Anvien, Ho Chi Minh

Of my 10 dinners in HCM, dining at An Vien must have been one of my favourites as I had dinner twice here. Prices are considered high here but nevertheless worth every single cent paid. An average person would probably spend about RM50 having a decent meal here. Do try to bring more people along to be able to savour more of their very delicious dishes. Pictures below are of dishes we tried the 2 times we were there.

Located in a little alley, I believe, it's not hard to get the taxi to bring you there.

The restaruant settings were nice and elegant - totally in line with the top notch food they serve!

Deep fried fish cakes. Superb!!! Dont know why they don't serve it with any chili sauce on the side but nevertheless deep fried till crispy brown.

The crab meat glass noodle - probably one of the better ones I've tried. Not too salty, just the right amount of crab meat and served with lots of greens.

This has got to be one of my favourties - grilled pork and accompanied with crispy rice cakes.

This is apparently the right way to eat it - make a hole in the middle, stuff the tender pork in between and bite into it. Yum!

Also indulge yourself in these rice cakes - topped with something that tasted like shrimps (I can't remember exactly the viet name for it), but do look on the first page of the menu and look for the last dish!

As mentioned earlier, back in KL, the sugarcan prawns never come with greens and rice paper rolls. In Vietnam, i was informed, it's a norm.

The soft shell crabs were juicy, meaty and just fantastic. I'm not too big a fan of soft shell crabs, but they're nothing like some of the scrawny, over fried ones we get here!!

We only had dessert once - which was the coconut caramel (can't remember if it's exactly what it's called) - it's taste's very similiar to chendol, just that it comes in a pudding form and good enough, it was not served too sweet!


Overall conclusion: I love this place. Both times I was stuffed after dinner! And a must visit if you're in HCM - even if you're on a budget trip...

Address: 178 Hai Ba Trung, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Tel: 824-3777