VietNamNet Bridge – French people who have settled in HCM City have brought their cuisine to the city.

For Mr. Gils Brault, French cuisine is his joy, passion and life. He was attached to restaurants in France when he was a teenager and now is well-known as the owner of a French restaurant in Vietnam.

Gils sold his house in France to open the Trois Gourmands restaurant in Tan Binh in 2005 and then he moved to Thao Dien in District 2 (39 Tran Ngoc Dien). Quality food and friendly service has quickly helped this restaurant become a favorite destination for those who love dishes from Gaulois in HCM City.

The menu of Trois Gourmands is quite varied because Gils always offers new dishes, which are the combination of several Vietnamese ingredients with French flavor. He uses Vietnamese fish sauce to make some kinds of sauces and is very proud of his own cuisine – spring rolls with foie gras, combining the two famous dishes of Vietnam and France.

Trois Gourmands also produces all the cheese on the menu, including some special ones as truffle mushroom cheese, olive cheese, and pepper cheese.

Along with Trois Gourmands, a French restaurant in Thao Dien - La Villa (14 Ngo Quang Huy) is also highly rated by popular tourist sites such as TripAdvisor. In 2013, these restaurants were in the top 10 restaurants in Asia voted most by travelers on TripAdvisor. The cuisines of La Villa are processed by the boss cum chef Thierry Mounon according to traditional recipes of southern France.

Besides Thao Dien, where there are many French, there are some well-known French restaurants in in District 1: La Crêperie (17/7 Le Thanh Ton), La Nicoise (56 Ngo Duc Ke), Le Bouchon de Saigon (40 Thai Van Lung), The Refinery (Alley 74 Hai Ba Trung) ...

Mr. Gils Brault.

The owner of the restaurant La Nicoise, Mr. Jean-Claude, comes from Nice, southeastern France. He takes the typical dishes of the city along the Mediterranean coast to Ho Chi Minh City, such as Salade Nicoise (Nice style salad). The Le Bouchon de Saigon of David and Nathalie has the mussels with cream dish that is very popular with Vietnamese diners.

Also, this restaurant has many traditional French dishes like Bourguignon beef, black pork sausage... "Bouchon" is the word for Lyon-style restaurants, which are famous for the relaxed, friendly atmosphere.

The Refinery is located in an old French-style building, which was built in 1881 and located in a small and quiet alley.

Restaurant La Crêperie specializes in crepes, a popular dish in France but little known in Vietnam. Crepes are made from buckwheat flour (salt type) or wheat (kind of sweet). Bretagne in northwestern France is one of the most famous places for crepes.

Mickael Guego, manager of La Crêperie, comes from Bretagne so the restaurant decor is exactly as in Bretagne, including a lighthouse - a symbol of this region. La Crêperie serves all kinds of traditional Crêperie and cider (beverage fermented from apples) of Bretagne.

For the French, bread is no different than rice for the Vietnamese. Une Journee à Paris (234 Le Thanh Ton Street, District 1) and Voelker (39 Thao Dien, District 2) are the rare original French bakeries in the city.

Voelker, in business 11 years, is known for baguette and French pastries such as pain au chocolat, croissant, mousse au chocolat...

Bread and cakes at Une Journee à Paris are handmade and the boss Fabrice Subra is always faithful to the classic French recipes with a variety of pastries such as lemon tart, strawberry tart, chocolate cake, Éclair, macaron... The bakery also has French burgers.

Une Journee à Paris is also highly recommended by TripAdvisor and Routard.

Pha Le