Seasons of Hanoi

Location: Hanoi

Date: March 28, 2014

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Lovely

Hanoi has very good food. Our guide the first day took us to this upscale location.

Hanoi is filled with lovely colonial buildings and many of the city’s better restaurants seem to have taken them over as idyllic settings. From a glance, you can see this isn’t a local joint, which is more a plastic stools on the sidewalk kinda thing.

I was too hot and exhausted to photograph the 15 page menu.

Seafood salad. One of those delicious Vietnamese “fresh” dishes consisting of some protein, various vegetables, usually peanuts, and a slightly sweet, sour, sauce that really makes the dish.

Shrimp salad. This one probably also has some kind of plant material “filler” like papaya, bamboo, or the like.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls. The classic shrimp, pork, and noodle rolls.

Caramel Shrimp. Like Vietnamese gambas pil pil. But no garlic, shrimp boiled in a stick-sweet sauce. Delicious.

Particularly over rice!

Fried eel. With a peanut base sauce. Also delicious.

Overall, this was one of our more “modest” (in terms of dish count) meals, but it was super tasty. I would have liked a more epic sampling of their cuisine.

For more Vietnam dining reviews, click here.