L'Escale — Restaurant in Cần Thơ

A grumpy old man goes to a French restaurant in the backwoods of Vietnam....

I was expecting to be disappointed but in fact I was pleasantly surprised.

Nestled away on the fourth floor of the Nam Bo hotel lies l’escale (Can Tho). This restaurant has nothing to do with the restaurant by the same name in Saigon owned by a two star Michelin chef.

That said, service was prompt and attentive and sitting outside on the terrace with a picturesque view of Uncle Ho himself and the river is quite relaxing.

For dinner I ordered three courses. A French onion soup, a salmon filet with beurre blanc and a cheese plate.

The hot courses were served promptly and piping hot - something that will please the most discerning Japanese clientele.

The French onion soup, made from indigenous onions was a bit sweet as expected but still palatable and worth enjoying.

The salmon filet was perfectly de-boned and cooked to perfection. Served with a side of local broken rice.

Staff will also drop off additional beurre blanc if required.

Sadly they proactively did so after the salmon was consumed hence the four star rating. Perhaps I’m being unfair in this assessment given that they could’ve simply abstained as I had not asked, but as a discerning eater, .... ok ok I digress.

Finally the cheese plate came with four cheeses and enough banh mi to serve an army. Indeed I no longer felt bad about paying 220,000 VND for this dish, it is definitely made for sharing.

Overall, given the limited food options in the city, this indeed is a good one.

RT for La confrérie de la chaîne des...

First visit here. It was very busy with three large group bookings. Sadly, there was no single table available on the main road to get a full river view experience. However, I could see the river ahead of me. The menu has a range of dishes. There are 2 set menu and I chose one of them. It was 650k and included pumpkin soup, avocado salad, flambé king prawn in vodka, American tenderloin steak with few pieces of veg, fries, and green pepper sauce and panecota to finish. I also had the Ninh Kieu cocktail. The food was all cooked well but did not wow me. The steak was a little tough in parts, but I did eat it all. I think the staff focus their attention on the large groups to keep...

Good ambiance and friendly staff, but I came for the food and it wasn't good.

Fries = unsalted and soft Mulberry soda = unblended, floating chunks of berry in soda water. We asked them to blend it but then it had lime seeds and skin it. Steak = ordered medium, came out bleeding Pepper sauce = too buttery, to my palate it almosted tasted sweet Margarita = expensive and small, needed more juice. Mostly just tasted like tequila.

We read in the reviews that they had a good cheese plate. No longer available post-covid.

I got the feeling this used to be a good restaurant, but maybe the original owner had to abandon it during the pandemic. Hope they can...