Red Lantern

Kinda sorta slightly obsessed with Luke Nguyen so of course this particular Red Lantern is my trusted go to when in the area … sure its russian roulette when rocking up during peak hr dining, however it’s totally worth the wait *hint* book in advance if you can.
You know when you just don’t know what to eat and you have zero interest in choosing one thing? Yeah? And you know how you don’t want to spend hundreds on a degustation? Well then the tasting menu here is well worth it at just $ 69 — Hanoi Hunger is where its at. Honestly, ‘tasting menu’ doesn’t accurately describe the insane amount of food that arrives — and its not just the quantity … lets focus on the quality here. If you haven’t had Luke’s chilli salted squid, you’re missing out — its light, its incredibly delicate and that dipping is everything !! Don’t even start me on the steamed fish fillets. how do they get this soo right? You can slice through it with your breath and fresh? Fresh? Its so fresh its practically swimming on your plate. Of course there’s a ton more food offered here in addition to their tasting menus and with each dish comes a truly exceptional hit of flavour perfectly balanced for all palates.
I wish I could comment on their dessert but I have yet to try their dessert tasting plate. mainly because there’s never enough room following a Hanoi Hunger feast. one of these days Mr Nguyen. one of these days!
I highly recommend sitting out on the terrace, especially if its a gorgeous night — up top or down at street level, it really doesn’t matter. you’re surrounded by gorgeous bamboo and palms and the most exotic carvings. ohh and that mirror just really sets the tone … perfect space despite its location on one of the busiest street in Surry Hills.

This is my favorite Sydney restaurant (Surry Hills location because I prefer the atmosphere). I have never had a bad meal here. The service is great — atmosphere relaxed, casual and inviting. Creative menu. Reservations are a must.

This was my second time at this restaurant. The first time I came with a group of girlfriends on a night out. The second time was with my partner to celebrate a birthday. On both occasions the food was great and the service was impeccable.
We ordered the Hanoi hunger tasting menu on the second occasion ($ 69 pp) which allowed us to sample most things off the menu. The dishes came out which were 4 entrees and 4 mains. By the end of the meal we were both stuffed!
The standout dishes were the rice paper rolls and the fish wok tossed with glass noodles. The rice paper rolls were filled with delicious lemongrass beef while the fish with glass noodles was simply amazing! The sauce which accompanied the noodles were delicious and I found myself scrapping the bowl for every last strand of noodle.
All the dishes were great and I found the tasting menu to be good value for money.
Definitely a great place to come for a special occasion or with a group of friends. Looking forward to my next visit!

Dined at Red Lantern last night. We went for the $ 85pp Saigon Scrumptious tasting menu. The portions are decently sized for a tasting menu and you definitely walk away fully satisfied from a food quantity perspective. Each course was delicious and quite detailed in the mix of flavours. Typical of vietnamese cuisine there was a lot of sweet, sour and heat. The restaurant itself is quite homey (literally!), as it’s a converted house. And I should probably point out, very old. So if you’re looking for pristine and new, then this place is not for you. The ambience was nice and the service was fantastic — the wait staff were friendly and attentive, without being annoying. The biggest let down was the actual seating. The chairs were rock solid. Given the tasting menu takes around 2 hours (minimum) to get through all the courses, you walk away with a numb bum. They should invest in comfortable chairs if they want to provide that end to end experience. You leave the restaurant muttering about your sore backside and not the fantastic meal you just had. Other than that, highly recommend the place. I’ll be going back for sure.

I’m a sucker for Vietnamese food and this place did not disappoint at all. My party ordered the tasting menu ($ 70/​person for an eight course meal) and it was worth every penny. The Red Lantern Shiraz was the perfect compliment to all eight dishes.
The staff was friendly and the service was great… my only real complaint was that they said we could not order any dessert because they had another seating after us. After an amazing meal 8 course mean I don’t think I had room for dessert but when your paying north of $ 300 for dinner for four people it’s not proper etiquette to forbid customers from ordering dessert.

I ate dinner here over the long weekend and the food was very good but somehow not as amazing as I had remembered it from about a year ago?
The highlight was the dessert (black sticky rice) and we appreciated the staff being able to alter a meal based on an allergy.

