La Nhâu raises the bar for Vietnamese food in Ottawa

When I learned of a new Vietnamese restaurant in the ByWard, it caught my attention. When I saw their menu, my curiosity was even more piqued. I knew that I would need to have lunch here with one of my favourite Ottawa chefs. 

This was not going to be your bog-standard Vietnamese but something with greater aspirations. I’d arrived a little early for our lunch meeting so I ordered a few appetizers in advance of my lunch date's arrival

With decades of living in Toronto and Vancouver, I’d always had Vietnamese spring rolls done in rice wrappers. I find the resulting crunch and flavour more appealing.

It was when I returned to Ottawa that I was served, almost exclusively, spring rolls done in wheat wrappers. Over recent years, I’ve been told that the wheat wrappers are more authentic, but I’m suspicious of this. Lucky for me, La Nhâu — meatraning to socialize over drinks — provides their magnificent spring rolls in rice wrappers.

I’d ordered the crab spring rolls which came as deep-fried squares that had been cut into triangles. The crisp wrapper bent and crunched to the sweet filling of crab, jicama, glass noodles, egg and myriad other ingredients. The housemade sweet dipping fish sauce made the experience even more perfect. As if it needed it.

The fish sauce-glazed chicken wings immediately reminded me of the extra-large capon wings I would eat at Allen’s on the Danforth when I lived in Toronto. 

These were meaty wings that had been cooked from a fresh, rather than frozen, state. The meat came off the bone with ease and flavour packed crisp skin had me behaving as elegantly as a truffle pig. Perhaps we’re looking at a top wing contender for 2026?

The timing was perfect as at that moment my lunch guest arrived. 

In some cultures, the last name is pronounced first, and so it is with Chef Teegavarapu Sarath Mohan. If you know him, he goes by Sarath, and he leaves an auspicious brief history of notable restaurants behind him: Vivaan, Kathā and Ek Bar. 

He recently left Ek Bar to start a new restaurant that may be a first for the city: a chicken supper club. It’s slated to open near the end of May (take that with a grain of salt as licensing is a capricious game) at 820 Somerset St. W between Booth and Rochester streets.

I watched as he enjoyed the crab roll, picking the various elements from the wrapper for individual assessment. A strategy so familiar.

For a moment, he seemed to go deeper inside himself, contemplating what he was experiencing. On another visit I would have the pork and shrimp spring rolls which were every bit as good.

The mango and shrimp salad was a refreshing marvel. All the fibrous elements at their peak of freshness and flavour. The mango had both the acidity of something slightly underripe and the beginnings of the flavour we love. A perfect moment.

Mohan arrived in Ottawa from his home in Hyderabad, in Southern India, the capital of the state of Telangana, which is viewed as a centre of India’s technology industry. 

He landed in Ottawa in 2013 to begin his studies in computer engineering. By 2015, working at Rasam in the ByWard to make extra money, he caught the restaurant bug. 

It was here that he was taught how to create sauces, becaming enamoured with the processes.

He enjoyed cooking, but when the owner of Rasam suddenly abandoned his restaurant, Sarath stepped in to do what he could to salvage the enterprise.

That was all he needed and his parents weren’t happy.  As he told me, “My parents really did not want me to go into the culinary world.” 

The thinly sliced quality cut of beef tenderloin arrived as Vietnamese-accented carpaccio and was refreshingly simple. Dressed in peanuts, sweet onions, coriander, lime and toasted garlic, it was enjoyably bright and appetite-inducing and was clearly a hit with us both.

“After my experience at Rasam, I took a couple of years off to contemplate next moves.” The culinary arts had captivated him completely, and with a burning innate talent, he pursued a restaurant business. 

Over the superior Pho at La Nhâu, he told me how he envisions revitalizing Kathã. In Sanskrit, Kathã means storytelling, and it was his idea to tell the regional stories of food through his menu.

