Morico Lê Lợi — Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City

Modern decorated Japanese restaurant/cafe, which probably leans more towards dessert. After having lunch at another place and the temperature rising, I had the urge to sit somewhere cool and get a dessert. After entering the store, I was quickly guided by the staff. I was seated next to a group of designers ( I believe from the company) talking about the store's interior and discussing how they should approach/change it. Very interesting to hear their ideas.

My eyes fell upon the parfait while I was looking at the menu and was quickly ordered and served. Upon arrival, I was a little bit disappointed by the visual aspect of the parfait. Mostly the whipped cream. The cream went mostly horizontal and not vertical. A part of the whipped cream went over the glass. This also had the effect of the sauce drizzled on top to run down the glass on the side. This meant sticky fingers if you ever touched the glass. But the most important thing is the taste. The matcha biscuit was good, not too bitter or sweet. The same thing applies to the hojicha and matcha ice cream. The mochi/rice balls on a stick (correct me if I'm wrong) had a nice chewy texture. The panna cotta (not really visible in the picture) was on point. Great flavor and texture. Definitely the highlight. Cornflakes were a nice thing and really needed for the crunchy texture in the parfait. Jellies lacked their respective flavors and too be honest had none (fruit nor sugar). Not sure if this is intended and is a visual/soft texture aspect. Considering this part is like a third of the overall parfait, it left me quite dissatisfied overall. I like to believe it was an off day considering the...

Our first night at Saigon and we went out for dinner. Morico was very close to our hotel, but our opinion was divided. Our daughter swears by Japanese food, wife is not fond of and I'm in between, open to experiment. Finally we decided to give Morico a try. Very pleasant decor, comfortable sitting and polite and welcoming staff. Ordering was a bit tricky, as to satisfy tastes of all concerned. First some drinks and we ordered Honey Lemon Tea and Iced Matcha Red Bean. Tea was exquisite and matcha drink was a new experience for me. With red beans and milk tasted really refreshing. For main course we ordered Teriyaki Tori Salad, Okonomiyaki and Katsu Don and each was a revelation. The salad came with Miso Soup. The salad had plenty of vegetables, greens and a healthy portion of grilled and glazed chicken. Healthy and tasteful, as well. The Miso Soup is as Japanese as possible, you'll find it difficult to find another soup with similar taste. The broth is unique, taste is unique as well. Okonomiyaki is sort of a pancake with flour base, vegetables, chicken and the unique sauces. All of us loved this. Katsu Don is savory as well with fried chicken, vegetables and sauce on a bread of rice. Finally we ordered some signature Tamago Maki Sushi. It's a very simple sushi with rice and eggs wrapped by seaweed. Recommended sushi dish for people who are not initiated to Japanese food. Overall this was perhaps the best Japanese food experience that we have had so far. Always...

Edit on Jan 15: What’s happening to Morico? Are they about to close down this brand or something? Busy Friday evening but just 2,3 inattentive staffs. It took forever for the first drink on the table. We order many dishes but salad and rolls should be served first (like every single time I’ve been here) but no, udon, donburi,... salad and rolls at last. They almost forgot when I asked for vegan sauce. And then desserts, we wanted something plus the new flavor sake gelato on the Wifi Connection Screen and we got Rum Raisin as they explained they had no ideas about these promotions on the Wifi Connecting Screen, and so Rum Raisin is their newest flavor. The waitress said that I got exactly what I ordered and if I wasn’t happy about it, it was my fault not her for taking the wrong order. I was like wtf was going on here. We were still having these desserts on the table but another waitress was so rush to clean up the table so we also had to finish the portion so she didn’t have to wait for us. And we called for check. Fill in my phone number for 10% discount and waiting again... There was no number in the system, they asked me to give my full name but still NO RESULTS and I just had lunch 6 days ago at Morico Vincom Dong Khoi, no such stupid thing like this happened. After a long wait, they gave me the receipt, maybe still looking for the grumpy customers ordered the wrong gelato and gave wrong info LOL. Unbelievable!!!

My favourite restaurant...