ChuSu Kitchen — Restaurant in Sa Pa Ward

"There are whispers in the mist..." a grinning toothless oracle once said to us in a raspy voice, "WHEN IN SAPA, ONE MUST DINE AT CHUSU KITCHEN" she chuckled maniacally as the thick fog of Fansipan mystically envelopes her. We hear nothing but the echoes of her laughter in the mountains. I glanced at my wife, visibly stunned. "Woookay, now that's weird. Anyways what's for dinner?" I said. "Chusu Kitchen I suppose..." her voice breaking, still staring into the foggy distance, glassy eyed.

This is a paid review.

Nope it isn't :)

Honest to God, we were not prepared as to how fabulous the food is here. We were skeptical and our expectations were low, believe me. I mean like really low. In the end we walked out wanting to come back again.

Michelin standard food at this prices. I mean what are the owners thinking?! Food at this standard, quality and presentation can only be found in gourmet restaurants at triple, quadruple, quintuple, heck, 10 times the price.

Chusu is named after the father, founder and chef Chu, and his little daughter Su, his wife explained, and most of the ingredients are sourced locally including caviar from the locally farmed surgeons. Some produce are seasonal, and so they'll adapt and retrofit them creatively to existing dishes.

We had mountain corn with chicken soup and fresh spring rolls as starters and Braised local duck thigh with red wine and mountain spices and mountain pork with special rice for mains. We finished off with their delightful home made passion fruit cheesecake and a cup of coffee.

I won't go in depth discussing each dish because we're no food critic nor are we educated in the culinary arts. My wife and I are just like the thousands on a holiday in Sapa and only chancing upon this brilliant family run eatery on a cold, wet, foggy evening.

So none of that snooty note taking and analysis on how a particular dish is constructed; analysing smells, flavours, textures and presentation. None of those shenanigans. None of that bullcr*p.

Just come and give this place a shot whenever you're in Sapa.

We will return. Most likely the next day. Again, we're not paid for this review, nor are we some egoistical influencers. We're a couple of boring, uninteresting boomers.

EDIT: It's incredibly rare that we return to the same restaurant not twice but thrice! I won't wax lyrical about this gem of a family run eatery as I did in my previous review above. You just have to pay this place a visit and judge it on your own. Thank you once again to the Chusu team for such an amazing culinary experience and service!

Round 2:

• Grilled beef steak with pepper sauce and salad on the side • Beetroot soup • Beef rolls with noodles • Cheesecake

Round 3:

• Grilled beef steak with pepper sauce and fries on the side • Homemade noodles with charsiu in creamy sauce • Baked Sapa salmon served with noodles • Spicy Sapa mushroom...

.Hi Linh,

You said, “Are you serious about what you write?” Yes, I am dead serious when writing the review of your restaurant. I relied upon Google reviews and decided to give Chusu Kitchen a go.

Rather than a glimpse of the so-called “good reviews”, all that we got was a business that was too arrogant and upright insulting to us in front of your other customers by telling us “Come Back Tomorrow”. Really? How do you think that we feel? Too bad Chusu Kitchen is not a Michelin star. I will have swallowed my pride and treated it as part of the fantastic experience.

Am I angry? Yes, Damn right I am. Of all the establishments in Sapa, I chose your restaurant to end our day on a high note. Rather than a good experience, I was left humiliated in front of your customers and feeling hungry. I am left perplexed. Who is the customer here?

You should be allowing us to decide to wait for an empty table even if it takes hours! At least in this instance, I can say that you tried but what I got was an arrogant business not willing to entertain another potential customer as after all, it is a “public holiday”. Are you saying that the treatment is different if it is not a public holiday?

Btw, what does “local guide” have anything to do with my review? Are you saying that I can exert influence? If that’s the interpretation, then by all means. I am just merely imparting a true experience to which Google reviews in all its glory are also subject to false reviews.

Again, you said, “Unfortunately it does not come from customers who have experienced our service or food”. You are right. We never got a glimpse let alone a taste of the beautiful service and food. What I got from you was an attitude. Thank you. You save me money as with this type of attitude I am not even interested in dining in your establishment. It only takes a few seconds to create an impression. Oh wow, you did and embarrassed us as well.

For the potential readers of this review, this business just told us we were full, and she proceeded to walk away. When we tried to approach her again, she just said come back tomorrow. To put the icing on the case, she quickly closed the door after we left...

ChuSu Kitchen’s food was so delicious that me and my boyfriend came here twice during our 3-day trip in Sa Pa. The reason why we were drawn to this restaurant in the first place was because we had been in Vietnam for over a week, and we were starting to crave some Western flavours! Safe to say that ChuSu Kitchen didn’t disappoint - they are certainly an expert in blending Vietnamese and Western flavours to perfection!

I ordered the Sa Pa mushroom soup as my starter - initially I thought it would be a creamy bisque that one would typically see in French restaurants. To our surprise, it was a clear tomato-based broth, which was rather similar to the Thai Tom Yum soup given the lemongrass and the acidity of the tomatoes. Shoutout to the owners for giving a generous amount of shrimps, herbs and prawns!

For the main, I ordered the beef steak with pepper sauce. You can tell right away that the pepper sauce was home made with a depth of flavours (forgot to ask whether the peppers were from Phu Quoc which I know is famous for their black peppers!). The dish also came with a variety of fresh veggies, my favourite one being the pumpkin mash. I personally would prefer the veggies to be roasted instead of steamed / boiled but that’s just my personal preference. As for the beef, there were some tendons (although I never expected it to taste like an A5 wagyu steak) but it was sourced locally with strong beef flavours. I enjoyed the dish (especially the pepper sauce) so much that I ordered it again the second time we were there!

If you’re ever in Sa Pa, I would highly recommend you to come to this cosy family...