The US-based food website Daily Meal continues its culinary tour of theworld with its first-ever roster of the 101 Best Restaurants in Asia,which honours five Vietnamese restaurants.
Ho Chi MinhCity’s Lemongrass and Nha hang Ngon were ranked 21st and 28threspectively while Da Nang’s La Maison 1888 placed 58th, Ho Chi MinhCity’s Hoi An and Mandarine, 71th and 95th in the list which includesrestaurants in Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, theRepublic of Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong andMacau.
While its simple wicker furniture and narrowthree-story dining room may seem pedestrian, the food at Lemongrass,located around the block from the city's opera house, is not. Thestraightforward, well-cooked southern Vietnamese fare (including aninexpensive three-course lunch special) represents the region's fresh,bright, vividly flavored cuisine perfectly. Try the grilled beef saladwith mango or the chicken sautéed with chile and lemongrass.
Located across from the Reunification Hall, Nha hang Ngon is full ofstalls offering a multitude of examples of good Vietnamese street food.Both beef and chicken pho, two takes on the national noodle soup dish inVietnam, are first-rate, as are the spring rolls, mango salad withprawn crackers, and fried tofu with fermented shrimp dip.
At La Maison 1988, you’ll dine in an exquisite French setting insideVietnam’s Intercontinental Da Nang Sun Peninsula Resort. Under the helmof UK-based Michelin three-star chef Michel Roux, La Maison 1888 offershaute French cuisine with subtle Asian flavors. Expect to enjoy disheslike fillet of steamed bass wrapped in a seaweed crust and pan-friedscallops served with a lime-scented carrot purée. Designed after anantique French mansion, the restaurant’s beautiful interior is worth thetrip in itself. If the setting and your delicious meal haven’tcaptivated you yet, be ready to swoon during your post-dinner drinks outon the veranda of the restaurant’s Buffalo Bar, where you’ll enjoyunique cocktails from their menu of aged whiskies and infused vodkas.
Hoi An (its sister restaurant is Mandarine; seenumber 95) offers a quintessential Vietnamese dining experience. Namedafter a central Vietnamese coast town influenced by Chinese and Frenchsettlers, the romantic, cozy French-Vietnamese dining room is a fittingsetting for a menu of grilled shrimp in banana leaf with lime juice andsalt; tiny rice custards with crumbled shrimp; fried chicken with lemonsauce; and cao lau - thin slices of pork, shrimp, and sesame cake servedon rice noodles - accompanied with marrow-bone broth.
Mandarine, the sister property to Hoi An, which ranks 71 on our list,is an intimate, romantic, and upscale Chinese restaurant populated withChinese screen paintings, wooden carvings, and live music. The menu isbrimming with pricey spicy, sour, and salty dishes that are the hallmarkof Chinese cuisine. While the menu includes delicacies like abalone,the foreign-friendly offerings also include the more approachablegrilled bay scallops with chopped scallions, peanuts, and herbs, andbeer-steamed crabs.
The dining options in Asia todayare seemingly endless, from street carts to night markets tocosmopolitan cafés to the domains of European and American celebritychefs. The Daily Meal chose Din Tai Fung, in Taipei, as the bestrestaurant in Asia.
At Din Tai Fung, “what began as amom-and-pop cooking-oil shop has evolved into the home of what isarguably the world’s best xiao long bao, a type of steamed bun filledwith broth”.
Arguably the most dramatically changedculinary landscape is that of China, which has the most restaurants onthe list with 28, 21 of which are in Beijing, learnt the Daily Meal.Four of the restaurants in its top ten are in Beijing.
The Daily Meal’s 101 best restaurants in Asia were voted by restaurantcritics, food and lifestyle writers, bloggers with widerestaurant-going experience and long-term foreign residents on the basisof cuisine, style, value, and overall buzz.-VNA
Ho Chi MinhCity’s Lemongrass and Nha hang Ngon were ranked 21st and 28threspectively while Da Nang’s La Maison 1888 placed 58th, Ho Chi MinhCity’s Hoi An and Mandarine, 71th and 95th in the list which includesrestaurants in Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, theRepublic of Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong andMacau.
While its simple wicker furniture and narrowthree-story dining room may seem pedestrian, the food at Lemongrass,located around the block from the city's opera house, is not. Thestraightforward, well-cooked southern Vietnamese fare (including aninexpensive three-course lunch special) represents the region's fresh,bright, vividly flavored cuisine perfectly. Try the grilled beef saladwith mango or the chicken sautéed with chile and lemongrass.
Located across from the Reunification Hall, Nha hang Ngon is full ofstalls offering a multitude of examples of good Vietnamese street food.Both beef and chicken pho, two takes on the national noodle soup dish inVietnam, are first-rate, as are the spring rolls, mango salad withprawn crackers, and fried tofu with fermented shrimp dip.
At La Maison 1988, you’ll dine in an exquisite French setting insideVietnam’s Intercontinental Da Nang Sun Peninsula Resort. Under the helmof UK-based Michelin three-star chef Michel Roux, La Maison 1888 offershaute French cuisine with subtle Asian flavors. Expect to enjoy disheslike fillet of steamed bass wrapped in a seaweed crust and pan-friedscallops served with a lime-scented carrot purée. Designed after anantique French mansion, the restaurant’s beautiful interior is worth thetrip in itself. If the setting and your delicious meal haven’tcaptivated you yet, be ready to swoon during your post-dinner drinks outon the veranda of the restaurant’s Buffalo Bar, where you’ll enjoyunique cocktails from their menu of aged whiskies and infused vodkas.
Hoi An (its sister restaurant is Mandarine; seenumber 95) offers a quintessential Vietnamese dining experience. Namedafter a central Vietnamese coast town influenced by Chinese and Frenchsettlers, the romantic, cozy French-Vietnamese dining room is a fittingsetting for a menu of grilled shrimp in banana leaf with lime juice andsalt; tiny rice custards with crumbled shrimp; fried chicken with lemonsauce; and cao lau - thin slices of pork, shrimp, and sesame cake servedon rice noodles - accompanied with marrow-bone broth.
Mandarine, the sister property to Hoi An, which ranks 71 on our list,is an intimate, romantic, and upscale Chinese restaurant populated withChinese screen paintings, wooden carvings, and live music. The menu isbrimming with pricey spicy, sour, and salty dishes that are the hallmarkof Chinese cuisine. While the menu includes delicacies like abalone,the foreign-friendly offerings also include the more approachablegrilled bay scallops with chopped scallions, peanuts, and herbs, andbeer-steamed crabs.
The dining options in Asia todayare seemingly endless, from street carts to night markets tocosmopolitan cafés to the domains of European and American celebritychefs. The Daily Meal chose Din Tai Fung, in Taipei, as the bestrestaurant in Asia.
At Din Tai Fung, “what began as amom-and-pop cooking-oil shop has evolved into the home of what isarguably the world’s best xiao long bao, a type of steamed bun filledwith broth”.
Arguably the most dramatically changedculinary landscape is that of China, which has the most restaurants onthe list with 28, 21 of which are in Beijing, learnt the Daily Meal.Four of the restaurants in its top ten are in Beijing.
The Daily Meal’s 101 best restaurants in Asia were voted by restaurantcritics, food and lifestyle writers, bloggers with widerestaurant-going experience and long-term foreign residents on the basisof cuisine, style, value, and overall buzz.-VNA
