Zenith Cafe

16 Duong Thanh Street 

Hoan Kiem

Hanoi, Vietnam

Tel.: +84 (0) 904 356 561

E-mail: info@zenithyogahanoi.com

Web: Zenith Cafe

No, I am not turning vegetarian but I did not feel like loads of MSG or meat. As I am heading for a meeting in Sa Pa, I figure there will be plenty to eat and drink over the course of the next five days; might as well kick the week off with healthy food.

A quick Google put me onto the Zenith Cafe, near my hotel. Turns out that it is easier to find on the internet than in real life, seeing how it is tucked away in an alley.

Cosy little Cafe and much lighter than the picture suggests (Hanoi winter greyness)

As I entered I half-expected a lot of people in trance humming "oooommmmm". Nothing like that, just a request to remove the shoes. The restaurant has a huge window and a very clear, clean design. A few tables are Japanese style, i.e. one needs to sit cross-legged. I am too old for that so opted for a normal table.

A very friendly waitress was on me in a flash but when I ordered food, she insisted that I order a drink first. I guess she was just trained that way so I made here happy by ordering a drink first and then the "Conscious Cous Cous" as a starter, the "Baked Falafel Sandwich" as a main course and the "Zenith Lemonade" to wash it all down with it.

The menu is not very big, but it will do for a good feed.

As happens so often in Vietnam, starter and main course came together, one of my pet peeves. But the waitress was too sweet to make a fuss so I tucked in. Incidentally, the drink she had insisted on me ordering first? It did not arrive until I was well into my meal.

Are you conscious?

I am not sure if the Cous Cous was conscious or not, but it was very good. The vegetables were fresh and the chickpea and mung bean Falafel was very tasty. If anything it was a bit dry, I would have liked more dressing. The same was true for the Falafel Sandwich: tasty but a bit on the dry side. Both dishes were well presented and I felt healthier immediately....

This was very tasty but the salad could have used a touch more dressing.

I did not care for the drink too much. I love ginger, but there was way too much in the lemonade, it felt like drinking razor blades.

Enough ginger to last me a year.

Overall, a restaurant I would certainly go back to. The staff are very friendly, the food is good, and I am guessing someone meant went well when they added about a pound of minced ginger to my drink. And they have fast, free WiFi. I also think that it is pretty good value with mains around the USD 7.00 mark and the juices going for 3 to 4 Dollars.

The only suggestion: soundproof the juice blender, it is annoyingly loud.

Service: ****

Food: ****

Ambiance: ****

Value for money: ****

Recommended: Oh yes

flavour Restaurant Phnom Penh

flavour Restaurant

Street 51, Corner Street 282

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Telephone: +855-23-224 752

I need to lose a few kilos and therefore wanted to head for a restaurant that offers some healthy choices. I do not know Phnom Penh all that well but, checking in with a few friends, the flavour Restaurant came up a couple of time.

From the outside.

The location certainly worked for me as it is near the Independence Monument and I had work to do near there. The restaurant is quite open and located on a reasonably quiet corner. It was unusually hot when we went for lunch, but there is no air-conditioned room; only fans. Like many restaurants in Phnom Penh these days they do have free WiFi.

The interior is functional. I guess.

Staff were very attentive, even if the English did leave a little to be desired. No problem, with a smile, hands and feet, and some imagination we did manage to order what we wanted. The menu is very extensive; my Canadian colleague was very happy to find "Poutine" on the menu. There is a wide selection of sandwiches, salads, pasta, Pizzas, BBQ items and Asian dishes. There are two pages of "Healthy Menu", ten dishes with fat, calorie, and protein content labeled. I do hope that more restaurants catch on to this in Cambodia.

A rare find in Cambodia: Poutine.

I ordered the "Salmon Couscous with Green Lime". The food arrived pretty rapidly and the Salmon looked good (most of my colleagues had ordered the same thing). There was also one Salad Nicoise ordered, I thought both the size and the presentation of the salad could have been improved somewhat. The Salmon was excellent, if a tad overcooked, and the Caper-lemon sauce that came with it was great, too. More sauce would have been good, I am a big fan of Couscous but, as far as I am concerned, Couscous needs to swim in plenty of liquid.

