#FoodFri Glutton in Hoi An part 2: Restaurants

In Part 1 of Glutton in Hoi An, I introduced the street food (ok, ok some were from restaurants) I had while in the town.

For Part 2, I’ll be talking about meals I had in restaurants–a bit pricey but still cheap when compared to Singapore.

Restaurant: Morning Glory

Address: 106 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street (TripAdvisor)

One of the restaurants run by Miss Vy (She’s Lonely Planet famous) where I had my grandest meal in Hoi An at the Morning Glory.

Instead of the airconditioned seats, I picked the two-person seater at the veranda. Similarly, I ordered enough to feed two persons and a child.

I ordered the stir fried morning glory (which disappointly turns out to be just kangkung), Hoi An pho, iced coffee and a kem flan (Vietnamese crème caramel).

The stir fried vegetable came with a serving of rice. I wasn’t brave enough to ask the waiter to take the rice back as I didn’t want to seem like a food waster. So I ended up eating my bland veggie with rice.

The Hoi An pho was the first I had. I was surprised by the mild soup as I remembered a stockier soup in Saigon. It was OK.

The kem flan came with shaved ice on top of the creme caramel. Interesting traditional combination.

The bill was 200,000 dong, one of the more expensive meals I’ve had but worth every cent.

Restaurant: Blue Dragon

Address: 46 Bach Dang St., Hoi An, Vietnam (TripAdvisor)

I visited Blue Dragon at one of those awkward timing in between lunch and tea time.

The meat set meal (120,000 dong) was definitely not an Asian-person appetite serving. Maybe a really hungry Asian person-sized.

Overall, the meal was yummy. The beef fried spring roll was a bit dry. The fried wonton and it’s spicy seasoning was great, it felt like I was eating seafood because of the sauce.

The rest of the main meal: rice with chicken and fried noodles wasn’t fantastic.

I forgot that I had a frui salad at the end so I was pleasantly surprised to be serviced cool banana and pineapple.

Please don’t let my review of the food stop you from visiting the place. It’s actually pretty cool since they are linked to a charity also called Blue Dragon. On the yellow wall, you can see the mark of where the last big floods reached in the shop.

Restaurant: Chinh’s Riverside Restaurant

Address: 54 Cua Dai Road, Hoi An +84, Vietnam (TripAdvisor)

Since Hoi An has both the sea and a huge river, seafood is a recommended dish. I did a search of cheap seafood places on TripAdvisor, found Chinh’s and decided to visit when I was at Cua Dai beach.

The place is right before the bridge bringing you back to Hoi An old town. The view is fabulous since you can see the river. I saw two fisherfolks who sat so still that I thought they were puppets put on water as a symbolic tip of the hat to the fishing life.

Chinh’s seems to be a family-runned place When I was there, there was a lady and an elderly lady. I heard them chopping and stir frying in the kitchen.

Again, being the gauche tourist, I ordered a two-person’s servings of seashells and prawns. The coffee was unfortunately from a 3-in-1 mix.

Nice place to watch the river flow by.

Restaurant: Mermaid

Address: 2 Tran Phu Street (TripAdvisor)

On the first night, Linh the homestay owner made a face when she heard that we were heading to Mermaid for dinner. The place is too small and not airy, she said.

Linh was right.

I decided to visit the Lonely Planet-famous eatery during yet another awkward meal time. I ordered the white rose and a coffee.

The white rose were sticking to each other, not quite the “har gao” feeling I was looking for.

There are better places for food in the city but don’t let me stop you. (Bad reviews didn’t stop me from experiencing it neither.)