Hoi An Restaurant in Saigon

Ho Chi Minh City - We walked around Renaissance Riverside Hotel looking for breakfast and came to Bon Sen Hotel cafe.   Bon Sen Hotel is within walking distance from Renaissance Riverside Hotel and opposite Sheraton Hotel.   It was so near - Outside of Renaissance Riverside Hotel, make a left turn and the first junction turn right and walk straight down the road and you will surely reach Bon Sen Hotel.
The breakfast was reasonably priced.

We went to visit a customer and was offer fruits - some rambutans on a plate.  The Rambutans tasted very sweet but it's very small as compared to the ones in Singapore.  The Rambutan skin is very thin.

rambutans on the plate

For dinner, I decided to go to a Vietnamese restaurant called 'Hoi An Vietnamese Restaurant' located @ 11 Le Thanh Ton Street, District 1.     We were directed upstairs and the atmosphere was fine dinning and most of the patrons were foreigners.   The waiter gave me a menu of drinks, which I put aside and asked for the food menu.  He then brought me a set menu and the special set menu of the day started at USD 45++ per person.  So, I asked him again - can you bring me the ala carte menu?  of which he reluctantly brought it for me.   This is a very expensive Vietnamese restaurant and you come here once for the experience.   You need to be really 'street smart' in this restaurant. 

I observed that when you sit down, they will served you the wine menu.  If you are Japanese and European, they will immediately put a bottle of wine on the table.   Next, they will slip you the set menu.  Avoid that as the prices starts at USD 35++ with simple dishes.    On the ala carte menu, stick to the Vietnamese dishes rather than go for BBQ steak or Lobster.  If you ask the waiter, they will always recommend the most expensive dish on the menu.    

They had live traditional Vietnamese performance, which was pleasant to the ears.

Traditional Vietnamese performances

So, I ordered the apetitiser of scallops pancake which is so delicious.

Scallop fried pancakes

The next dish was intricately sculptured by the chef out of carrots and its a vegetable dish of flower buds and beef.  Also another delicious dish - the beef is so tender.

The next dish is rice vermicilli (Tang Hoon) with crab in clay pot. 

Another interesting dish was fish; also tasted good.   It was still cooking over solid fuel keeping the fish steaming hot.

Next dish was pork ribs in Mulberry leaves.  You feel that the Chef has taken extra care to prepare the food with utmost professionalism.

As for desert, I order mango flambe.

Flambe is a french word that means flamed.  Thus it is a cooking proceedure whereby Alcohol is added to the hot pan to create a burst of flames.  The waitress roll out the cart to prepare this desert in front of us with flaming fire.  The result was a nice sweet taste of mango and alcohol.

This is the wine which made the flambee

Raining in Saigon - Ngon Restaurant

Saigon - Arrived at the new Ho Chi Minh Airport.  The last time I was here was with my family in Dec 2010.  The airport was spanking new but the hordes of people waiting at the entrance are still the same.  It was amazing to watch so many people just waiting at the entrance. 

I exchange at HCMC airport which is much cheaper than in Singapore.  In Singapore - I would have exchange for 13,000 dong to SGD 1 but here at the airport it was 16,527 dong.   Beware that the money changers charged SGD2 for transaction fee.   In Vietnam, buyers beware!!

The taxi fare was just 150,000 dong to Renanissance Riverside Saigon Hotel.  

Our lunch was at Pho24 @ Vincom Building.  The menu has much more dishes.  I has Pho Bo (Beef noodles) and fresh spring rolls.   I have been waiting to eat this.  But Lesley had the following which is a mixture of Vietnames dishes.

We went to our customer building and I took some bird eye's view from the Top Floor of the building.  They had an outdoor cafe where we had our meeting.

Later Lesley and I went for our dinner at Ngon Restaurant.  This time I tried a different dish.  

Saigon Special Beer

Kang kong with garlic

 A very simple dish and it was not very tasting.

Ngon Special Fried Rice

Also another dish that is no so tasting.   As we look around we realised that the local Vietnamese were eating fried rice pancakes and so we order one for ourselves.  I think Vietnamese food excel in freshness and not in fried and stir fried food.

Contents of the Fried Rice pancake 

BBQ Seafood

Ho Chi Minh City - After all the day's meeting is over, I went over to Ben Thanh market for some souvenir shopping and be absorbed in the local's hustling and bustling. The constant bargaining is such fun and you become good after a few good buys....

I also caught up with some friends who happened to be in HCMC at the same time. At night we had a late dinner @ a road side hawker for seafood. This is located beside Ben Thanh market. It was good and delicious - BBQ snails, ginger stir-fried clams, seafood soup, Vietnamese fresh spring rolls, vegetables (Kang kong fried with garlic) and fresh lime juice for just S$30.

Ho Chi Minh - Food Galore...

Saigon - I just love Vietnamese food especially pho (noodles). It is a known Vietnamese slang that noodles means a mistress or another girl friend. But for me it means real Vietnamese Beef soup noodles. I can have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner - it just taste heavenly.

Chefs all over the world hail Vietnamese cuisine as healthy, especially since it is loaded with vegetables, spices and herbs such as mint and coriander. Many of these contain antibacterial compounds and provide added fibre to the dieat, therefore a Vietnamese meal is usually low in calories.

Famous for its lively, fresh flavours - Vietnamese cuisine uses abundant fresh herbs and greens, delicate soups and stir fries, and well seasoned grilled foods with rice or noodles are the main-stay of Vietnamese dishes. While the Vietnamese cuisine relies on fresh vegetables and subtle seasonings - it also has subtle Chinese and French influences.

Food Review - Recommended Vietnamese restaurant @ HCMC which I have tried:

• Lemon Grass - $$ - 4 Nguyen Thiep St - (opposite of Sheraton Saigon Hotel). A small three-story restaurant that serve good value vietnamese food
• Pho24 - $ - (opposite Sheration Saigon Hotel) - very delicious vietnamese noodles

• Hoavener Brewery- $ - 28 bis Mac Dinh Chi Street - This Czech brewery is Vietnam's first microbrewery pub and restaurant - a very nice brewery with reasonable priced food.
• Lion Brewery - $ - located @ 11C Lam Son Square, Dist.1 next to Caravelle Hotel - The German microbrewery uses the traditional processing method and technology of Kaspar Schulz - serves good German sausages. I went there during the Oktoberfest - the whole place was decorated very nicely.
• Blue Ginger - $$ - food served on a crisp, white table cloth, housed in a former journalists’ club at 37 Nam Ky Khai Nghia
• Hoa Vien Restuarnt - $ - located @ 148 Hai Ba Trung, Dist. 1. Next to Renaissance Riverside Saigon Hotel - very affordable and good food - you will find many locals dining here.
• Indochine restaurant - $$$ - 32 Pham Ngoc Thach (District 3), northern vietnamese - specialties in style. The menu shaped like a non (Vietnamese cone hat). Menu prices are quite expensive.

• Au Manoir De Khai - $$$$ - I think this is Ho Chi Minh City’s most opulent and grand French restauant with a glimpse of the silk and gilt coated interior of this two-storey manor. They have a very good collection of French wines.