Indochine Kitchen + Bar = Garlic Butter Chicken Wings

Despite the similarities between the food at Indochine and Phnom Penh, there are obvious differences between the two restaurants.  First off, the atmosphere is completely different… inside Indochine, you’ll find clean lines, dark furniture, and multiple large screen tvs.

Plus, on both of our visits for lunch, Indochine wasn’t the least bit busy (although I suspect it gets busier at nights – especially on Wednesdays when the wings are 1/2 price).

On our first visit, we knew we had to try the Garlic Butter Chicken Wings served with lemon pepper dipping sauce ($9.50).  Slightly spicier than the wings at Phnom Penh, these wings came hot out of the fryer and were juicy and crispy (if not a tad bit too salty for my preference).  I also noticed that unlike Phnom Penh, Indochine doesn’t give you the wing tips.  I know there isn’t much meat on the wing tips but I did miss them.

The Thit Ko ($7.75) might look like it’s a small bowl but there was plenty of tender braised pork pieces in this dish along with a few hot chilies.  The peppers were not super spicy but they did give the dish a kick.  With a dish like this, you really need to eat it with rice and it does come with a large bowl overflowing with steaming hot rice.

The dish that I really liked was the Mozzarella Oysters and Shiitakes ($10).  The chopped up oysters are served along with shiitake mushrooms and baked in a heavenly cheesy sauce and served up with some wonderfully grilled French bread slices.

While we were a bit full, the food was so good that we decided to try one last dish… the Butter Beef Carpaccio ($12).  This plate was quite large and the thin beef slices were served with a sweet vinaigrette (almost too sweet for me), garlic chips, and cilantro.

As I mentioned, we had arrived at 11am on a Saturday and it wasn’t busy at all – in fact, we were the only ones in the restaurant at the time.  Perhaps because of this, service was quite good – something that you don’t always get at Phnom Penh.

A few days later, we decided to tempt fate and come here on a Wednesday.  As I mentioned, Wednesday is 1/2 price wing day (they have a Ladies Night on Tuesdays similar to Milestones) so I was expecting this place to be packed.  We arrived for a late lunch around 1pm and were surprised that there were only 3 tables occupied.  With Phnom Penh style wings for only $4.75, how could this place be so quiet?

One of my favourite dishes at Phnom Penh is the Luc Lac Beef on Rice with Fried Egg (or 2 fried eggs if you ask nicely).  The Beef Luc Lac ($10.50) at Indochine is quite different than Phnom Penh but no less awesome.  It’s served with tomato fried rice (sorry, no fried egg on top) and the beef is cubed instead of sliced.  I was pleasantly surprised to find the beef was quite tender and I didn’t even miss the fried egg.

Indochine actually serves up a number of different Asian dishes including Malaysian Curry and Singaporean Laksa.  We opted for the Thai Coconut Red Curry ($9.50) and were happy we did.  Served with your choice of rice or French baguette, this hearty and spicy stew has plenty of tender beef brisket.  The crusty bread was so good when dipped in the spicy red curry sauce.

The BBQ Beef Short Ribs ($8.50) were similar to Korean beef short ribs and served with a Vietnamese style sweet soy glaze.  I found this dish to be a bit average but the size of the dish was larger than I expected for an appy.

By around 1:30pm, the restaurant was again empty except for us… I’m not complaining because I don’t miss the loud crowds that are typical at Phnom Penh and the service was again quite friendly.

They also serve up 2 other flavours of wings at Indochine (Honey Garlic and Sriracha Buffalo).  While the food is not exactly like Phnom Penh, the food at Indochine is really worth a visit.

1 E Broadway
Vancouver, BC

www.indochinekitchen.ca