Kậu Ba Quán — Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City

Heard of this no-frills place from David Chang’s show Ugly Delicious.

Best dishes: Grilled oysters, Cajun prawns/clams, and grilled squid with chilli.

They do the oysters in 3 ways: with scallions, with cheese, and with quail eggs and shrimp roe. There are also raw oysters on the menu, but being wary of raw seafood we opted for grilled. They charge per oyster, 30k VND each.

The squid (67k per 100g, minimum 300g) is grilled to perfection and comes with an additional citrusy dip. It’s quite spicy despite the spare appearance. Succulent and tasty, especially the crispy charred tentacles.

Cajun dishes here come with corn, potatoes and pork sausages (lap cheong). We requested no pork for a Muslim friend and had some minor miscommunication so it came with the sausages anyway. No biggie, they remade the dish.

Pork belly with jackfruit and pineapple is only so-so, a bit on the dry side with tough fatty bits that we spat out.

We also returned the next day and had our oysters again. We tried clams with basil, and squid with salt and pepper, which we expected to be dry like the chilli squid. Alas, both came drenched in a generic pepper brown sauce which isn’t great. We also had minced beef congee that‘s fairly plain and comes in a massive pot, too much for 2 people to finish.

We came in the day time, probably better if you want a quieter experience since it’s apparently more crowded at night. Seating is outdoors by the road,...

TLDR: Expensive + bad food. Not a good combo. Chef clearly has abandoned this restaurant.

Long version: Saw this on “Somebody Feed Phil.” It is a show I greatly enjoy and have tried a number of places he has gone to with satisfying outcomes. This, however, is not one of those places. When we arrived at the restaurant for dinner, we were the only customers. Situated next to a busy street, the first thing the server had to do was wipe the table down. Appreciated, but I knew that meant that every dish that came out would be caked, covered and coated in the same thing after just a few minutes. Which, honestly, may have made the food taste better. The “Happy Salad” made me sad. The squid must have come from the polluted river across the street based on its texture and flavor, and I could’ve made the ramen because it almost definitely came out of a packet.

However, the service was quick and attentive because we were the only people there. So, if you want to be the star of your own dining experience and tell people you ate at a “James Beard” restaurant, feel free to give it a shot! I know I...

We had heard great things about this restaurant and we were so impressed! After reading that dinner gets super busy with the locals, we decided to have lunch here instead. We would recommend this option as we had our pick of the tables and the food came out really quickly. We ordered the chef signature dishes of Happy Salad which contained beef, garlic, pineapple, Vietnamese eggplant, kumquat, mint, lemongrass, passionfruit dressing and sesame seeds and the Cajun Shrimps with Garlic Butter Sauce plus also the Mexico Wonton to share. All the dishes were outstanding, leaving us with satisfied smiles on our faces due to just how delicious they were! The staff were really friendly in spite of there sometimes being a language barrier on both sides but the menu is in English and Vietnamese so you can point to the dishes you want to order. This restaurant was without a doubt one of our favourites in Vietnam (and we visited a lot!) so just make sure you visit with an...