Cousins Restaurant — Restaurant in Hà Nội

I gave this place two chances, and both times were a huge disappointment. I’m speaking only about this location, as I’ve only been to this one and I know they have a few others, and maybe the food is better there.

The place itself is very nice, with a pleasant garden area, and in general, it’s enjoyable to sit there. The service is also nice quick and very attentive. But I’d say that’s where the positives end.

Over two visits, I tried different dishes. The first time, I had mussels and veal carpaccio; the second time, I got beef tartare. The mussels were tasteless, with a lot of broken and sharp shell pieces. They were served with some strange-looking chips that were completely stale, and for some reason, they brought ketchup (??). The whole plate looked odd, and pairing mussels with chips and ketchup felt more like a cheap café than a so-called French restaurant.

As for the veal carpaccio… you can see from the photo how bad it looked. It was a super thin slice of veal drowned in sauce, which completely killed the flavor. I could only taste the sauce, and honestly, it’s the first time I’ve ever seen carpaccio served with so much of it. It made me wonder if the meat wasn’t fresh. If you look at older photos on Google, the carpaccio used to look decent exactly how it should be. Well, not anymore. They also gave complimentary bread, but it was just basic bread nothing tasty or special.

On my second visit, I was craving beef tartare and decided to give it another shot since it was the closest place. It came with red cabbage for some reason, which was confusing. The cabbage was so bitter I couldn’t eat it. As for the tartare, again, it looked okay in old photos, but that’s clearly not the current reality. It didn’t come with an egg, and the meat had lots of connective tissue, which made it chewy and gave it an unpleasant texture. I barely finished it despite loving tartare, it felt more like I was eating a live cow than an actual dish.

Ah, I also had croquettes and that was the only dish I could actually finish and enjoy.

To sum it up: there’s nothing French about this restaurant anymore. The food is disappointing and absolutely not...

Fabulous little French bistro near my AirBnB on Westlake. Hit the spot for down to earth, authentic French food at really reasonable prices. I came twice!

During my 10 day stay in Hanoi, the first time for dessert & tea only. As the temperature dropped, I stopped in to enjoy a piping hot Earl Grey tea and rhubarb meringue with whipped cream after a long day teaching. The rhubarb is preserved and the cream is fresh dairy, but meringue is a little too hard as store bought (still it was tasty.)

The second time I came to celebrate the end of my long teaching week on a solo dinner date. I tried fresh Vietnamese Pacific Oysters for the first time and was impressed - very close to a Fine de Claire No. 2 - a touch thicker, but tasty and briny replete with sauce mignonette (red wine vinegar + chopped shallots), fresh wedge of lemon & Tabasco (yeah yeah call me a heathen!).

For mains I enjoyed home made lovely, light, duck rillettes with toasty bread & escargots (& more bread with good quality butter!). All washed down with a simple, chilled rosé. Perfect light dinner in a cute little old house with garden and outdoor seating. I loved my single lady window side seat overlooking the garden with full view of the bar and...

My wife’s salad was good, but the beef Bourgnon was bland, and the beef was dried out.

However, the reason I am leaving this review is because after the meal, our dishes sat on the table. The server then brought the bill and still did not remove the dishes. We waited at our table and the dishes remained on our table.

We went up and paid the bill at the counter. I asked the owner if it was customary that they left the dirty dishes on the table when they brought the bill. I don’t think that this fellow even understood the point I was making.

IMO having dishes cleared off the table before or at least at the same time the bill is presented is part of basic service in a sit down restaurant, especially one that presents itself as French. That is why I gave 2...