Yuugatei Mutsumian — Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City

Follow @bredgyeats for more food posts!

There are few things that evoke more excitement than Japanese roasted eel, its fatty skin grilled until the fat melts in your mouth and flesh rendered tender and flaky, all brought together with a salivating sweet and savoury sauce. Its deeply flavour sauce seeps into the rice, flavouring each grain that holds the perfect texture to be picked up with chopsticks with ease. Outside, the charcoal grill isn’t just for display – fired up specially for my order, the caramelized glaze and charred skin bring a mouth-watering smokiness, and I can easily crown it as the best unagi that I’ve eaten. On the side, the bright, earthy pickles balanced the richness, while the mushroom/kombu soup with whelks kept me well hydrated. Next, the unagi adds a savoury depth to the soft, bouncy egg roll – infused with a savoury depth of dashi to elevate the rich yolky aroma and topped with refreshing...

The best Unadon (Eel Rice) in HCM City, the eel is grilled by charcoal again in front of the shop, so it bring a nice smell to the eel, the eel taste very soft and fat as it is freshly prepared so be prepare to wait at least 20 to 30 minutes before you can get your dishes, so if you are hungry, try to order some of their starter like eel sushi or eel egg roll, they taste very good as well. The Unadon also come with a miso soup with eel liver, it taste surprisingly nice.

The staff can’t speak English well but I believe some of them fluent in Japanese, after all the main customers are Japanese, but pointing at the menu and some body language should be sufficient. This place has 3 floors, so there are plenty of seat, but when I visit it on a Saturday night, most seat are occupied.

And this place DO NOT take credit card, make sure you have enough cash...

Unagi was grilled to perfection. The yakitori was also amazing; the chicken was juicy and succulent and the leek had a nice charred taste to it. The fact that a person was standing outside the restaurant to grill these skewers on a charcoal grill shows the amount of effort he is putting in While the price of the food was slightly on the pricer side, the taste of the food definitely makes up for it. The only thing which I didn't like about this place was the fact that it allowed smoking in it hence it was covered with cigarette smell, but I guess I can out up with it since the...