Thắng Cố A Quỳnh — Restaurant in Sa Pa Ward

This place was hoppin' on a Wednesday night while all surrounding restaurants were empty. Every table came for hotpot so that is what we got. They have 4 different kinds chicken, horse, fish (salmon and sturgeon) and mixed (all 4 proteins). The sturgeon was the best in the hotpot. The horse meat was really tough but went really well with the citrus salt dip. I really wish they had beef because it would have been amazing with the dip. But I wanted to try the local food and this is what I got. We sat there eating for a good two hours. There was so much food, The hotpot for 2-3 defintiely fed 3-4 people. The place is filled with mostly locals. There were many foreigners that walked in but 90% walked out after seeing the menu. Another dish I saw on most tables is the com lam, sticky rice cooked in bamboo, I wished I could've tried it but there was way too much food on my table. There was also entertainment during dinner, I guy playing some sort of flute. He was amazing, we really enjoyed the music and so did everyone else in the restaurant. Everyone got out their phones to film him and things got a lot more lively when he played. This restaurant is a must for the local food...

I absolutely do not want to sound like a Karen/Kevin here but I don’t understand the highly reviewed of this place at all. I am genuinely concerned about people’s reviews, people’s mind and people’s taste on this reviews section.

The food ordered was:

1. Stir Fried Noodle with Beef and Vegetable - tastes like instant noodle + MSG

2. Vegetable with tofu and pork soup - WHERES YOUR TOFU? Too many vegetables.. BARELY any pork in the soup other than the minced pork

3. Crispy Spring Roll - was horrible as you don’t even taste the meat but the overpowering of vegetables that was stuffed in the roll.

Maybe the hotpot would be a better choice in this restaurant aside from the other dishes in the menu!

Let’s not forget about the fish sauce that was reviewed because it was salty and the terrible experience I had during payment as the lady was talking on the phone, making us wait for her when she could’ve multitasked her through giving us the change. Thanks for...

So good we came twice!

We had salmon and sturgeon hotpot and smoked pork accompanied by a bottle of apricot wine during our first visit. The salmon and sturgeon were very fresh, the broth was light a demure Tom yum, very comforting and delicious. Apricot wine pairs really well with the food.

We tried the horse hotpot and soy sauce sturgeon during our 2nd visit, wow the horse hotpot was clean and hearty, so so good. The horse meat tasted kinda like beef but less greasy, some parts a bit chewier which was interesting. We liked it even more than the salmon sturgeon hotpot. The soy sauce sturgeon was fresh and so good. They taught us to flash boil our rice noodles, drain the broth and use the sturgeon soy sauce as base for the noodles. Mega yums.

The team were friendly, warm and helpful during both visits. One of their member performed with flute. Fantastic food, service...