May 30, 2025

HaiSous in Chicago offers an Imperial Hue Tasting Menu. If you are wondering what makes Hue cuisine different from other Vietnamese regional cuisines, you can find the answer by looking at Hue’s history. Hue, located in the center of Vietnam, was the imperial capital under the Nguyen Dynasty from 1802 to 1945. As a result of the influence of the royal court of the Nguyen Dynasty, which demanded elaborate and diverse dishes, Hue cuisine is known for refined dishes focused on elegant presentation, sophisticated cooking techniques, and intricate flavor combinations.

The rich culinary offerings of Hue captured my attention when I saw one of my mom’s dishes on the menu, bahn bot loc (miniature tapioca dumplings stuffed with shrimp and ground meat wrapped in banana leaves). I rarely eat out at a Vietnamese restaurant because in my opinion nobody makes better Vietnamese food than my mom. But I haven’t seen my mom since Chinese New Year in February so there was a part of me that wanted a connection with her. It also didn’t hurt that this restaurant earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand award.

HaiSous makes their bahn bot loc slightly different from my mom. They use shelled shrimp in their filling. I like my mom’s peeled and ground shrimp version better, since I’d prefer to avoid the risk of getting sharp shards of shells lodged in my throat. Earlier in the week, my mom had tried to convince me to fly over to see her in Houston straight from Chicago. “You’re so close to me. It’s only an hour and a half flight. My friend who lives in Chicago told me so,“ she said. I sorely missed my mom and her cooking but she and her friend were wrong. I checked and it takes about double her estimated time to fly from Chicago to Houston. HaiSous would have to satisfy my Vietnamese food craving for now.

I wanted to try as much as possible, so we ended up getting the recommended eight-course tasting menu. But banh bot loc was not on the regular menu and I wanted to eat something that made me feel like I was eating at my mom’s house. Also, the only Hue food I’ve eaten before is bun bo hue (a hearty aromatic beef broth prepared with robust lemongrass, seasoned with unami powered shrimp paste, sugar and spicy chili oil).  When I lived in Vietnam, I ate Vietnamese cuisine from the south-eastern region near Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) and Song Mao. While the dishes in Ho Chi Minh City and other Vietnamese regions are also built upon the same foundation of fresh, seasonal and locally sourced ingredients with a variety of fresh herbs like cilantro, mint, and basil, Hue makes a lot of noise about its reputation for fabulous and more assertive flavors.

For the appetizer courses, we had banh bot loc, Va Tron (Hue style fig salad with white snow mushrooms, dressed in Vietnamese coriander fish sauce) and grilled garlic eggplant with crispy shallots and radishes. I’d never had snow mushrooms cooked this way before and was mesmerized. They almost had the texture of tripe. I now knew what to do with the bags of dried snow mushrooms my mom got for me that have been sitting in my pantry for years.

She had told me to make soup with the fungus. Snow mushrooms are good for the immune system, brain, skin and heart health. Soup did not motivate me to want to do anything with those mushrooms but this salad did. I told myself that when I got home I would find the snow mushrooms that had been buried deep in my pantry and make this salad. It was so refreshing to eat. The grilled eggplants were delicious as well. The banh bot loc was my least favorite dish out of the three appetizers taste-wise but my favorite for sentimental reasons. I was glad to navigate safely through eating shrimp shells too.

For the mains, the servers brought out slow-cooked swordfish sprinkled with large cilantro leaves, five-spice rice generously studded with nutrient-rich lotus seeds (my mom had also given me huge bag of dried lotus seeds for my pantry, as she believes they help reduce stress), lime leaf chicken thighs and legs caramelized with a beautiful sweet soy chili sauce, and the largest bowl of crispy fingerling potatoes.  Hmmm, fingerling potatoes… I was surprised to even see fingerling potatoes on a Vietnamese menu. It looked out of place. I realized later after thinking about it that it was historically appropriate due to the French colonization of Vietnam. While not traditionally a staple in Vietnam like rice or sweet potatoes, fingerlings became a part of Vietnamese cuisine after their introduction by the French.

The swordfish and potatoes were just okay. My favorite out of the main course offerings was the crispy caramelized skin chicken. I almost went for a second piece even though I was getting full. Just like the snow mushrooms, I was inspired by the fragrant rice to use the dried lotus seeds in my pantry. Perhaps I will use sweet rice instead, different kinds of spices, and wrap it in lotus leaves. My mom would be happy if I created something new that was good for my health too.

A large baked sweet purple potato filled with vanilla custard on top of a sweet coconut cream soup was Chef Thai Dang’s version of che (blanket term for a Vietnamese dessert that comes in the form of a drink, soup or pudding). I was so full when they placed the che in front of us. That didn’t stop me from taking a large scoop of it with my spoon. It was worth the calories. I had the waitress package the dessert up, which I happily ate for breakfast the next morning.

Eating at HaiSous got me excited about eating Vietnamese food at a restaurant again. It is one of the more affordable tasting menus ($68) and it may help inspire you, too, to use those ingredients in your pantry that you have no idea what to do with or go quickly to an Asian market to look for some snow fungus and lotus seeds.