Eating Lala @ La Restaurant

No punt intended but this was really what happened when I went out for lunch with my gal friends on Wednesday. We went to La Restaurant, located near the St. Joseph Cathedral, which served both Western and Vietnamese food. The place was really small and could probably hold 20 people max.

The daily specials!

More selection... though limited...

We got a table at a corner and sat down to chat, before placing our orders. At A's recommendation, I ordered a clam soup (aka "lala") and rice crepe with mushrooms. The latter dish sounded good but turned out to be a local Vietnamese dish called "banh cuon". I couldn't help but feel disappointed when the dish was served because I could definitely get more delicious orders at other shops.

Banh cuon - served with a fish sauce dip and lots of veggies!

The clam soup was great though, cooked in white wine, coriander, garlic and onions. Perfectly yummy for the cool weather. I forgot to take a picture then as I was starving! Feeling unsatisfied with my picture conquests, I decided to snap the orders of K and L. K ordered a lunch set comprising of salmon, grilled vegetables and fried rice while L ordered cha ca, which means grilled fish. This is a very famous dish in Hanoi which I have yet to try.

The salmon set with veggies and fried rice

Cha ca or grilled fish with bun (vietnamese noodle)

The prices of the food were fairly reasonable. My clam soup was VND 55,000 and the banh cuon was VND 50,000. Total would be around SGD 10. The service was average though as they got L's order wrong. It's a nice place to go but I probably won't be going there anytime soon yet. :p

La Restaurant and Bar
25 Ly Quoc Su
Hoan Kiem, Hanoi
Tel: 9288933 or 0913221971