Quan An Ngon, Hanoi..Part 1

This will be a very lengthy post as we ate so much at this restaurant. In fact, we enjoyed it so much that we had it 2 times, once in it’s branch in Hanoi and another was at the main branch at Ho Chi Minh (will write about that in another post). I first heard about this restaurant from my brother when his Vietnamese friend brought him to the HCM Branch.

We ate so much and it was dirt cheap! That was all I could remember from my brother other than the fact that I recalled the restaurant had very warm colours used for it’s walls and interiors.

Jeffrey brought us to sample to fare at Hanoi first. Not too far, but you’d still need to take a cab, Quan An Ngon is very popular amongst the locals as it serves cuisine from north, south and central Vietnam, the food’s tasty, and prices are very reasonable. Also a good place to bring touristy friends as it’s clean and pretty nice ambiance.

We left the ordering to Jeffrey, who repeated asked us, I hope you guys are hungry!
First dish was grilled squids served with lemon juice, pepper and salt.This was absolutely scrumptious; the squid were very fresh, the meat was springy, sweet and thick (somewhat like calamari). The slightly charred exterior gives a hint of crispiness and the smoky flavour was just subtle; matched the marination beautifully.

The grilled prawns was as good, they were just enhancing on the freshness of the prawns; little/ no marination was use, all we got was the sweetness from the fresh prawns and the smoky grill flavour enveloping it.

Nice.

The warm lotus root salad with shrimps and beef (goi ngo sen)was served next.

Very interesting dish, the light flavour from the lotus root was so mild, you need to really clear your palate before trying this. Eaten with prawns crackers, I like this dish a lot..The soft yet lovely texture of the lotus, the crunch from the crackers, the chewiness from the meat and the springy texture from the prawns. Lovely.

Next served was the rather sinful looking roasted pork with steam rice noodles and sliced unripe bananas. The dish was still luke warm, just take a piece of the rice paper and wrap the pork, rice noodles, sliced bananas, some greens and dip in the sweet tangy sauce. The combination was amazing; the burst of flavours and temperatures..sweet, salty, tart, sour..and the warmth from the steamed rice noodles, coolness from the sauce and rice paper..This is really good. Make sure you order this dish.

The vegetable egg pancake/ omelette was simple, yet tasty. A huge omelette, inside was spilling with vegetables and shrimps. Fuss free, yet delectable.

Jeffrey also ordered stir fried glass noodles with unagi (eel)

The local unagi used was tinier..so it was rather tough and chewy. I though this was an interesting dish, but paled in comparison to the previous dishes.

We also had the prawn fritters, somewhat like malaysia’s har peng (for the chinese) or cucur udang (for the malays). I was rather surprise,Why did Jeffrey order this dish when we have lots of this in Malaysia? I took a bite and I take my word back. This is by far, the best cucur udang/ har peng that I have ever tasted. Crunchy on the outside, the dough was soft and melting..dip generously into the sweet tangy sauce.OMG!..The prawns, though it looks rather hard (the shells) and menacing; was so lovely to eat..the taste of the crunchy shells was so, so fragrant. If I could, I would love to gorge myself with this. Hahaha

Jeffrey saw some customers ordering fried pork buns, which he ordered for us to sample too. Not sure if it’s because we were too stuffed by then, I find the buns too porky and a tad oily for my liking.

Lastly, we had the dessert, which was very rich and creamy as all was served with coconut cream/ milk. I am a firm believer of some things it’s better in moderation, and in this case, the dessert was it. It was so rich that it was just too ‘heavy’ for me.. we had mung bean, peanut and coconut milk; sticky sweetened corn with coconut cream; and steam banana and coconut milk. I didn’t find it too impressive. Maybe I was too full to really savour these desserts..

And guess how much we paid for this meal (drinks of beers and fruit shakes included). About RM50!

We left with very full belly and very big smiles..hahaha

Quan An Ngon is located at 18, Phan Boi Chau, Quan Hoan Kiem, Hanoi. DT: (04) 9428162, 9428163.