Another day, another Vietnamese restaurant to see in Christchurch. The Five Stars Restaurant looks like many other Vietnamese restaurants in the city. As it turns out, Five Stars is more than another place that offers pho, although it does offer one of the better pho soups we’ve found in Christchurch.
You can find the Five Stars Restaurant in the Fendalton neighbourhood of Christchurch.
Features
- Includes soup and traditional rice dishes available
- Vegetarian-friendly choices
- Most entrees are available for $20 or less
A Relaxing Atmosphere
The first thing we noticed when entering Five Stars was that the place offers a peaceful atmosphere. Five Stars features gentle lighting and artistic accents all over the place. You’ll see paintings on the walls that feature natural scenes from around Vietnam. The wood tables and chairs aren’t overly garish, as they add a nice look to the place. The place feels enjoyable, and it could even be great for a romantic outing.
Friendly People
The people who work at Five Stars are amicable and appreciated our business. One of the people who served us was the lady who owns the restaurant. She was the friendliest of all, as she was willing to talk with us about the food and everything at the restaurant.
She enjoys hearing from his customers, and she knows what people are looking for in the foods they order. She is very responsive to whatever requests people hold when ordering foods. One example of this comes from how the restaurant removed its shark fin soup from the menu following a bunch of complaints from customers.
What’s On the Menu?
The menu features nearly 150 numbered entrees. You’ll find various great choices for dining here:
- You can start with spring rolls. The place offers pork, prawn, and vegetarian spring rolls.
- The traditional Vietnamese soup includes delicious rice noodles.
- You’ll find broken rice entrees here as well. The broken rice here entails fractured rice grains that are smaller in size and provide more texture to a meal.
- The rice dishes include everything from grilled chicken wings to tofu.
- There are beef, chicken, pork, squid, and fried rice dishes for sale here.
- There are a few vegetarian entrees here, including some tofu dishes and stir-fried bok choy entrees.
Great Food All Around
We enjoyed the food here at Five Stars, as the restaurant did well in cooking everything. The rice is well-made without feeling too tender. The rice noodles for the pho soup were fresh and were flexible without breaking apart. The soup was rich in flavour, and it wasn’t watered down like what we’ve seen with so many other pho entrees before.
The portions here are generous and worth the money. Many of the entrees are available in medium and large sizes. It’s easy to get enough from a medium serving for less than $20. But the large entrée is helpful if you’ve got three or four people there and they all want to eat the same thing.
We noticed the spring rolls were somewhat transparent, as the coverings for them were slightly thin. But the rolls were still delicious, and the coverings did well in keeping a good base that kept the contents from leaking or slipping out. You could see all the detail the chefs put into these rolls, as they mix the lettuce, carrots, and meat well together to create a thorough entrée.
The place also does well with spices. You can ask to have as many or as few spices in your foods as you wish. The place responds well to requests to keep foods from being too spicy. We tried some of the entrees with a little bit of spiciness, and we found that a little was enough for making something great. Everything tasted delicious without being too rough or otherwise hard to consume.
An Exciting Place
We enjoyed our time at Five Stars, and we feel you’ll find plenty of things to love about this restaurant. This Vietnamese restaurant is friendly and cozy, plus it features many great dishes for everyone to try. You’ll find various entrees that you will love while at the restaurant, especially if you’re trying to find a place that is a little different from other Vietnamese restaurants.
