved with watercress and chunks of fresh beetroot.

The cua XO of wok-tossed blue swimmer crab with glass noodles, snake beans and XO sauce ($38) is a little wet, while its XO sauce lacks real kapow; and the goi cuon (misspelt as goi coun - $18), with their flavour-challenged pork, prawn and noodle filling, are no more interesting than any other soft rice-paper rolls around town. Now there's a dish saved by its dipping sauce if ever I saw one.

A blatantly spice-friendly wine list includes a good-value Red Lantern ''Ruou Trang'' 2011 Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough for $45 and a classy, versatile Farr Rising 2011 Pinot Noir from Geelong for $80.

Sydney's dessert-loving blogosphere is going bananas over the coconut rice-crumbed banana fritters but I think my banana-fritter days may be over. Sweet, but not too sweet, sesame-seed-coated rice-flour dumplings filled with soursop ($15) are worth a foray, served with a scoop of satanically black sesame-seed ice-cream.

Red Lantern on Riley ups the ante with its enticing space, sense of occasion and efficiently paced service. This is Vietnamese food that's been refined and romanced, with a bit of Sydney style and energy thrown in. For those not prepared to get to Cabramatta, or able to get to Hanoi, it's a very easy way to immerse yourself in the good food of Vietnam.

tdurack@smh.com.au

The low-down

Best bit The nostalgic Indochine charm.

Worst bit Can get shouty-loud when busy.

Go-to dish Bun thit nuong - chargrilled pork marinated in honey and shallot with fresh herbs and lettuce, $28.

Address 60 Riley Street, East Sydney, 9698 4355, redlantern.com.au.
Open Lunch Tues-Fri; dinner Tues-Sun.
Licensed Yes.
Cost About $110 for two, plus drinks.