I'd go back for the Healthy Menu alone (and heck,

I wouldn't mind having guns like the woman on the menu).

Prices were reasonable, the four of us paid USD 33.00. Healthy options are around the USD 6.00 mark, Pizzas go for anywhere between USD 5.50 and 14.00, depending on size and topping, and juices are USD 2.50. I would not recommend the flavour for a romantic dinner or as an outstanding gastronomic experience. Their goal is obviously to serve fairly simple but well-prepared food and here they succeed. A very good choice for a light lunch in an informal setting.

The Salmon with Couscous was excellent, if a little dry.

The Nicoise Salad was a little on the smallish side.

Service: ****

Food: ****

Ambiance: ***

Value for money: ****

Recommended: Yes

Babushka Siem Reap

Siem Reap Babushka Restaurant 

Type: International, Russian, Ukraine

Address: The Lane 

Tel: +855(0)77981002

Opening Hours: 07:00 until midnight

What do you know, a Russian restaurant in Siem Reap? Certainly something new on the local gastronomic scene and something worth checking out. Situated just off Pub Street in The Lane, the place proved kind of heard to find as there is no obvious sign.

Location is OK, interior is not: way too much Kitsch; supposedly inspired by the Grandmother (thus Babushka). First big disappointment when we got the menus with Pub Street staples such as Spaghetti, Amok, Lok Lak, Chinese Dumplings, etc. I thought this was supposed to be a Russian Restaurant. OK, they have Borscht (Ukrainian, not Russian) and "Salo" (another Ukrainian specialty), but not a single Russian dish. Seeing a menu full of spelling mistakes does not exactly inspire confidence either (Chocolate "muss" anyone?).

Cheap, but not really Russian.

Service was a bit naff as well. Ordered two bottles of water which came 15 minutes apart and the draft beer on the menu was not available. We got two forks and two knives between the three of us. They advertise draft beer but do not actually have any and on top of it I had to get my own beer a couple of times as staff seemed to be swamped with just the three of us.

Taboule?

I had ordered the pork cutlets with fried potatoes. The cutlets turned out to be minced meat patties and the fried potatoes were basically French Fries that were swimming in oil. Both were absolutely tasteless and could have been anything. Lucy had chicken with mushrooms sauce and she too proclaimed it to be completely bland.

The cutlets were hamburgers 

and the potatoes were swimming in oil.

A shame really, the owners could have found a niche here by serving Russian food. Instead, they are competing with all the other restaurants serving bland Western food. I guess the only thing the restaurant has in its favor are the fairly low places and the fact that one is not consistently hassled by beggars as The Lane is not exactly a tourist hot-spot.

Service: *

Food: *

Ambiance: **

Value for money: **

Recommended: No

Kroya Restaurant

Shinta Mani Siem Reap
Junction of Oum Khun and 14th Street,
Siem Reap, Cambodia
Tel: +855 63 761 998
Fax: +855 63 761 999

This is the latest addition to the Siem Reap food scene, located inside the recently re-opened Shinta Mani. Their take on the food is "a modern interpretation of Khmer food and I had the pleasure of dining there 2 times within a couple of days.

Arriving at the Shinta Mani, the first hurdle was actually finding the entrance. The hotel reminds me a lot of the De La Paix, but then it does belong to the same owner. With the help of the security staff, we eventually found the way in. The restaurant has used many of the same design elements as the De la Paix, including having beds instead of chairs around the dining tables outside. I am not a big fan of those, my legs tend to go numb after 2 minutes, so we chose a table inside.

Beds on the outside, I find them less comfortable than they look.

Staff were all over us immediately. They are all very friendly and helpful but English is not exactly their strong point. We were presented with the (rather limited) menu as well as a wine list. Some good wines on there, but when we tried to order a bottle, we were told that only the house wines (South African Obikwa) were available as the supplier purportedly had not delivered. Not really an excuse 3 weeks after ordering and considering there are a number of wine suppliers with plenty of stock located in Siem Reap. The staff should also mention the fact when handing out the wine list, would have saved us quite some time agonizing over which wine to choose.

The menu is not very large and it is not cheap.

