VietNamNet Bridge – With the usual crowds dispersed by summer vacations, now is the perfect time to visit Ha Noi's Pho Bien, where sumptuous seafood is served up in an innovative format.

City stronghold: Pho Bien restaurant on Trang Thi St. is conveniently located in the city centre with large parking spaces available.

In summer, when many Hanoians go on vacation to the seaside, the city's seafood restaurants seem less crowded and it's a great time to treat a visiting friend from a country far away.

We went to Pho Bien on Trang Thi Street because it's conveniently located in the city centre. The food is always great and the staff are courteous.

Seafood starter: Shells and mussels are a great appetiser.

Pho Bien is hidden away down a narrow entrance where the shrimp, scallops, lobsters and garoupa can be found swimming around in tanks awaiting their inevitable demise. Personally, I don't like the fact that when you make your order, the fish or crustacean is bought to your table and weighed, but I can understand why they do it. Many people appreciate it because it shows the restaurant does not overcharge customers, and the food is fresh!

We started with the Pho Bien style salad (VND48,000) with dried marinated squid and fried garlic on a bed of green lettuce. As simple as it is, it's one of the restaurant's signature dishes.

When we take our children out for dinner, I always like the banh cuon or steamed rice pancake (VND32,000) at Pho Bien because it tastes like it looks; fresh from the kitchen with wonderful dried shredded shrimp and a dipping sauce that's just right. My little girl also tried a bowl of shrimp soup (VND28,000), and she absolutely loved it.

As the kids finished their dishes, we moved on to a more exotic tom hap trai dua or shrimp in coconut milk (VND334,000 for half a kilo). The shrimp are placed around the edge of a chopped coconut soaked in the coconut milk and steamed in a larger pan. As our guests love the sweet and soft texture of shrimp, we ordered another house special called tom xin dot ruou or drunken shrimp on fire (VND334,000 per half a kilo). The name of the dish sounds like a form of torture, but basically, the shrimp are soaked in vodka and then the chef lights the pan so they are cooked without losing any of their juices.

Our friend ordered a special treat for us because he and his wife were celebrating their anniversary, so a big fat garoupa (VND798,000 per kilo) was soon making its way out of the kitchen to our table. At home, it would be nigh on impossible to deep-fry a fish that size with its fins and tail intact, but this one looked like it had swam into a pan of sizzling oil.

Vietnamese people consume quite a lot of greens in their daily meals, so we ordered ngon bi xao toi or stir-fried pumpkin buds with garlic (VND52,000).

It tasted wonderful and was also a first for our guests who had never tried pumpkin buds before.

A meal is not complete without a final carb-rich dish.

Whatever floats yours: The baked shells look just like a boat on their serving plate.

We had the options of rice with soup or hotpot with noodles, but we decided on chao ngao or rice porridge cooked with mussels (VND42,000).

It was a fitting end to a beautiful feast, but we still had room for dessert and managed to squeeze in fresh fruit and a refreshing cold tao pho, coconut jelly (VND22,000), in sweet broth, which we enjoyed almost as much as the kids.

Pho Bien

Pho Bien Seafood Restaurant

14 Trang Thi

Tel: 04-3928-5757

Hours: 10a.m-10p.m

Comment: Great seafood in friendly country style

Source: VNS