Vijit Thai Restaurant

Today is the last Saturday that I will spend in Hanoi. I do feel a little wistful when I think about it but I still look forward very much to going home. I went to M's office this morning to bid farewell to his colleagues, who have been very kind and helpful to us during our stay here. I took the chance to take a few pictures with them as keepsake. I will definitely miss some of them, esp Ph whom I can talk a lot more to.

Lunch was at Vijit Thai with L and her husband. We had a good long chat over lunch and ordered quite a number of dishes, including fried fish cake, tom yum soup, green curry with chicken, red curry with pork, green papaya salad, seafood salad with lemongrass and stir fried bean sprouts. I couldn't believe the amount of food that 2 guys and 2 gals could finish. Usually, M and I would order 2 dishes maximum when we dine out (and trust me, it's filling) but with friends, it was a totally different experience.

Thai fried fish cake

Thai green papaya salad

Seafood salad with lemongrass

Thai green curry with chicken

Thai red curry with pork

Tom Yam Soup

Stir fried bean sprouts with tofu

The meal was very satisfying and yummy, especially with the great company. After lunch, we went to Highlands Coffee to have a chat over a cup of coffee. It's really fun chatting with L as we can talk about anything under the sun. I really hope to see her again soon in Singapore.

This is the last post that I will put up on restaurants in Hanoi. There are still many fabulous restaurants that I did not post or have yet to explore, which is a pity as I enjoyed the food here very much. Perhaps one day, I will come back to Hanoi to continue my food trail. In the meantime, the quest for good food will continue back in good old Singapore. :)

Vijit Thai Restaurant
42K Yen Phu
Hanoi

Thai Vine Restaurant (2nd Attempt)

M had been quite eager to try Thai Vine as he read numerous raving reviews about it. After reading about their weekend lunch promotion last week, we decided to lunch there on Sunday.

The restaurant was not crowded when we went there, probably because most people preferred to dine at night where the ambience was nicer. We took a table at the small room right at the back. The interior decor was very nice. I decided to take the lunch special of Thai chicken noodle while M had his usual Thai Green Curry with rice. The waitress recommended us the "drink of the day", which was Beal Fruit Tea. I haven't heard of this tea before but a quick check on the Internet showed that this tea is quite famous in Thailand. So I am the ignorant one.. :p

The exterior view of the restaurant

The interior view

My chicken noodle was average.. as I couldn't really tell the difference between this and the local Vietnamese chicken noodle. M's curry was nice though it was not spicy at all! We should have requested for additional servings of chilli.. as being typical Singaporeans, we enjoy the "shiok" chilli factor. The Beal tea was quite nice though.. just a little bit too sweet.

The appetizers

My Thai chicken noodle

M's Green Chicken Curry

The Beal Fruit Tea

The condiments served in a pretty box

We decided to have some desserts to complete our meal and opted for the Red Ruby. They were yummy! The crunchy water chestnuts were coated with chewy glutinous flour before being cooked in a sweet coconut soup and topped with thin slices of jackfruit. I enjoyed it very much.

The Red Ruby

With Ice

The total meal came up to less than SGD 20 due to the lunch promotion. Considering the ambience was great, service was good and proximity of the place, I would say it was a decent meal.

Thai Vine Restaurant
31A Xuan Dieu
Tay Ho, Hanoi
Tel: 04-719 1448

Thai Vine Restaurant

L was heading back to Singapore with her hubby the next day so we wanted to catch up before she left. As I haven't been feeling too well the past few days due to the heat, L was real sweet to come all the way west today to lunch at Thai Vine, a Thai restaurant near my house.

When I stepped into the restaurant, I noted that the interior decor of the restaurant was very exquisite. Besides the wall paintings, the owner also decorated the place with numerous artefacts and drapes from Thailand. Aesthetically very pleasing to the eye.

Look at the effort of the owner in decorating the restaurant...

The wall painting...

The artefacts...

Guess what this is? A chopstick holder! Isn't it cute?

We ordered the Thai prawn cake and two salads (L and I are both salad lovers): glass noodle salad with prawns and minced meat as well as Thai green mango salad with prawns. The restaurant also gave us a sampler of two new dishes: minced duck meat with basil and pandan fried chicken. They tasted quite nice though I found the chicken a little too oily.

The sampler dishes

The prawn cake arrived hot from the kitchen. The exterior was real crispy while soft on the inside. Coupled with the orange flavoured sauce, it was rather well-done. The two salads turned out to be average, much to my disappointment. The sauces were not too good and tasted too sweet for my liking.

The prawn cake - almost finished before I remembered to take a pic!

The green mango salad

The glass noodle salad

Given the high price and average tasting food, I don't think I would go to Thai Vine anytime soon. The ambience of the place and service of the staff were excellent though.

Thai Vine
31A Xuan Dieu
Tay Ho, Hanoi
Tel: 04-7191448

Baan Thai Restaurant

My first Thai experience in Hanoi actually began along Cha Ca street!

The infamous grilled fish street!

Hee.. As mentioned in my earlier blog, Cha Ca is a famous dish in Hanoi so when M told me that there was a pretty decent Thai restaurant at Cha Ca Street (the lane with multiple grilled fish restaurants), I was quite surprised.

The restaurant was quite small but clean. When we arrived, there were only two other tables taken up. M mentioned that the portions were quite big so we decided to order two dishes to share: green curry with chicken and vegetables with prawn paste & grilled fish.

The green curry - not spicy enough for us

I love the prawn paste dip!

The grilled fish...

The food was quite good except the curry was really not spicy at all! We didn't get to try a variety of the dishes though since there were only two of us. The total bill came up to be VND 180,000 (SGD 17) which was decent since we ordered some drinks as well. But I probably won't go there again since I can find better quality Thai food in Singapore. :)

Baan Thai Restaurant and Hotel
3b Cha Ca Street
Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi
Tel: 04-8288588