All the food items looked very interesting, with a lot of unusual combinations of spices, fruits, and accompaniments. On my first visit, I had the "Herb and Chili Cured Salmon" as a starter and the "Pan-roasted Chicken Crepinette" as a main. The bread they served was warm and fresh but with only one choice. The Salmon was very good and went very well with the Papaya Salad. The chicken was also very good but just a tad bit dry.

Chili Cured Salmon

Presentation was excellent though every dish came with the same sesame cracker decoration. My friends also thought that their dishes were very good and there is not certainly much to complain about food-wise. As mentioned earlier, service staff are certainly trying but there seems to be lack of supervision. What was less impressive was that they started to turn off lights when they thought it was time to leave; not something I would expect in a restaurant that is trying to sell itself as up-market.

There are also a couple of design flaws with the restrooms being on the 1st floor (2nd floor for our American friends) and with a couple of small, but dangerous, steps on the way.

All this is minor stuff and did not stop me from going back a couple of days later. At least I did know where the entrance was and I did know to tell my wife not to bother with the wine list as there was no choice (I checked, the "supplier still had not delivered").

This time I ordered the "River Prawn Fricassee". Excellent taste and very well balanced, but a minuscule portion at USD 12.00 (all prices are plus 10% VAT and 5% service charge). Two prawns and 3 spoons of soup (I would call the dish a Consomme and not a Fricassee) is not exactly good value.

The River Prawn Fricassee was good but

for USD 12.00 a bit small.

My wife opted for the "Roasted Duck, Five-spice Orange Jus". Very good duck though we would have both liked the skin to be a tad crispier and for the fat to hast have been trimmed a little. The accompaniments were once again very good and on that evening nothing came with sesame crackers.

Duck was good and the accompaniments were interesting.

I had the "Grilled Spiced Beef Medallions". The meat was extremely good, but then at USD 25.00 I do expect good meat. I am not so sure about the salad. It is a herb I really like, a kind of Asian watercress called "Cang Cua" in Vietnam, but it has a very strong taste and was overpowering some of the other flavors; something I noticed on my first visit.

Excellent meat, but the "Cang Cua" tends to overpower everything.

I am not quite sure how to rate the restaurant. Food is pretty good but does not quite live up to the prices charged. Dinner set us back USD82.00, with starters ranging from USD 7.00 to USD 12.00, mains setting you back USD 19.00 to USD 25.00 and desserts between USD 7.00 - 8.00. The Obikwa is not a bad house wine but too expensive at USD 5.00 a glass, whilst USD 3.00 for a Kingdom Beer is acceptable (just). Again, there is 10% VAT and 5% service charge on top of all these prices.

Chicken Crepinette. On our first visit virtually all dishes came

with the sesame rice crackers.

The setting is nice though, like at the Hotel de la Paix, it is a case of love it or hate it. A lot of concrete and cement and I am not convinced with the oil lamps sooting and smoking up the entrance. It would also be nice to actually having a sign leading the way to the entrance.

The staff are extremely friendly but seem to lack some guidance and could certainly benefit from some more English classes.

I will go back as the food is quite different from the run-of-the-mill crap served in many restaurants in Siem Reap but currently neither food nor service quite match the prices charged.

Food: ****

Ambiance: **** If you are a fan of modern design.

Value for money: ***

Recommended: Yes

Dae Bak Korean Food & BBQ

Sivatha Boulevard

Tel.: (+855) 092 355 811

I have a confession to make: I think there are way too many Korean tour groups in Siem Reap at the moment. They come in huge hordes, do not care about anyone else (do not make the mistake of getting between a large Korean group and the luggage belt at the airport; you will be squashed like a bug); and their bloody buses block every street in town.

Above statement may not be politically correct; good thing I don't live in the US, Australia, UK or anywhere else where PC has gone completely overboard and I honestly do not give a toss if it i PC or not.

OK, with my rant out of the way, on to the food:

Go straight for the top left page if you want great value for money.

I am a big fan of Korean food and I am particularily fond of the numerous appetizers. I also like the barbecued meat and as such the Dae Bak ranks highly on my list of favorite restaurants in Siem Reap.

The restaurant itself is little more than a hole-in-the-wall on Sivatha Boulevard; next to VLK Royal Tourism and near Angkor Market. Pay attention boys and girls: there is another Korean restaurant right next to it, which is dire. Head for the one that has the grills out front (with the owner often personally doing duty on those).

