Bánh Căn at Quán Đạt

Last night I dined in Saigon with President George W. Bush.

Well, more precisely, I dined in a District 3 restaurant, beneath a photo of President Bush. And it’s difficult to tell from the photo whether he was actually President Bush at the time the photo was taken, or perhaps Texas Governor Bush, or even just beer-drinking frat-boy Bush.  But I digress.

Bottom line, I had dinner in sight of a photo of Mr. Bush standing beside the younger brother of the owner of the Saigon eatery I was visiting for the first time, Quán Đạt.

Now this dining blog is a bit more challenging to write then usual.  In addition to the distracting photo hanging above our table, the general ambiance of the restaurant was far outside of Eating Saigon!’s usual and preferred style.  No short plastic stools surrounding a metal table.  Instead, semi-designer wood furniture. A huge display of freshly cut lilies as you entered.  Quite lovely – in a touristy kind-of-way.

Where were the plastic wrappers, crumbled napkins and food bits on the floor?

Had I inadvertently stumbled into a tourist restaurant far outside of Saigon’s tourist center?  It was mildly disorienting.

But, the food.  Yes, about the food.

The reason this place had caught my eye repeatedly on our motorbike rides home each evening was the bánh căn sign!

Eating Saigon!’s readers might recall my first encounter with bánh căn being prepared by an old woman on a stool in a small alley in Nha Trang (this is surely where bánh căn was meant to be created and consumed). Or, perhaps you’ll recall my joy several weeks later when I discovered bánh căn just a few blocks from my apartment here in Saigon at Phan Rang 2. It’s still a regular stop for me.

But now, this new, relatively “upscale” bánh căn restaurant, lured me in.  The waitress and the owner(?)/manager(?) we’re extremely gracious.  They described our food in detail, gave recipes, and blended our sauces at the table for us – in just the right proportions. Very nice – and all this a few minutes past their 10:00 pm closing time!

The blended dipping sauce – a perfect blend of mắm nêm (salty fermented watery purple-colored sauce), a sweet peanut sauce, and nước mắm (fish sauce), together with sweet julienned mango and chili – was excellent.  The bánh căn rice cakes, themselves, topped respectively with tôm (shrimp); a ring of mực (calamari); and thịt heo xay (ground pork meat) were good, but less wonderful then my two prior bánh căn experiences mentioned above.

What did win the evening, was the bánh cănh chả cá.  The nước lèo (soup broth) was subtly delicious. The chả cá (steamed ground fish loaf) hidden among the thick noodles was very nice.  And the large chunks of cá ngừ (tuna meat) were delicious when dipped in the salty and spicy fish sauce.

Final confirmation that I had uncovered a tourist restaurant outside tourist central, however, came with the bill.  Two hundred thousand vnd ($10 USD). Reasonable, of course, by western standards.  But far above the price of our typical dinners here in Saigon.

Open from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm, Quán Đạt is a good place for those seeking good Vietnamese food served in a clean, stylized and appealing (but, perhaps not particularly authentic) setting – and from a full-sized comfortable chair.  And, of course, for those who wish to dine with a former American President.

Quán Đạt rates a YUM on Eating Saigon!’s Yum Meter.

Quán Đạt
16 Trương Định
District 3
08 3843 7390

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