by MARK SLUTSKY

Rumours were bouncing around late last year that Au Cyclo, the Vietnamese restaurant on Parc between Laurier and Fairmount, was to close for lack of business. Thankfully the rumours turned out to be just that, and the restaurant remains open for the time being. Au Cyclo offers a white-tablecloth, fine dining experience that's all the better to experience the country's rich cuisine, a colonial-era fusion of French and Asian cookery. Vietnam is the site of an interesting culinary convergence; in fact, before the war, Saigon was host to many straight-up French restaurants, and you'll find baguette-based sandwiches at quite a few Vietnamese eateries.

Good as those subs can be, however, you won't find them at Au Cyclo. You won't find much pho either; while they do offer the popular Vietnamese soup ($5), it (and the other soups on the menu) are there as appetizers, not as meals, and they're mostly in the $4-$5 range. The exception is the lunch menu, which is very affordable - there are seven dishes to choose from, all either soup- or noodle-based, all costing around $8.50.

Soups aside, Au Cyclo's menu is extensive. There's a lot to choose from and on a recent visit it was hard to whittle it down. If there's an emphasis on something, it's seafood - the chef seems to have a real affinity for shrimp, as there seem to be dozens of shrimp-based dishes on the menu.

We started out then with the bành tôm chiên, a sweet-potato "cake" deep-fried with shrimp ($7.50). Julienned slices of sweet potato were jumbled up in a light batter with several whole shrimp, and despite the deep-frying, the dish managed to have a light taste and wasn't overly oily. The sugariness of the potato mingled quite comfortably with the fresh shrimp, and overall this was a memorable dish that worked the sweet/salty crossover with style. We also had the bò lui uóp xà, a beef satay with lemongrass ($7.50). The dish came with two brochettes, and these were something else - tender and juicy and infused with citrusy flavour. One of the night's highlights, to be sure.

The first main course to catch our eye was the heo kho tô, or Vietnamese-style caramelized pork ($14). The meat came served in a small hot pot, with a healthy side of steamed vegetables (and of course we'd all ordered sticky rice, a little pricey at $3 a bowl. But still - sticky rice! How could we not?) The pork had a bit of a pungent aroma, but it was sweet and delicious nonetheless, served with lots of excess sauce that mingled with the rice very well.

Still, the pork paled a little in comparison to the cút chlên ($13.50), which hit a lot of the same flavour notes. Roasted quails in a tangy house sauce of Au Cyclo's own making, this was an extremely tasty, savoury dish with just a hint of sweetness. The quails (two of the tiny birds) were tender, with just-crispy-enough skin. Definitely another highlight.

Probably the most memorably unusual dish, though, was the chao tôm bánh hoi, or "shrimp soufflé on sugar cane" ($15). Four sticks of sugar cane were attached to globular, eggy shrimp soufflés, imbued with some of the canes' sweetness. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to eat the canes themselves, or just gnaw on them (that was my hunch), so I asked the waiter. "Don't eat them!" he said. "If you do, you'll turn into an elephant. That's what my mother always used to say to me!" Obviously I wasn't interested in that pachydermian fate, so I did as I was told.

Finally, we rounded out the meal with the bánh xéo, a classic Vietnamese pancake with pork and shrimp ($13.50) and liberally stuffed with bean sprouts. It was a little too oily, though the pancake dough was tasty and crispy. All in all, a very fine meal, and I'm still looking forward to trying out more of the restaurant's long menu.

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Au Cyclo
ADDRESS: 5136 Parc
PHONE: 272-1477
HOURS: Mon-Fri 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m., 5 p.m.-10 p.m.,
Sat-Sun 5 p.m.-11 p.m.
BEST FEATURES: The juicy beef satays and savoury
quails in house sauce
ALCOHOL: Yes
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Up a half-flight of stairs
VEGETARIAN FRIENDLY: Yes
CREDIT CARDS: Yes (but no Interac)
NO-SMOKING SECTION: Yes
PRICE: $15-$25 per person, before tax, booze and/or tip
RATING: *** out of ****