Very popular with both visiting and expatriate Koreans;

surely a good sign.

The interior is not much to write home about. Maybe not as bad as in the North Korean restaurant but obviously loving decor comes way after the serious business of good food. Likewise the service: it is fast and efficient; do not expect any pleasantries being exchanged, a rare smile is the most you can hope for.

The "Banchan" (side dishes) alone are worth

a visit.

The restaurant always offers a little treat: either a baked sweet potato as a starter (do not finish it; there is plenty more food on the way) or a Korean sweet as dessert. A small but appreciated gesture I find, and something many restaurant owners should take note of. Within minutes there will be a whole array of "Banchan" or side dishes on the table, from the ubiquitous Kimchi to small omelets with herbs to Tofu soup and a bowl of rice; plenty to sink your teeth into.

Great stuff.

I am a little boring when it comes to this restaurant as I will always order the barbecued pork belly. It is absolutely delicious and it is what most people come here for. Apart from all the entrees the pork belly is "as-much-as-you-can-eat", though I have never managed more than two plates.

The menu is actually fairly large with mains going for anywhere between 15.00 to 25.00 and the small bottle of So-Ju priced at USD 4.00. The best value-for-money meal has to be the barbecued pork belly though: a table full of food at USD 5.00 all in!!!! If you are looking for a cheap and good feed then there can be few restaurants in Siem Reap that offer a better deal.....

Food: ****
Ambience: It's all about the food here
Value for money: **************
Recommended: Yes

Gartenstadt German Restaurant, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

34 Dong Khoi St., Dist. 1, HCMC
Tel: (84.8) 3822.3623

This restaurant has been around for dog years and it was one of the restaurants I'd inevitably end up in back in 1995 whenever I could not stand to see yet more squid and steamed rice. Since then, neither location nor quality have varied; something rare indeed in Vietnam where consistency does not appear to feature in the dictionary. What has changed is the clientele. Whereas 15 years ago the only Vietnamese in evidence were the staff, they appear to be the main clientele today. I suspect a fair share of them studied/worked with their socialist brothers and sisters in what used to be East Germany.

Interior is true to German restaurants: naff.

The entrance is hard to find these days; half hidden among all the glitzy boutiques and designer shops that populate Dong Khoi Streets. Once you step inside, the first thing you will notice are the clouds of cigarette smoke; a far cry from Germany where smoking these days is a big no-no. Head upstairs where smoke is less of a problem (they used to have a no-smoking section but I guess as a lot of their guests are from countries where smoking is still acceptable, they gave up catering to non-smokers). The second thing you'll notice are the pseudo-German costumes the staff are wearing. At one stage they did put the girls in Bavarian "Dirndl" but as Vietnamese girls tend to be of somewhat slighter build than your average German, that did not quite work out that well. The walls are hung with photos of German landmarks and old advertisement signs; the music is either German pop (terrible) or English lounge music (not much better). Like a restaurant in Germany, this place will not win awards for avant-garde design.

Apart from starting the odd war or two, the Krauts sure know how to make sausages.

Anyway, what you really should be looking at is the walls or rather the boards with the daily or weekly specials. There are often some really good things on offer, e.g. Herrings salad when I went a couple of days ago. Should you not find anything among the specials then there is an extensive menu. Disregard the international section, there are better restaurants for that, and stick to the German food. The food is pretty mainstream, I certainly miss things like "Leberwurst" or "Saumagen", but what is on there is all good. Schnitzel are a good choice; my regular order for years was the "Schnitzel Holstein" with Anchovies, fried potatoes, and red cabbage. Sausages obviously feature a lot and are well worth a try. The one thing I'd stay away from are the French Fries; they are always well overdone (but then why would you eat French Fries in a German restaurant anyway when there are Spaetzle or fried potatoes on offer?). Sausages are also very good; as are the roasts.

Schnitzel. Can never go wrong with that.

Incidentally, if you are a big sausage fan: head to the Gartenstadt on a weekend for their current promotion. All you have to do is eat a paltry kilogram of sausages plus their accompaniments and you'll eat for free (it is VND 660,000 otherwise). I must admit that I chickened out......

