Banh Mi Cafe, Bandar Puteri Puchong

Date visited : 8 April 2018

This place has been in my neighbourhood for a long time now. I was googling for good food in Puchong some time back and this place came up. I drove there just to have a look but when I got there, I changed my mind. So at that time I left it as that.

Recently this place came highly recommended on FB and my sister even shared it to me. So since I was nearby on a Sunday afternoon, I thought it was time for me to give it a try.

By the time I got here, it was packed with locals, mainly families, as well as Vietnamese. Once I step into the restaurant, I felt like I'm in a local restaurant in Vietnam. It is not like one of those fancy Vietnamese restaurants, it is a cozy family restaurant that serves casual Vietnamese food.

When we talk about Vietnamese cuisine, the first thing that comes to my mind is...

The Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup. The taste of this beef noodle is quite similar to the ones I had in Vietnam. It is not adjusted in anyway to our local palates and that makes it delicious and very authentic.

Before we had our mains, we ordered two popular Vietnamese snacks.

This is the fresh Prawn Spring Roll. You can also choose to have it with pork instead of prawn. The dipping sauce was a tasty compliment to the spring rolls.

Another one of our favourite are the Fried Spring Rolls. From the looks of it, you might think that the skin is thick but when you take a bite into it, you'll soon find that it is actually not. It tastes as good as the yummy ones I had in Vietnam.

For my main, I ordered the Vermicelli Bowl Grill Pork & Spring Roll with Fish Sauce. This dish is quite delicious. From the picture it may look like a dry dish but it is not. The fish sauce moist the vermicelli enough and taste really good eaten together with the grilled pork and spring rolls.

This is not a dish that I usually find in a Vietnamese restaurant... Sizzling Beef Steak with Baguette. If you have a hearty appetite, this may be a choice you might want to consider.

Another nice choice was the Crispy Chicken Wings in sweet and spicy fish sauce. However, I would have liked it more with lesser onions.

We saw this on the menu and decided to order the Grilled Prawn for trying. Now this turn out to be a bit of a let down because it was too dry for my liking.

That's all we had during this visit and I may come back to try their Bahn Mi, a Vietnamese style baguette. If you're looking for some casual Vietnamese food in Puchong that's not too expensive, you may want to give this place a try.

OUR RATING

Ambience : 3.5/5 

Service : 3/5

Food Quality : 3.5/5

Price Range : $
Status : Non-Halal

Other information:
Address : 1 Jalan Puteri 7/10, Bandar Puteri Puchong, 47100 Puchong
Contact No. : 03-8060 0127
Business Hours : 10.30am - 10pm (Daily)
Transaction : Cash
Links : https://www.facebook.com/banhmikl/

Secret Garden, Ho Chi Minh

Date visited : 31 March 2017

This is another recommendation for good food in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam. It's a well hidden gem as most locals don't even know nor heard of this place. This hidden gem has a name to match... Secret Garden.

To find this hidden gem, you'll have to go through a quiet lane off the busy main road and climb up a few flights of stairs to the rooftop. Don't worry about the stairs, it's really worth the climb.

Once you've reached the rooftop, you'll be amazed by the change of scene to a charming, semi open air, garden style seating, surrounded by greenery and with a great view of the Ho Chi Minh city skyline.

Again, this place is very popular among the foreigners and expatriates. So to avoid a long wait, do make prior reservation and arrive on time to be seated.

Now let me show you some of the dishes we've ordered and all the dishes were so tasty.

This is the Deep-fried Sticky Rice with Minced Pork & Shrimp. It's best to have this as starters before your main dishes are served.

The next dish is a MUST have when you're in Vietnam... Fried Spring Rolls. You can eat these as starters or even with rice. It is small in size but the filling is generous and tasty.

This is a simple vegetable dish, Bokchoy and Mushroom. Vegetables are a must for my rice meals.

Next is the Fried Egg with Minced Pork. It's like our Malaysian Omelette but tasty in its own special way.

This is the Lotus Root with Minced Pork. I love lotus root dishes so I had to try their only lotus root dish in their menu. The lotus root slices were crunchy with a tasty and juicy minced pork patty in between.

The photo of this dish looked interesting so I decided to add this dish in my order at the very last minute. The name of this dish is Stir-fried Baby Squid & Fish Sauce. However, this dish would have been better if it was not overpowered by the onions.

This last dish is the best one among all the dishes that I've ordered. This dish has a very unique name and it's definitely not a common dish or vegetable found in Malaysia. It's called Tonkin Creeper & Garlic. The way this dish is prepared and the vegetable taste itself makes this dish so delicious. If you're a vegetable lover, you'll definitely like this dish.

So if you're in Ho Chi Minh city for whatever reason and would like to have a proper sit down dinner with great ambience, do give this place a try. You will not regret it.

OUR RATING

Ambience : 5/5

Service : 4/5

Food Quality : 4.5/5

Price Range : $$

Status : Non Halal

Other information:

Address : Top Floor, 158 Pasteur, Bến Nghé, Quận 1, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam

Contact No. : +84 90 990 46 21

Email : nhudangngochuynh@gmail.com

Business Hours : 10.00am-10.0pm (Daily)

Transaction : Cash & Credit Card

Links :
https://www.tripadvisor.com.my/Restaurant_Review-g293925-d4573158-Reviews-Secret_Garden_Home_cooked_Vietnamese_Restaurant-Ho_Chi_Minh_City.html
or
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Secret-Garden-Restaurant-Teahouse-Rooftop-158-Pasteur-Dist-1/460687490679257