Vietnam Part 2: Hanoi

We were in Hanoi for 5 nights. I highly recommend our hotel: La Belle Vie. It was by far the nicest one we had on the trip. All the hotel staff were super nice, their roof top pool was awesome, and the daily breakfast buffet spread was top notch!

Our first night in Hanoi, we wanted to get BBH (Bun Bo Hue). So the hotel recommended a place. They said it's where the locals go. Driving up in the taxi, we saw a row of people sitting outside on tiny little stools and low tables, very local! We thought we were going to have to sit out front like everyone else, but luckily they had an inside, upstairs, with AC!

Bun Bo Hue O Xuan.
Bun Bo Hue. We all got the same thing. 

They had a very small menu. But this is what they're known for so of course we had to get it. I did not know that BBH does not come spicy by default. I've only had it in Dallas and everywhere serves it spicy. I actually liked that it was not spicy. They give you a jar of chili sauce to add on your own. And that was SPICY!! A little scoop is more than enough. LOVE LOVE LOVED the BBH. I think it was one of my favorite meals of the trip. The noodles were perfect cooked. There was plenty of meat and it was filling. The broth had great flavor too. A great recommendation!

Of course we stopped by a boba place by our hotel. :P
Ding Tea
Classic Matcha 32,000 VND. Pretty good!

We went looking for pho one day cuz the only pho we've technically had was the hotel breakfast. haha. But we couldn't find the place we were looking for. But we found one that only served chicken pho. Why not?

Pho Ga 42
Chicken Pho (with or without gizzards). 

Although I eat most organ meats, I don't like liver. So I wasn't sure what all they put in the loaded one... I opted for just the meat. I liked it. It was light, but still flavorful. There was lots of chicken. The portion size was more than enough. I actually like the pho in Vietnam. I've heard many stories from people saying the pho in Vietnam is not great. I think because it's not like the US where we get a ton of meat. And the flavors are quite a bit lighter. Which is better for me. I don't like things that are too salty. The only thing I don't really care for is the actual noodles. It seems to be a thinner noodle and feels overcooked.

Mr. Bay Mien Tay. 
My friend wanted to come here specifically for a certain dish. But once we got there, they told us it was sold out. haha. Oh well. They had a pretty big menu.
Nem Nuong Lui (grilled mint pork in stick).

Bun Bo Nam Bo 60,000 VND. This is their signature dish. It was sooooo good. My favorite dish of the trip, I think. Sooo much texture with the peanut and crispy garlic chips and bean sprouts.

Banh Khot (dragon eggs pancake) 65,000 VND. Cute little bites. It's almost like a mini Banh Xeo in texture.

Jolibee. 
My friends wanted to try this place cuz it was there, and they've never been. haha. It's a fast food place... and they have fried chicken. Wasn't cheap either..
Spicy Fried Chicken. Their spicy fried chicken was damn good. Way better than the KFC we went the day before. haha. (Just to try KFC in Vietnam, you know? Wasn't worth it.)

Vanilla Soft Serve (with chocolate hard shell). Meh.

Royal Tea. 
The Royal Tea here isn't as good as Ho Chi Minh City, and the selections were different. Boo..
Guava Passion Green Tea 43,000 VND. The drinks were still good tho. But why didn't I get the cool cups?!?

Peach Orange Strawberry Oolong Tea 49,000 VND

Cari Truong. 
We came here because my friends wanted broken rice plates. Only to find that broken rice is not popular in the north and so they don't have it anymore. So we just got regular rice plates. haha.
Com Suon (rice barbecue) 65,000 VND

Beef with Yellow Rice

Trung Nguyen Legend. 
Have you heard of weasel poop coffee? Or the more popular one globally is the luwak poop coffee. But in Vietnam, it's the weasel. My friends wanted to buy the beans but couldn't find a place that wasn't going to rip them off. So they found this cafe that served it.
Legend Coffee 150,000 VND - mimics the "weasel" coffee. 

