An Chay An almost vegan Vietnamese Dine-In

The pleasantly straightforward menu of An Chay offers well-known dishes from Vietnam but with a vegetarian and vegan interpretation. The name of the small dine-in and take-away on Bullingerplatz gives it away. What a stroke of luck for lovers of Vietnamese cuisine, that the dishes are are delicious when combined with seitan and soy mince,

Especially popular are, for example, 'Com Thit Bam Chay', a rice dish with soy mince and kimchi, as well as 'Banh Cuon Chay', a steamed rice roll filled with seitan, or 'Xoi Chay', a sticky rice combined with vegan sausage and mushrooms.

Owner Christine Le originally started a pop-up take-away at Corona Lockdown. The delicious sandwiches, also known as Banh Mi, topped with cucumber, pickled carrot strips, coriander, pepperoncini, spicy garlic-soy sauce, and delicately filled rice dough sheets, which were so well received that the path to a permanent location was clearly mapped out.

Now An Chay continues to prove how refined Vietnamese cuisine is in terms of flavour, in classic umami style combining the perfect blend of acidity, salt and sweetness. Almost vegan is 'Nuoc cham', a traditional Vietnamese sauce for dipping based on fish sauce. However, this can easily be replaced by the unmistakable garlic soy sauce.

By the way, An Chay favours the 'walk-in' principle, so reservations are not possible, and spontaneous visits are welcome.

Maria Meiners

Autorin Zürich