He didn’t participate in this dish, but the broth was deep with colour and flavours of spice such as cinnamon and star anise, with good doses of rich beefy umami. Co-owner Johnny Tran mentioned they slow cook for 24 hours to create the broth, and I found the use of MSG to be minimal.

The slices of raw beef were of a superior quality as were the noodles that kept their firmness and didn’t dissolve into a milky cloud in the broth.

Mohan had mentioned that his favourite Pho was to be had at a Chinatown restaurant named Pho Thu Do. I was happy to share with him that La Nhâu is the second restaurant of the folks behind Pho Thu Do.

Over the years and at various charitable events, I would be impressed with Mohan’s small bites as I had been consistently impressed with those of Black Tartan Chef Ian Carswell. Both had a laser focus and instinct for elements that would harmonize in flavours, textures and appearance. 

Now here was another interesting development: Chef Mohan also happens to be a fan of Carswell. “I think there is a lot of honesty in his cooking”, he said. 

“Working with quality ingredients and letting them speak. Hyper seasonal and very thoughtful cooking. And obviously, the kind of community work that he does is very inspiring.”

This is a case in point that if you understand who you are and have an endless curiosity, you don’t need formal training to become a chef. It’s remarkable given how sophisticated his dishes, plating and techniques are. He’s got an organic sensibility and it translates into, to borrow a phrase, “very thoughtful cooking.”

As someone who’s not partial to bananas, he passed on the banana blossom beef salad, but I enjoyed it on a subsequent visit. 

Banana blossoms are finely shaved, rested in lime water, removed and then tossed with fresh herbs. The lightly sweet dressing of lime and fish sauce created an appealing synergy with the watery crunch of the blossoms. The sinew-free slices of beef were melt-in-the-mouth tender.

I asked Mohan one of my standard wine questions: Riesling or Chardonnay? 

He replied, “ I always considered it to be Riesling but seem to have grown out of it.  Now I enjoy a good Chardonnay. One that I really love is Paul Clüver, it is a Village Chardonnay from Elgin, South Africa.”

I checked and these wines are currently sold out at both the SAQ and LCBO. From the description, however, I imagined it would go very well with the Vietnamese garlic noodles. 

This is a dish that was developed by Helene An, a Vietnamese refugee who fled to San Francisco in the mid-70s. In order to create greater appeal for her restaurant, she saw that Americans were fond of pasta and so she created a dish that represented both cultures.

It is now considered a classic around the world, and from what I’ve seen, La Nhâu is the only Vietnamese restaurant in Ottawa to offer this dish.

Think of it as a version of pasta aglio e olio, but with butter standing in for the olive oil. The almost invisible seasoning can also involve a small smattering of soy, oyster sauce, fish sauce and a dusting of parmesan cheese. Umami all-around and crave-inducing with that pop of sweet shrimp and al dente pasta.

I asked Mohan about his personal favourite eateries and he mentioned: Supply and Demand, Torta Boyz, Izakaya Shingen and Raphaël. After a long night in the kitchen, he also finds himself at Thr33’s Company Snack Bar as they’re open until 2 am.

His approach to cooking is also what he sees as a continuing restaurant trend: “Stronger regional storytelling through food with a smaller and more intimate format.” 

Regional storytelling is certainly what La Nhâu owners Minh Duong and Johnny Tran are shooting for. Already their menu offers Vietnamese dishes seldom seen in Ottawa and Tran tells me that they will continue to rotate in recipes from throughout Vietnam in the coming year.

La Nhâu is on track to do for Vietnamese food what Khao Street Food did for Thai cuisine last year. It’s bringing exciting new regional recipes that energize the palate and provide an education. 

It’s also raising the bar for Vietnamese cuisine across the city. Last year's entry into this space, the very good Cô Ơi Kitchen heralded that something new was happening. The arrival of La Nhâu may only accelerate the process for greater diversity in the Vietnamese culinary scene. 

As for Chef Mohan’s newest restaurant, he’s taken inspiration from NYCs Coqodaq where fried chicken is served with Champagne, wine and cocktails. If all goes according to plan, the doors will swing open before June.