Hana Mizuki @ Le Thanh Ton Street, Ho Chi Minh

Located at Le Thanh Ton Street, District 1 of Ho Chi Minh City. The street has many other Japanese eateries as well as pizza parlours. Hana Mizuki was one the restaurants that we stumbled upon and decided on impromptu basis.

dining area at level 2

The restaurant is actually quite small, and we were ushered upstairs where there are more seats available. We chose to have their set lunches, so we ordered the 2 beef sets and 2 sashimi sets. Each set comes with miso soup, rice, chawan mushi and an appetiser. Added extra order of gyoza to share. For drinks, they will ask if you'd like Vietnamese green tea or Japanese green tea. The bottled Heineken is actually quite cheap, at VND35,000, which is like SGD2+? Darn, should've drank beer instead. Hahaha!

The place actually feels abit worn down. Tell-tale signs included the dirty looking walls, and the overused menu. Not to worry though, overall, it was clean and comfortable to dine-in.

Japanese green tea

coca-cola

The appetiser was quite unique, being sliced bitter gourd served cold. You'll either like it or hate it. It was quite bitter, actually. Never had this in Singapore before, have you?

appetiser - cold cut sliced bitter gourd with egg and spring onions

chawan mushi

with prawns and fish cake slice

The chawan mushi was served just lukewarm. But the taste was alright.

gyoza

The gyoza already came doused in vinegar and ready to eat. Not bad, but could be even better if it has more vegetables in it.

beef set with stir-fried squid

sashimi for the sashimi set

close-up view of the tender beef

stir-fried squid with onions

Japanese rice

potato salad

miso soup

The sashimi looked so good, and I'd bet that it tasted good too. Well, my friends who had it can attest that it was fresh and nice. *sobs* Didn't order that because was apprehensive about eating raw fish in a place that is far from hotel...

Anyway, I liked the beef too. Nice and tender, and goes well with the sauce that has minced garlic in it for extra spiciness (but mind your breath thereafter though...). The squid was fresh and not overcooked. Yums. The rice in the bento was alot and combined with the potato salad, well..the stomach did feel heavier after lunch.

The set lunches prices that we had was about VND150,000 to VND180,000. So a budget of say about  SGD13 per pax, got us quite a good lunch.

Service was quite slow though because there was just only one waitress to serve the upper floor, which just consist of two tables, including ours.