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.

Ty Coz Saigon @ Ho Chi Minh

Located at 178/4 Pasteur, District 1 Ho Chi Minh City. Quite near the cathedral. Was advised by the hotel receptionist to make a reservation, prior to visiting for dinner.

Took a cab there, and we reached within 10-15 minutes. If walk, probably half hour or so.

is this the right place?

After alighting from the cab, we had to walk a little bit inside before noticing the restaurant's signboard.

outside of the restaurant

First impression of the place, was "whoa.. so dark!"

yup, this is the right place

Then we had to climb stairs upon stairs, and voila~ Our seats were at the rooftop.

can see the cathedral

table settings

Once we're seated, the waitress brought out a huge white board menu.

whiteboard menu

We were served iced-tea while perusing the menu.

complimentary iced-tea (unsweetened)

The ala-carte items on the menu looked kind of expensive, starting from VND195,000 and up to VND1,100,000.  The most expensive item was Tournedos Rossini (steak and foie gras). Sounds so tempting...


Monsieur Philippe, the friendly chef, came out to explain the menu for us. It was really an item by item explanation of the menu, right from the main ingredients used, to cooking style and sauces. Wow. First time I've ever heard so much about French cuisine, preparation/cooking method and different types of sauces used for some of the dishes. Information overload!

Philippe

One thing that Philippe said that puts a smile to our face. The set dinner (inclusive of one starter/appetiser, one main dish and one dessert) price is pegged to its main course/dish pricing. Wooohoo! Phew.

still choosing from the menu? Eat this first, amuse bouche

So, our party of 4 decided to order 3 set dinners to share and a bottle of red wine to go along with our food. For appetisers, we ordered a Salad Foie de Volaille (salad with duck liver),  baked oysters and mussels. For mains, we ordered a Sole Meunière (fish), Canard à l'Orange (duck in orange sauce) and Contre Filet (US beef ~ 220 gms before cooking). And for dessert, our order was cheesecake, Poires au Vin Rouge (pear in red wine) and hot tea (yeap, we ran out of desserts to order).


Had minor difficulty in ordering wine because the waitress doesn't seem to understand English much, and our initial selection was out because they ran out of stock for that bottle. So, we chose another red that is within our budget (VND630,000). Settled for a bottle of Earthworks Barossa Valley Shiraz 2008 (Australia).

restaurant logo on plate

First entree, salad with duck liver. Simple looking dish but nicely tossed with garlic oil. Yummy!

lots of duck liver, yay!

tender liver

Mussels in creamy white wine sauce, served with bread.

lots of mussels

warm bread

yummy sauce

baked oysters

with cheese

We were really looking forward to our mains after having enjoyed all the yummylicious starters.

red wine

spicy and goes well with chocolates

But had a minor surprise when we were served sorbet after the starters. Being ignorant of French cuisine, we didn't know that this was to be the palate cleanser prior to the next course until our neighbouring table took pity on our confused look, and told us what this is. Orhh...now we understand. Hehee!

pink guava flavour

Ok, after the short interlude, here comes the mains:

from left to right: duck, steak, and fish

sole meunière

contre filet with spinach and mushroom pepper sauce

medium rare

duck in orange sauce

yummy tender duck meat

The duck was flavourful and tender plus can really taste the orange in the sauce. The beef was good and retained its natural flavours. Didn't like the fish though as it was a little on the over-cooked side. But the potatoes were good! Yums.


Next, desserts!

cheesecake

pear in red wine sauce

ice-cream and chocolates (for the tea)

tea ( we chose chamomile)

cheesecake was soft and not too sweet

pear still has some bite to it, and yeah, pink guava sorbet again!

coffee ice-cream and chocolate (probably 85% cacao?)

cute teacup

We enjoyed leisurely dinner that spanned some 3 hours. The place allows smoking too. 


The meal costs VND1,740,000 in total and fed 4 happy people.

Pho24 @ Ly Tu Trong, Ben Thanh Market (Ho Chi Minh)

Lunch place on our first day in Ho Chi Minh city. Had lunch here prior to exploring the nearby Ben Thanh market.

shop front

They have menu in English, so ordering is not an issue.

menu

Ordered a bowl of steaming hot phở bò (beef noodles soup) and can opt for tái/ chín/ nạm (fillet/ flank/ brisket). We also had a plate of fried spring rolls to share.

garnishes for pho: beansprouts, chilies, Thai basil and lime

pho bo (beef noodles)

closer view

The soup was nice and soothing. The serving size seemed small though, and the meat was just a few slices. Not sure if my tastebud had went haywire, but I thought the noodles tasted slightly funky. My friends seemed to enjoy theirs though.

The fried spring roll was also surprisingly small. And I thought it would be filled with beansprouts but instead, it was just meat fillings.

fried spring roll (chả giò)

meat fillings (pork?)

For drinks, my friends opted for fresh fruit juice, while I chose the hot coffee with condensed milk (cà phê sữa nóng).

coffee with condensed milk (hot)

end result

My first impression of Vietnamese coffee? The coffee was just lukewarm, and it tasted a strange mixture of sweet and salty. Hmmm...

The meal costs about VND300,000+, so it was about SGD20 and fed 4 pax.