Starbucks sighting

Just when we were wondering when Starbucks is coming to Vietnam, we stumbled upon this Yogurt shop with the familiar looking Starbucks circular light box and decided to check it out. It turned out that the owner brought in Starbucks coffee beans & the Starbucks coffee maker, not an official franchise but I guess its good enough. Pardon the grainy low quality photos taken with an old mobile phone.

La Fenetre Soleil...a hidden gem...literally

I have read a lot about the La Fenetre Soleil cafe from blogs & travel sites. It is said to be popular with Japanese tourists. Was there recently to find out what the hype is all about.

After confirming the address a few times before leaving my apartment, I thought the cafe has shut down after the taxi pulled over outside a terribly run down shop house, surrounded by construction boards. "What do we do?"...."Shall we just get off the cab and look around?". Was not just gonna give up as a blogger has recently visited this cafe...it can't possibly shut down in just matter of days?!

A few locals sitting nearby immediately recognized puzzled looks on our faces, pointed to the right and rambled something in Vietnamese. I looked up the shop house in dismay, wondering what has happened to the cafe & saw its signboards with arrows pointing to the right. You will not believe how difficult it was to locate this cafe! This better be worth it!

The long entry through few flights of old & dark stairs & reaching a long, dark corridor making us wonder if we have illegally stepped into an abandoned building. Alas we found another narrow corridor leading us to the entrance of the cafe after spotting beams of dim yellow lights.

The cafe has a rather nice ambience, with a mix of east & west furnishings. Less than half the crowd was Vietnamese while the rest were mainly Caucasian & Japanese.

I was in for more disappointment. We came after having a good Korean lunch, with expectations of savouring their famous Vietnamese coffee flavored French Toast and Earl Grey muffins. After asking different servers, it was confirmed that they are not fixed items on the menu and they just happened not to make them that day!

Oh well, it was just not fated. Perhaps, we might come back again one day.

Very old & run down shop house. Look up for their signboards for directions.

The entry point to a few flight of old & dark stairs before reaching the cafe

Greeted by this long & dark corridor upon reaching the top of the stair

Top of the stair outside the cafe

Another dark corridor leading to the entrance of the cafe

Old but nice furnishings

Pretty good ambience

Finally...some decent Cheesecakes, Mud pies & Elephanccinos!

With the rapid developement in HCMC, I'm begining to see familiar Singapore based names emerging within the F&B scene here. To name a few: Crystal Jade, Thai Express, Sakae Sushi and N.Y.D.C., a successful dessert cafe chain, is probably the latest kid on the block.

Since coming to HCMC 2 years ago, I was terribly disappointed to learn that I may never find decent cheese cakes around until the arrival of N.Y.D.C. (Nevermind if Starbuck never comes!)

Efforts were made to maintian the same look and feel inside the cafe. The menu and food quality (including their cheesecakes), I must say is up to its original standard too.

Yogurt craze in Saigon?

Yogurt shops are seen springing up in some parts of HCMC and eating yogurt is possibly an upcoming craze among the youngsters. At least this yogurt shop (Yogen Fruz) near my apartment has been experiencing booming business since its opening day.

Yogen Fruz was first founded by 2 Canadians in the late 80s with their first outlet in Canada. Currently, they have several franchises around the world.

I have visited this shop twice and I must say I'm pretty impressed by their enthusiast & ability to serve (with reasonable level of spoken English), good customer service and the shop front attracting attention with its modern decor & bright lights. Strategically situated next to a coffee joint that's popular with the young and trendy, this yogurt shop is almost full house on weekends & weekdays.

When it comes to the yogurt itself, the quality is there.

As much as the Southern Vietnamese love sweet food, the Bubble Tea shops and Donut joints here did not take off as wildly as they have in many other Asian countries. With the increasing spending power among the Vietnamese youngsters, yogurt shops like this could really take off well and last a long time.

Yogen Fruz located next to Gloria Jean's Coffee joint

Its been a year of blogging!

Its been months since I blogged and its been a year since my first post. And yes, our birthdays are coming soon!

Nothing much has happened in the past 3 months except for extremely heavy work load & a terribly tiring trip to the eastern side of USA & Canada (will post my trip photos soon).

Back in Oct...

Halloween was surprisingly well received here with youngsters dressing up in costumes and roaming the streets of district 1. Restaurants and bars did not fail to take the opportunity to cash in on this festival.


Back in Nov...

Actually found Singapore's famous Chilli Crab in HCMC! Its taste is really up to acceptable standards - gravy, crab, buns and all.

Rustic Barbecue Garden ruined in the rain

Barbecue Garden is situated diagonally opposite the Norfolk Hotel with alfresco dining in a rustic setting. But during the raining season, chances are, you will find yourself and your barbecued meat soaked in the rain. Despite the raining season, I've decided to give it a try after reading from its website about its efficient execution of backup plan, should it start to pour.

