Cau Go Vietnamese Cuisine — Restaurant in Hà Nội

Despite the good comments, I completely agree with the bad ones tho. We booked the table with my mom today on the terrace, came and there were other people (family with kids) sitting at the table. So the waitress had to ask them to leave which took couple of minutes since there was a kid playing in the phone. Fine, okey, then while ordering I asked several times the waitress about the fish options and if they are dry or not and in general what she could recommend better, I got the answer and I ordered relying on the expertise at some point too. After getting the spring rolls which were not the best but okey again, we have been waiting for the fish for 20 min!!!! And then the waitress came, took the empty dish from the finished spring rolls and said that it will take another 10 min to wait (I guess this was the process to unfreeze as the manager said himself so think about it), adding on top that she is sorry but they have other guests on the back to take care about (I’m sorry who I were there then?). In 10 min we got the fish and it was a disaster. Completely dry and has no taste! I have eaten that fish before in Ho Chi Minh restaurant not even a Michelin one and it was super nice and juicy. I politely explained to the waitress, she called the manager which is what I also expected, the “supposed to be” manager came, asked and I politely explained that I’m very much ready to pay for the wine, water (by the way Michelin restaurant with a plastic bottle of water which was not even served) and spring rolls but not the fish. He listened to me and then after 10 min of explaining he said - okey, I will call the manager. Seriously? Then I waited for the manager for another 5 min, no one came, except of the same guy who said - I will take fish to show the manager. Seriously? We are speaking about the Michelin guide restaurant. Finally the manager came after I said that I’m leaving the money here and leaving the restaurant. The manager had no clue about situation so I had to spend another 10 min explaining, he said sorry and went to bring the bill, however, he came back and started to explain again about the fish and how it is cooked. So I had to explain in the end with a raised voice that it is not appropriate service with all the reasons same as I explained about the fish which he agreed in the end by the way. In general, it was a horrible both customer service experience and the food. I have no idea how this restaurant is in the guide of Michelin...

First things first, I need to shout out our waitress Quynh Van. She was an absolute superstar when helping us with our hotpot. I never seen NOBODY work a hotpot like QV.

I had a vague idea of my way around a hot pot, but QV took us through it step by step, explaining why she is waiting a little extra time to put the egg noodles in, how long the veggies needed to cook for, and even coming and portioning out our servings when the time was right.

It was oddly reminiscent of LeBrons performance in game 5 of the 2007 Eastern Conference finals against the Detroit Pistons, just completely taking over down the stretch. Legacy defining stuff.

Okay – now that that’s out of the way, Cau Go was one of the more expensive meals we had in Vietnam, with entrees being $10-$18 usd. However, after 10 consecutive days of street food with no AC in the blazing heat, to be in a pristine restaurant with a beautiful lake view, quality AC, sensational service, and phenomenal Vietnamese food, it was more than worth it.

We opted to get the chicken salad, spring rolls, stir fried beef, and our beloved hotpot. My buddy wanted to get a frog dish, but for lunch we had witnessed a snake be brutally murdered right in front of our eyes that we then proceeded to eat and drink its blood, so my stomach needed some familiarity. Stir fried beef it was.

Everything was delicious, and I can’t recommend this place enough. We ended up going to Anan in Saigon the next night which has a Michelin star, but I much preferred Cau Go.

After our meal, QV even asked us if we wanted to take a picture of my buddy and I on the rooftop. As is traditional on a boys trip, we had taken next to no pictures together our entire time, so I really appreciate QV for that. She has eyes in the back of her head. She sees everything.

THANK YOU CAU GO! QV NEEDS A RAISE!

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Restaurant does not live up to the hype and reviews I have read about it. Decided to try fine dining in Hanoi (this restaurant was mentioned in the Michelin Guide). In a nutshell it was disappointing experience - nice view of Hoe Kiem Lake but the food and service was disappointing.

The table setting for 2 is really small. The irony was the head waitress was try to push us to order more dishes. I was looking forward to experience Vietnamese cooking in an upmarket restaurant. What I saw on the menu were versions of Hanoi street food such as Cha Ca (fried fish with chives and spring onions) or Bun Cha (deep fried pork rolls). My view is that it is to better experience these dishes at other restaurants around Hanoi which are famous for these dishes. I opted for recommended Vietnamese dishes which turned out to be very ordinary and similar to middle of the road offerings of Asian cooking in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

Service was average at best. Head waitress was keen to push us to order as many dishes as possible. I felt five dishes for 2 persons was more than sufficient! Waiter serving our table was inexperieced and had problems placing the dishes on our small table. What bothered me most was the rush to deliver all the food ordered at the same time. The serving team does not appreciate that I was there to enjoy the experience the nice view and would like to enjoy each dish properly. It felt like I was been rushed in a very popular Pho restaurant in Hanoi with many customers waiting for a table. I could not see the rush as restaurant was not busy that evening.

Pricing was okay. Not at Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur or Singapore level. But food was very ordinary given all the...