The process copies what the beans go through in a weasels digestive system or something like that. So it's not REAL poop coffee, but that makes me feel better. haha. It's super rich and hella strong. But really good with condensed milk. I can see why people would pay a premium for this.

We did 2 tours while in Hanoi. Lunch is typically included and catered to more Western palates. Not really the greatest food.. haha.

Bike and Boat Tour

Halong Bay Tour. We had this lunch on the boat. It was cool.

Cucumber Salad

Steamed Prawns

Stir Fried Squid with Celery

Fried Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Fried Chicken

Fish with Tomato Sauce

Steamed Rice
Fresh Seasonal Fruit
Afternoon Tea Time - Green Bean Dessert, Tea, Pineapple

Hanoi Food & Drink. 
After the tour we found this place just across from our hotel. Their food turned out pretty good. So I had them 3 times on our trip. haha.
Beef Sauteed with Mustard Greens

Crispy Roast Pork. They only serve this from noon-8pm or until they sell out. So we missed out the first night. But we got it to go and ate it by the pool the next day. It was awesome!

Beef Sauteed with Ramen. This is the dish I had 3 days in a row. haha. Got it to go to eat at the hotel room while I watched a movie. Total relaxation!

We wanted to do another afternoon tea since we had so much fun in Ho Chi Minh City. But this time we wanted to do an actual High Tea with the tiered carriers and stuff. We decided on the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel. It was highly rated for Afternoon Tea and the hotel is really nice.

High Tea 460,000 VND (per 2 people). This was by far the most expensive meal we had on this trip. And honestly, it wasn't even that expensive... but seemed really high since we've been paying so little for food. haha.

Pastry Stand:
Homemade Scones, Financiers, Madeleines
Finger Sandwiches,
Seasonal Fresh Fruits

It was not good. The display was meh. And the food was meh. I think they copped out with the fruit tier. And the pastries were lackluster too. Bleh.

Selection of Metropole fine teas
- Darjeeling de Printemps
- Mint Green Tea, Earl Grey pointed Blanch. This was my favorite one of the bunch. The mint was very mild.
- Quatre Fruit Rouge, The des Vieux Gancon

Fresh Coconut Juice 130,000 VND. The most expensive coconut ever!

Metropole Egg Coffee 120,000 VND. We've kinda been wanting to try this egg coffee thing, but gave up looking for it cuz none of the locals we talked to have heard about it. haha. But they had it on the menu so we got it. It's quite good. Super rich. And the candle underneath kept it hot. But we left it on the fire too long and it cooked!! Turned into coffee custard. hahaha.

Bun Cha Huong Lien. 
My friend wanted to come here cuz apparently Obama came here? There are pictures to prove it! (This is supposedly a Northern cuisine? I don't know much about the regional cuisines in Vietnam, but this is typically found in the north. Just like the north doesn't do much broken rice, but we found it in Ho Chi Minh City.)

Bun Cha (grilled pork, rice vermicelli, herbs with broths of sugar vinegar fish sauce) 40,000 VND. You basically take a chopstick full of noodles and dip it into the broth. You don't dump the whole thing of noodles in there. Quite interesting. And the broth is cold. I was full so I only sampled. It was ok. Wasn't my favorite.

Fried Seafood Roll (prawn, crab, pork, vegetable) 30,000 VND. Way too big. Felt like it was very greasy.

Fried Crab Roll (crab, pork, vegetable) 7,000 VND

Overall, the food in Vietnam was good. I wouldn't fly here just for it though. haha. I DID enjoy the price point enormously. :P

~~ CHOMP CHOMP~~

Pho Bay

A new Vietnamese restaurant opened in Plano about 2 weeks ago. I heard about it from some friends on Facebook. They are half Vietnamese and were raving about the pho. They said it tastes like how their dad makes it.

I love pho, but I'm definitely not an expert at it and I don't know what's authentic or not. However, I do know that most of the pho places in Dallas are not bad, some are not good and usually pretty dirty. So when someone says it's authentic, I wanted to try it. Last week we had the freak cold front where it was 70s on Monday then Tuesday was in the 40s. Great time for some hot noodle soup though!