Excellent all round. Great service with attention to detail. Excellent food!!! Had a 20h15 booking, so no rush to be done by a certain time. Will definitely be back!

The food is seriously good, carefully prepared and beautifully presented. They take their time preparing it, but once it gets to your table it won’t disappoint. Good lunch deals. Weekday lunch is perhaps the best time to eat here.

Big fan of this place. Service was great. Food was fantastic. Atmosphere awesome! We got the tasting menu ($ 65 each). Paid extra $ 10 for dessert. Although pricey, we knew this beforehand and I think was well worth it. Highly recommended! Try and get a seat on the outdoor terrace — very nice!

We had heard ‘rave’ reviews of this ‘famous’ place and decided to reserve with friends for dinner while visiting Sydney from the USA. Disappointing.
We liked being able to reserve online but didn’t quite understand our selection of a timeframe from 6 – 8 pm meant we had to be there by 6 and out by 8. This place is a machine that is well oiled and they are keen to seat you, feed you and send you on your way. If I had known that I would have chosen a later time frame so we didn’t feel rushed by the wait staff. Our waiter was more concerned about us leaving in time that serving the table. At 7.30 she announced ‘it is 7.30 if you want dessert you need to order that now!‘
The food was OK? We were encouraged to try the two course banquet (made up of many small dishes) which sounded delicious! The food literally arrived within less than 5 minutes all at once (weird) — as soon as the first course was served the second was delivered. It wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad. My impression of delicious Vietnamese is super fresh — this was very processed.
We thought we would try their duck and once again, it was delivered within less than 5 minutes… it led us to believe it might have just been reheated by the kitchen.
We love dining out, we love the experience, we love ordering fabulous foods and are always excited to support local talent — I don’t recommend this place however I am glad we tried it to see what the fuss was all about it. It is cute, busy and the highlight of our night was our visit to the local gelato place down the road … Messina

We booked well ahead of time for a Saturday night dinner.
The food here is amazing. Although they will push the tasting plate, you will find that they can be very flexible with the dishes and have no problems in swapping things around if there is something that doesnt appeal to you. We found the tasting plate to be an excellent option and all four of us loved all the dishes.
The highlights of our meal were the Rice Paper rolls — Fresh, tasty and a great starter.
Chilli Salted squid — This dish is legendary. The batter is light and crispy, the squid is succulent and will leave you feeling feeling like a better person! Even the most reluctant seafood eaters will love this one.
The Wok Seared Black Angus Beef — this melts in the mouth, and tastes like nothing you’ve ever had before.
The food here leaves a lasting impression and out of all my friends and family that have dined here — many of them regard Red Lantern as having the tastiest food ever. We cant wait to go back.

Okay so i ate here about 6 months ago but still wanted to write a review.
You need to make a reservation it gets quite busy, it seems very popular. You can choose (or reserve) to sit outdoors (it is undercover) or inside.
For the entrée we had the rice paper rolls, which were delicious and also had the squid and for the mains we had the steamed mussels and a special which was soft shell crab — it was the highlight of the night and should be on the menu permanently.
However the staff were a little rude and rushing us to eat, we were out after only an hour and 20 minutes, didn’t even get to have dessert.
They also bought the food out straight after the other with no time between.
The bill was quite expensive but the food was excellent, though it wasn’t a very comfortable night as we were so rushed to eat and get out of there.
5 stars for food but 2 stars for service.

We visited Red Lantern with family members from Vietnam, wanting to give them a taste of Australian-​Vietnamese cuisine. Having visited once before a few years ago, we were quite excited to go back.
The basics:
No EFTPOS, cash or credit only.
Forced tasting menu for 6 or more people, no alternative or upgrade for the 6pm seating.
No Vietnamese speaking staff.
Import beers aren’t; they’re the locally produced varieties.
As we were had no option other than the tasting menu, it was hard to know how much of the menu we sampled. For the most part the food was well prepared and the service acceptable.
In terms of flavour the food lacked kick; the bird’s eye chilli so ubiquitous in Vietnamese cuisine was largely absent, and the expected tang of fish sauce was subdued. This is Vietnamese food for white people, and while enjoyable is not what we were hoping for.
When making the original booking online I specifically mentioned the Vietnamese speaking guests, and asked for a waiter who could converse with them. I had hoped the chef could prepare some dishes to remind them of Saigon, but flourish with an Australian twist. In my memory of Red Lantern this shouldn’t have been an issue, however it appears this is no longer the case.
With Luke Nguyen’s celebrity status Red Lantern seems to have changed. While the food is competently made and the flavours balanced, the spark appears to have gone.
Reasonably priced, not terribly authentic; three stars.

