From Below Deck To West Lake: The Chef Bringing Real Spain To Hanoi

On a stretch of Quang An Street in Tay Ho, where the evening light comes off West Lake in long gold bands, there is a three storey building that smells of garlic, smoked paprika and cured ham. This is Olé Tapas & Wine, and it holds a distinction no other restaurant in Hanoi can claim: certification from ICEX, Spain’s trade and investment agency, as an official Restaurant from Spain.

That badge is not handed out for a paella on the menu and a Rioja on the shelf. It signals that a restaurant sources genuine Spanish products, follows authentic technique and presents the cuisine as Spaniards would recognise it. In a city where “Mediterranean” often means whatever the kitchen has to hand, Olé has decided to be exact about what it is.

Three Floors, Three Moods

The building itself is organised like a night out in Madrid. The ground floor is the bar, lively and loud in the right way, with a semi-private wine room tucked to one side for groups who want a table of their own without leaving the buzz behind. It is the natural place to start, with a glass of something Spanish and a few small plates.

Climb one floor and the tempo shifts. The second floor is the main restaurant, and the balcony is the seat to book. West Lake spreads out below, and on a clear evening the combination of jamón, cold wine and open water is about as far from the Old Quarter’s traffic as Hanoi gets.

The third floor is the quiet one. A fully private room with its own bathroom facilities and the best lake views in the building, it has become the go to for celebrations, corporate dinners and anyone who wants the restaurant to themselves for a night.

The Chef Who Chose Vietnam Over Television

The menu was compiled by Jack Luby, executive chef of Uncut Travel & Hospitality Group, the Hanoi based operator behind Olé and a growing family of venues in Tay Ho. Luby is the rare chef whose face is recognisable to people who have never eaten his food.

Originally from the United Kingdom, he led a Michelin Guide recognised restaurant and earned two AA Rosettes before television found him. As head chef on Below Deck Mediterranean, he cooked for demanding charter guests inside the cramped, high pressure galley of a luxury yacht, with cameras recording every service. He has since completed filming on Queen of the Castle, a new culinary series expected to reach an international audience.

He could have stayed on that path. Instead, he moved to Vietnam. Luby has said he considers the country one of Asia’s most exciting culinary destinations, and since joining Uncut he has rebuilt Olé’s kitchen around a single question: would this dish pass in Spain? His focus today is on mentoring local cooks, championing real Spanish ingredients and contributing to a Hanoi dining scene that is changing faster than almost anywhere in the region.

What arrives at the table?

The kitchen is built on tapas and paella, the two pillars any Spaniard would expect, and on products that are imported rather than approximated. Ibérico ham is the headline act, sliced to order and served the way it should be, at room temperature with nothing to get in its way. The rest of the menu follows the same logic: fewer shortcuts, more of the real thing.

At weekends the restaurant runs a seafood showcase built around carabineros, the deep red prawns from Spain’s Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts that many chefs consider the finest in the world. They are sweet, intensely flavoured and very hard to find in Vietnam. Seeing them on a Hanoi menu is a small statement of intent.

The drinks list is Spanish dominated, from crisp Albariño and Verdejo to structured Tempranillo and Garnacha, with Spanish cocktails alongside. It is a wine list that assumes the diner might actually be curious about Spain, rather than one that defaults to the safest labels available.

A Restaurant That Likes A Party

Olé has also become known for events that go beyond the dinner service. A previous Ham Party turned the restaurant into a celebration of jamón in all its forms. The next one, Tapas in the Dark, runs over Halloween and asks guests to eat blindfolded, relying on taste and smell alone to work out what is in front of them. It is playful, but it also makes a serious point about how much of what we think we taste is what we see.

Why It Matters?

Hanoi has no shortage of restaurants that borrow from Europe. What it has had far less of is restaurants that commit to a single cuisine without hedging. Olé’s ICEX certification, its imported larder and a chef with the credentials to know the difference put it in a small category.

For anyone in Tay Ho looking for a bar, a balcony dinner or a private room with a view, the building on Quang An Street now covers all three. For anyone who has missed the taste of Spain, it may be the closest thing Hanoi has to a flight to Madrid.