As expected, it started to rain heavily just 5 minutes after the food arrived! However, the back up plan execution was not efficient as I read. Waiters were running around aimlessly not knowing what to do. Activation of mobile shelters were slow and there was no ushering of affected patrons to the sheltered areas (there was also no space to setup additional tables).

I was lucky to find an available table under the shelter and took new orders of food (no extra charges of course!)

Before the rain. The iced fruity tea is a must try!

See the helpless waiter standing by a table? That's our food soaked in rain!

Rustic BBQ garden getting ruined in the rain. Some of the patrons hoped to brave through it!

Found an available table under the shelter

New orders arrived!

Mediterranean food...at what price?

There seems to be only one mediterranean restaurant in HCMC - Skewers and it seems to be popular with mainly the foreigners. After reading about it in a few magazines and websites, I decided to give it a try.

I like its ambience and setting - very romantic. As for food, I didn't take its mediterranean dips quite well but its famous vodka-flamed beef skewers was not bad (no vodka taste though). The bill cost over VND1 million for 2 persons - 2 soft drinks, a soup, an apetizer and 2 mains (beef skewers & pork ribs).

Cepage...where daily set lunch is like a mysterious black box

Daily set lunch at the Cepage restaurant, in the Lancaster building, is literally labelled as 'Black Box' on its menu, you never know what you gonna get (it depends on the mood of the chef!). Its atmosphere is a mix of modern western on the ground floor (where it turned into a drinking lounge at night) and indochine decor on the 2nd floor.

Airport food....at what price?

On my recent trip back home from HCMC, I had some time to explore the Tan Son Nhat Airport (being still new) and found some F&B outlets on the 2nd level. Since I was hungry, I decided to have something light at the Illy Cafe (instead of ordering food onboard Jetstar, where food prices can be exorbitant). I ordered a coffee latte & a chocolate muffin....cost me USD12.00! Worse of all, the muffin was overheated in the microwave oven and was hard as rock after it cooled down! I didn't feel like making a complaint, knowing it will go no where. I left the cafe without finishing the latte as it didn't taste great either.

Savour the food in Vietnam

Savouring food in Vietnam has been one of the best experiences so far. Not only the Vietnamese cuisine but the other cuisines here are great as well. A lot of foreigners settle here with some of them (especially the Koreans) opening small F&B joints, hence some foreign cuisines here are rather authentic. However, not all restaurants are a must-try but it pays to do extensive research and explore around from time to time in getting to know restaurants newly opened and lousy ones closed down.

Below is a list of those which I've been to in the past year and they are highly recommended.

The famous Pho2000 with great beef noodles and spring rolls
- even Bill Clinton thought so when he visited Vietnam years ago.
His photos can be found every where in this outlet.

Highlands Coffee - the 'Starbucks' of Vietnam.
This is Vietnamese coffee served in Vietnam/French style

Highlands Coffee has a huge chain of outlets all over HCMC and each outlet has great ambience

Quan An Ngon - a local cuisine joint in colonial settings, very popular with tourist and locals.

My all time favourite Vietnamese restaurant - An Vien.
It's actually a rich man's house converted into a restaurant, hidden in a side alley.
Never fail to ask those who are there for the first time to take
a tour of the restaurant - each floor & room has a different theme.

Deep fried soft shell crabs

One of my favourite dish - deep fried pumpkin flower stuffed with fish paste

The famous Vietnamese pancake - Ban Xeo

Very unique dish - Roast chicken served with deep fried rice cake

Fried vermicelli with crab meat

Stir fried vegetables with beef

Another of my favourite Vietnamese restaurant - Bun Ta
Another restaurant in colonial settings with very nice ambience

I enjoy looking at the water streaming down the windows

A traditional Vietnamese cuisine - Pork Chop Broken Rice

Beef noodles (dry style)

Vietnamese popular dessert - taste rather similar to desserts we have in Singapore

Read about Quan 94 Cua (where everything is crab) on another blog.
A local joint with fantastic crab soup, crab vermicelli and crab fried rice.

Huong Lai Restaurant - Vietnamese cuisine managed by a Japanese couple (great set lunches)

Lerk Thai - one of the best Thai restaurant around

Seafood Tom Yam Soup

Phad Thai

Beef Red Curry

Fried Fish

Corriander - another great Thai restaurant at cheaper price

The place to eat beef steak - Wild Horse Saloon

Private dining in the barrel

Fanny Ice Cream palour - very popular with locals and tourists

Temple Club next to Fanny Ice Cream - drinking lounge popular with foreigners

Mojo (next to the Vertu mobile phone shop) - a cafe / lounge that is popular with foreigners

Inside Mojo Cafe

X Cafe - another great ice cream joint (very popular with local youngsters)
with daily movie screenings and live band on Saturday nights

MGM - hangout music and drinking lounge popular with the locals

Upstairs of MGM

Windows Cafe - another good hangout location to do people watch

Upstairs of Windows Cafe