Enjoyed the food, the staff were knowledgable and the cocktails were fun! I had pork and prawn salad for entrée and pork ribs for the main, and the platter for 2 for dessert. The waiter was very attentive to allergies, checking with the chef when needed.
Only downsides were it was slightly dim, slightly noisy, and we got kicked out without much warning at 8:15 from a 6pm start. Would have been OK if pre-​warned on the day!

I absolutely LOVE Red Lantern — and have done so since from very first visit just after they opened some years ago.
I could rave about all the usual stuff, but my favourite thing about Red Lantern is taking friends and family there for the first time and they love it so much, they make a booking for a couple of weeks down the track to bring their friends.
I also love how the staff make a point of understanding everyone’s dietary requirements and then enthusiastically organise food around them.

A very red Vietnamese restaurant, extremely popular and attracts a crowd day or night. It has an interesting structure as it has a raised porch level where people can sit outdoors but undercover and also a street level uncovered al fresco area, there is of course also internal seating. It does give you a great dining experience here. It would be wonderful to celebrate a special event or to commemorate an evening by attending Red Lantern. Bookings are essential the food is prepared really well and the range of Vietnamese cuisines that is offered is fresh and exciting, involving much mint and lemongrass. I really had a great time the night I went for dinner, the rice paper rolls were made to perfection and almost melted in your mouth, the staff were very helpful and made the evening a pleasant experience.

It’s become even harder to snag a table since popular chef Luke Nguyen took over the kitchen at Red lantern (and more still since his namesake show about food and travel in Vietnam aired on SBS this year), but make sure you wait it out.
Far from the mainstream fare we know and love — fresh rice paper rolls and beef phở, amongst others — this place offers a range of authentic Vietnamese cuisine designed to challenge the tastebuds and introduce diners to new flavours: on the current menu is an entrée of five spiced quail with asparagus and radish, while main course offers up goat curry with a turmeric-​spiked coconut broth and there is a hefty selection of vego options.
I love coming here in summer and dining on the tiered outdoor terrace — the abundance of fresh, seasonal ingredients used in their dishes are the perfect accompaniment to good weather.

If your idea of vietnamese food is rice paper rolls, spring rolls with vietnamese mint and dipping sauce and perhaps a bowl of phở you’ll be used to paying about $ 10 a head for such an experience. And hey, there’s nothing wrong with that.
Red Lantern however, whilst definitely being vietnamese is absolutely nothing like your local cheap joint.
Everything about this restaurant is in another class — the food, the service and the venue.
Whatever you do, make a reservation though otherwise it’s almost definite you’ll be disappointed.

We need to talk about the tasting menu. It’s always a good sign when you can’t pick your favourite dish, and that was certainly the case at Red Lantern. With every beautifully plated and delectable specimen put in front of me I kept saying, «ohh yum! Ok, I could just scoff a bigger plate of this!» That was the case with the chilli salted squid, the Wagyu wrapped in a betel leaf, the perfectly spiced Mulloway fillets and the most divine pieces of pork I’ve ever tasted.
You get the drift. I was one very happy camper.
The staff were all wonderfully attentive and knowledgable. We felt looked after but never rushed, as the dishes were brought out in well-​timed succession — and yes we were happily talked into the dessert tasting plate.
I’m not really au fait with my celebrity chefs, but Red Lantern has made me sit up and take notice of Luke Nguyen and his team. I can now see why you absolutely need to book in advance (and don’t even try for a last minute Saturday night!), and why you’ll be happy to pay a bit more for these perfectly cooked delicacies.
Yes, I’m definitely a fan.

* Red Lanterns hang from the walls creating
* Bookings are a must, this place books up fast
* Fast, efficient service
* Dishes are overpriced
* Restaurant is run by a celebrity chef, Luke
* Sample a bit of everything with the degustation menu
* Staff very knowledgeable about dishes
* Restaurant has won numerous awards
* Open for lunch and dinner