I do not like the feel of the menu, sure like what's in it though.

Service is very much on the friendly side and efficient enough. I did read somewhere that the staff did not speak English but I must admit that that has never been an issue in the 100+ times I must have eaten/had a beer there. I do not like the new menu. Not because of the content but because they have "plastified" all the pages. Might make the menu maintenance-free, but feels like crap (and the pages stick together, almost missed the sausages).

Washed down with a "Hefe-Weizen".

Ooops, I forgot the beer!!! The draft beer available is Krombacher, which is not bad at all. Personally, I prefer wheat beers and they do have both dark and light Schneiderweisse. The beers are not cheap, but then they are imported and USD 5.00 for a half-liter mug is cheaper than in Germany.

Many comments on TripAdvisor moan about the supposedly high prices for the food, too. Again, I find these to be reasonable. Most mains are around VND 170,000++, meaning a main will come to around USD 10.00 including taxes and service charge. Sure, a local noodle soup restaurant might be cheaper (though not by much these days), but for a good "Schweinsbraten mit Bratkartoffeln und Rotkraut" I'd be happy paying twice that. And the portions are pretty big.

Do eat the "Frikadelle", but ask for fried potatoes instead of the rather lame chips.

I think I have never had a dessert there and can thus not really comment on that. MUST try the apple strudel one of these days.

Like a real German restaurant back in the old country, the restaurant does not deliver spectacular culinary experiences. What it does deliver is good solid food and service and, assuming either one of us will be around that long, I foresee myself going there for the next 16 years.

Food: ****

Ambience: ****

Value for money: ****

Recommended: Yes

Sushi Bar Koh Kong, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Pub Street

Siem Reap, Cambodia

(+855) 63 963 400

This is a fairly recent addition to the food scene in Siem Reap, but has already managed to garner a solid reputation among the expatriate crowd. Most of the Sushi comes from Koh Kong on the Cambodian coast and is darn good. So good in fact that I flaunt my personal rule of never setting a foot on the back-packer circus that is Pub Street. That is the only down-side of this Sushi Bar: seeing some of the unwashed freaks wandering along below is not good for one's appetite.

The Sushi Bar is located in the heart of Pub Street.

The Sushi Bar has outside seating downstairs as well as indoor seating on the ground and first floors. Our place of choice is the minuscule balcony though. It hardly seats 5 people, like birds on a wire, but is a great spot to hurl snide comments, derisive laughter, and the odd empty beer can at the banana pancake-eating crowd below.

Instructions on how to eat Sushi????

The menu is fairly small, but then this restaurant is all about Sushi. There are about twenty different Sushi Nagiri on offer, ranging in price from USD 2.00 - 5.00 for two pieces (though many were sold out on our last visit) and about 10 Sushi Rolls, the latter costing between USD 2.50 -4.50 for 6-8 pieces. There are a couple of Tempura selections at USD 7.00 - 15.00 and a couple of other non-Sushi items. Personally, I think the best choice is the Sushi and Tempura Deluxe at USD 14.00. A decent-sized meal and very good; with the Sushi fresh and the Tampura not an oily mass of batter but fluffy and light.

As usual I did not pay attention to the drinks prizes. There wasn't much choice but I seem to recall that, while a little more expensive than the 50 Cent draft beers available on Pub Street, the beers were reasonable enough.

Service is friendly enough, but a couple of the girls speak little/no English. However, with a little effort we have never failed to get what we ordered.

The Sushi and Tempura Deluxe.

There are only two things I like a little less about the Sushi Bar Koh Kong:

1. The place mat that endeavors to explain to the punters how to eat Sushi. I am a paying guest and will eat my Sushi any bloody way I like.
2. The staircase back down to the ground floor. Both very steep and extremely narrow this probably explains the meager choice of alcoholic beverages on offer; no way I could make it down with more than a beer in me.

Pitiful gripes really; the place is great for a quick Sushi fix and I do hope that they keep up the quality and do not end up with too many items "sold out".

The Sashimi is also very good and fresh.

Food: ****

Ambiance: *** + * for the balcony and the views it gives one of the circus below.

Value for money: ****

Recommended: Yes, great place for a quick bite before heading out for a beer.