Pho Bay
3933 N. Central Expy, #100
Plano, TX 75023
(972) 422-5152
www.phobayrestaurant.com
Price: $

My friends and I decided to go check it out last Wednesday. It was sooooo cold, and the winds were insane that night. Brrrr. Pho Bay is located in front of Main Event on 75 and Spring Creek. Personally, I don't think that's a good location for business but I hope they can persevere. It's a small place, but everything was clean and bright. And hopefully it stays that way!

The waiter, which I assumed was also the owner, was super friendly and very enthusiastic. You can tell he's very proud of his food. He told us that the (grand opening) special for that day was free egg roll for everyone, so he went ahead and brought out a plate of it for the 7 of us. 

 

A normal order of Egg Rolls (2) is $2.50~ just FYI.
Vietnamese egg rolls are the only ones I like to eat. The Chinese versions are usually vegetarian and I don't care for that. The egg rolls here was ok. It was fried well and wasn't too greasy. I also liked the plate of veggies it came with to wrap the egg rolls. But I felt like it needed more flavor. The fish sauce helped with that.

2 of my friends also ordered a Thai Iced Tea $2.75~ which the owner recommended. It looked so pretty. hehe. And it was very good! We all thought so. Even me and another friend that don't really like Thai tea. He said they make it from scratch, so none of that powder stuff. It wasn't too sweet either, which is good.

So my friends who told me about the restaurant says the owner said their Bun Bo Hue is really good. I've never actually had Bun Bo Hue, but it sounded amazing. Spicy broth with different kinds of meat. The rice noodles are thicker than pho noodles. And it's flavored with lemongrass and a bunch of other spices. 4 of us ordered the Spicy Hue Noodle Soup (Bun Bo Hue) $7.95~ Served with a side of bean sprouts, jalapeno, basil, cilantro, lime. 

 

I have been craving this for awhile and it totally hit the spot. The noodles were cooked well, it had really nice texture. There were different types of meat in there: beef, what looked to be meat around pig's feet, and pork cakes. I liked them all. All the veggies and herbs on the side were really fresh. I piled those in my bowl. Here's where the verdict splits... out of the 4 of us, 2 were Vietnamese and have had authentic home cooking, my other friend is Chinese but has had a lot of Vietnamese food. And me, who's never had this dish before. haha. So me and another Vietnamese friend liked this. I REALLY liked it, I couldn't stop eating. But my other 2 friends said it was ok. There was a slight sweetness to the broth which was throwing them off. Apparently that's not how it's supposed to taste. But you know me, I love sweet/savory so it didn't bother me. And it wasn't like it was loaded with sugar, it was just a hint. I actually thought the sweetness helped balance the dish so it wasn't too salty or heavy or spicy. It was also not too greasy. I ate EVERYTHING, and although I was super full, I didn't feel disgusting with loads of sodium or grease. I thought that was great. So I will definitely have this again. I can't say the same for my friends...

2 other friends got the Pho a la carte $5.50~ Add meatball +$1.50~ Add brisket +$1~ 

It basically starts as the basic broth and noodles and you can add in what types of meat you want. I only tried a sip of the broth and I thought it was really good. My Vietnamese friends thought it was good too. But I think as they ate more, there was also some sweetness so one friend didn't like it at all. I will still go back and try their pho though, since I didn't mind the sweetness.

And lastly, one friend got the Pho Bay Ultimate Rice Plate $9.95~ It was nicely presented and looked really good. He said it was ok... a standard rice plate, nothing special.

So I guess the opinions were across the board. From one person not liking it at all to me, who really enjoyed it. To each its own. But I do appreciate the energy from the owner and the cleanliness of the space (so far... since it's still so new. haha). I'll take my fiance there some time. I think he would really like it. Now I'm on a Bun Bo Hue kick, I want to try it at other Vietnamese places. My friends said their favorite is still at Pho Tay Do... so that's definitely on my list!

Quality of Food:

Service:

Ambiance:

Value:

Overall Experience:

 

~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~