Hoac Tuc in Saigon is a very fair Vietnamese restaurant offering very decent food at very modest prices.
As I told you in my review of the excellent Anan Saigon, I made friends with my table-mates and decided to have dinner together the next day. It was late afternoon when we decided to find a restaurant and (almost) let chance guide our steps. We had identified a few simple restaurants with good reputations, all in the same neighborhood, and chose Hoac Tuc as we walked past, saying to ourselves “why not?”.
You’ll find at the bottom of the page a summary of the articles about this vacation in Vietnam.
The concept of the restaurant
This is a Vietnamese cuisine restaurant like you’ll find plenty of in downtown Saigon, as if you were looking for a bistro in Paris.
It has no pretensions other than to provide normal Vietnamese cuisine at normal prices.
The setting
It’s located in a large inner courtyard next to a major thoroughfare, which means it has a lovely, quiet terrace, even if the weather will make us prefer to dine indoors.
The room is very large, in a local style but without much charm. It’s clear that it’s designed to accommodate as many people as possible, mainly tourists.
The menu
It is very rich and offers all the traditional dishes of Vietnamese cuisine. This is logical, because in theory, in a typical Vietnamese dinner, guests order several dishes which they arrange in the middle of the table and share.
The downside for the neophyte discovering local cuisine is the risk of getting lost.
It should be noted, however, that some dishes appear in different categories, artificially inflating the richness of the menu.
The dinner
We arrive and are immediately taken care of and seated at a table. Not being too hungry (each of us seems to have honored his own hotel’s lounge beforehand) we decide to order just 4 dishes and share them.
Fresh spring rolls with shrimp and pork
Grilled sea bass fillet with lemongrass and pickled shallot.
Sautéed eggplant with satay sauce.
A last dish ordered by one of the guests, which I can’t quite remember. To my memory, grilled squid with salt and chili or something similar.
What to say? Overall it was well presented, good, really nothing to complain about. I think there are dozens of restaurants of this type in Saigon, if not more, but one thing’s for sure: this one doesn’t disappoint.
What’s more, the value for money is excellent: expect to pay 5 euros per dish, 10 for the most expensive.
We ended up spending 40 euros for the 4 of us, including wine.
The atmosphere
Lively and, above all, noisy. Not the place for a quiet romantic dinner. You can see that it’s been designed to accommodate as many tourists as possible at the same time, like most similar restaurants in Saigon’s hyper-center.
The service
Friendly and efficient.
Bottom line
A tourist restaurant, yes, but a good one that does the job well, doesn’t disappoint and all at very affordable prices. Don’t expect anything more, but I’ve been so disappointed in similar restaurants in Europe that it’s worth noting.
The articles about this vacation in Vietnam
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