Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) — Children play beside the waters of
Hoan Kiem lake in the heart of Hanoi, watched by parents and
grandparents. Couples stroll hand in hand as families pose for
photographs on the red-painted Bridge of the Rising Sun.
You can see the lake from the window tables at Restaurant
Bobby Chinn, the citys most fashionable venue, where you may sip
cocktails and listen to Steely Dan, cooled by the air conditioning
and insulated from the noise of the thousands of motorbikes that
bob and weave through the dusty streets of the Vietnamese capital.
There are velvet drapes and the room is divided by scarlet
silk screens hanging from the ceiling. Hundreds of white roses are
suspended above the tables by threads, with the occasional falling
petal to remind you they are there. (You pay a price for this: a
dish may cost 10 times as much as a meal at a sidewalk eatery.)
The crowd is a mixture of Vietnamese and visitors, drawn to
this funky location where the TV celebrity chef is usually to be
found hanging out with the clients. New Zealand-born Chinn is half
Egyptian, half Chinese, was educated in the U.K. and worked on
Wall Street. Hes charming and amusing and also hot, according to
a colleague with whom I was dining when he showed up one evening.
The burger and fries cost $15 and the top-priced rack of lamb
is $30. (That compares with less than $2 for soup and noodles at a
sidewalk eatery.) I tried a main course of bite-sized appetizers
($18) such as prawn on sugar cane and was less impressed by the
food than by the venue and by Chinn himself. Another time, Id
book one of those window tables and focus on the cocktails.
Lakeside Cafe
Just across the lake, a charming cafe-cake shop nestles
behind a narrow entrance on Pho Nha Tho. Paris Deli, with its
cream walls, high ceilings and tiled flooring, occupies three
levels and has tables on a balcony overlooking the street. This is
a good spot for breakfast, which costs 35,000 dong ($2.19).
You can order coffee or cold drinks, and there are also
Vietnamese dishes such as Pho noodle soup, which costs 25,000
dong. (Some restaurants list prices in dollars and others in
dong.) Of course, if its delicious local food you want, you may
want to visit one of the countless roadside stalls, where you can
sit on a low stool, point to what you want and pay much less.
I prefer air conditioning, an English menu and a cold beer,
as I enjoyed at Wild Rice. There are fresh flowers and starched
cloths on each table, bamboo grows behind a glass screen on one
side of the dining room, the plain walls and slate floors are
bathed in natural light and the staffers wear smart uniforms.
Papayas and Prawns
The menu is long (about 140 items) with a range of soups,
salads and mains, including plenty of fish dishes. You can start
with a salad of green papaya and prawn (70,000 dong), then have
dishes such as chicken curry with peanut and Asian herb sauce. The
bill for two adults and a child was $57.
Wild Rice — a 15-minute walk away from Hoan Kiem lake — was
the culinary highlight of my time in Hanoi, where I stayed at the
colonial-style Sofitel Metropole. Graham Greene wrote part of
“The Quiet American at the hotel, which was built in 1901.
The lunchtime buffet is a bargain at $18 for dishes such as
grilled blue prawn, tangerine sauce or a Vietnamese-style family
meal, including beef-stuffed young pumpkin, mushroom sauce. The
hotels main restaurant is Le Beaulieu, which has gained a
reputation for culinary excellence over the years.
I was disappointed by the tasting menu, which was strong on
luxury ingredients such as foie gras, caviar and lobster, yet
lacked finesse in the preparation. The poached egg in the cress
cream soup was overcooked; beef tenderloin ordered as medium rare
and medium showed up somewhere between rare and medium rare. The
service was so slow I lost interest long before the arrival of the
bill, which caught my attention because it was a hefty $257.
Citrus Sweetbreads
The other fancy venue I tried was Verticale, in a narrow
four-story colonial villa. This is the French-Vietnamese
restaurant of Breton chef Didier Corlou, much respected in Hanoi
for his years at the Metropole, where he is now a consultant.
Corlou is an imaginative chef serving seasonal menus
including starters such as mango in foie gras ravioli, lotus-tea
sauce; and lamb prepared three ways, with spices from Morocco and
Vietnam. Theres lobster from Nha Trang served with palm heart
with vanilla; and veal sweetbread with prawns, citrus and spices.
If youre looking for a culinary adventure in Hanoi, this
nine-month-old restaurant may be the place for you. My personal
preference is for the simpler pleasures of dinner at Wild Rice,
preceded by drinks at the Metropole and ending up at Bobby Chinn.
Restaurant Bobby Chinn, 1 Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi. Tel. +84-4-
934-8577 or click on
