Tag: disappointments

If you visit La Villa in Ho Chi Minh City do not order this menu

La Villa is a long running French Restaurant hosted in a beautiful villa in Saigon’s District 2. The restaurant is operated by Chef Thierry from France with the help of his Vietnamese wife Tina.

I had several dinners and lunches in this restaurant over the years (the first one I believe back in 2011). I have never been disappointed and I have always regarded La Villa as the golden standard for fine dining in Ho Chi Minh City. However, sadly, I have to file this specific visit among my (mild) disappointments. I will certainly go back and do not discourage you go; hopefully this review can help you choosing the right menu.

The visit

I showed up unannounced for lunch during a weekday. Lunch time is not usually crowded. Dinners are another story and I would recommend to make a booking in advance.

The dining room is not huge and occupies the best part of the ground floor of the mansion (the upper floor is closed to the public). It has a classy atmosphere and tables are generously spaced. They also have some outdoor seats.

The first thing you notice is the impeccable service. The staff is very well trained and provide a high level of professional care. Man, it is one of the few places that will clean the table before the dessert… This is well above the average of what you can find even in five star hotels in Saigon, so it deserves some kudos.

The bread is served warm and you can choose your type. It is regularly replenished during the meal.

In my previous visit, also for lunch, I had ordered a la carte. But that was one year earlier. This time I was made aware that for lunch only the set menus were available and in particular the set menu Petite Villa that was specifically designed for lunch. I did not think too much and I ordered from the Petite Villa set menu.

First, I was offered three amuse bouches, including a refreshing tomato gazpacho.

One more treat came in the form of a salmon mousse sprinkled with a few (literally) eggs of caviar. The presence of original blinis in the composition was really a nice touch.

My first dish from the menu selection was a classic beef tartare. It is a very good well executed tartare. The only disappointment was that it went in a mignon size. Below you can see a picture that I took of the same dish ordered a la carte.

Then I got the duck leg, another French classic, with mashed potatoes. Again, it was good; I suspect it was also a reduced portion.

The dessert was a beautifully presented molten chocolate cake with a mango meringue.

A few more treats came before the check.

The check

Total check was 970,000 VND (or 46 USD at the time of the lunch; at the time of writing this review, only 41.5 USD), including a soft drink.

The food was good but I was disappointed for two reasons. First, this menu did not do justice to the chef. There are way better and more creative dishes on the menu. Of course they will be more expensive, but it is worth. Second, paradoxically, for what I got, I think this was terrible value for money in Ho Chi Minh City. In other similar restaurants (thinking of Le Corto in Saigon or La Verticale in Hanoi) you can get a similar lunch menu for half the price or less.

So in conclusion, if you go to La Villa – and it certainly retains my recommendation – go big, aim high. Do not settle for this lunch menu, go for one of the more comprehensive set menus or choose what you like from la carte. It won’t be cheap, but the return on investment will be higher than the one with the Petite Menu described here.

Where in Ho Chi Minh City:
14 Ngô Quang Huy, Thảo Điền, Quận 2
Check the restaurant website for bookings and menus.

Disappointing lunch at Le Grand Lanna in Chiang Mai

I had only one disappointing meal in my first trip to Chiang Mai. That happened in one of the supposedly best fine dining venues in town: Le Grand Lanna, the Thai restaurant of the five-star Dhara Dhevi resort.

My experience is limited to one lunch. So, obviously, it just may be that they had a bad day or I was unlucky. However, I think useful to share the experience so you can judge by yourself. Even if I collected a single data point, there were some big red flags.

The visit

I reached my destination by Grabcar, it took me around 15 minutes to arrive from the Northern part of the old city. The restaurant is accessible from the parking lot in front of the resort (so you do not have to step inside the resort proper).

A receptionist dressed in traditional garments greeted me and escorted me to the dining room.

I was seated on the veranda. I guess this was the place where they have their performances with traditional music at night. The restaurant was very quiet. I found odd that they did not ask me whether I preferred to seat inside their air-conditioned room… but it was not too hot so I did not complain.

What compelled me to try a lunch at Le Grand Lanna was their selection of beautiful lunch sets, reminiscent of bento boxes. I knew about them because I had looked at their website, but weirdly enough I was not offered the menu featuring the lunch sets; rather, I had to request it.

The main dish was a bowl of the traditional khao soi with chicken. I have described this khao soi in another post and I found it a softball: ok, but not particularly tasty (especially the noodles).

The set contained some vegetables fritters and crispy pork. I enjoyed the crunchiness of the dish, but to be honest I could not really taste the pork.

Then there was a side of herbal rice. Totally tasteless. I could not finish it.

What really ruined the meal was this soup: chicken broth with minced pork and soft bean curd. It was a very harmless soup, but when I chewed I could feel something wrong… there were some small fragments of something in the soup! Something not edible and impossible to chew! I explained the situation to a waitress.

Shortly after the manager came and explained that the fragments were residuals from clams used to make the broth better… The manager admitted that this was a mistake. Clearly, in the kitchen they were unable to prepare a simple broth. What a disappointment.

The check

These lunch sets were priced 620 THB plus service charge (10%) and tax (7%). Since they messed up big time, the manager offered me a 10% discount and did not include the drinks (that would have been another 140 THB or so).  So in the end I paid 646 THB (19.50 USD). Normally, including drinks, would have been close to 900 THB (27 USD). I think they should have given me even a larger discount, but I was not in the mood to negotiate. Fool me once, shame on you.

The bento box was appealing to the eye, but it was remarkably tasteless (and actually came with a failed dish). A perfect example of image over substance.

Also, while the personnel was nice and I appreciated the manager taking responsibility, honestly I felt that they processed me without much care (I was not even asked if I wanted to seat inside the air-conditioned room).

Given the super-inflated prices (for Thai food), I would certainly not go back to Le Grand Lanna. There are so many better places where to spend your money in Chiang Mai for fine food: The Redbox and Baan Landai were my favorite during this trip.