Ming Palace is a Chinese restaurant located in Sofitel Plaza Hotel, and this offered some respite from the host of "regional-cuisine" buffets (think a mix of Indonesian, Malaysian, Thai and Vietnamese) and Western fare (steak and burgers) that I'd been having. It's an upmarket restaurant with upmarket prices for sure, a far cry from the prices that you would actually expect to pay in Vietnam. Still, this was as adventurous as I could possibly get in the midst of my work there. If only it gave more bang for my buck.Wok-Fried Soft Shell Crab
With ginger, vinegar, capsicums and plum sauce
With such a mix of flavours, the fresh Wok Fried Soft Shell Crab definitely had a unique factor to it. While it wasn't mind-blowingly good, it was still something refreshing and decent enough.
Grilled Superior Beef Medallion
With Vietnamese spices and tamarind sauce
The Grilled Superior Beef Medallion deserves a medal, it was really delicious. I liked how the beef slices were so tender that they could almost melt in your mouth with each soft bite. The thick sauce was equally memorable as well. Sweet, sour and spice makes it all nice and good indeed.
Fujian Fried Rice
Interestingly, and with some brief embarrassment, the waitress actually refused to let me order three dishes for myself. She said it would be too much for me and suggested I order the Fujian Fried Rice instead to accompany the two dishes above. Thinking I'm looking too much like a glutton (then again, I wasn't planning to order steamed rice, so I thought three dishes were alright...) I relented. I should have stood my ground though, because I didn't like the mui fan type of fried rice one bit. I spent half the time trying to push the gravy to the side and have some of the unadulterated fried rice instead, but gave up after a while. It was a good effort to mix real crab and prawn meat in the gravy, but I guess my tastebuds didn't agree very much to it.
Service
Good, but too "helpful"!
Price
VND 152,000 for the wok-fried soft shell crab
VND 228,000 for the grilled superior beef medallion
VND 130,000 for the fujian fried rice
* Prices subject to 10% service charge.
Place
Sofitel Plaza Hotel,
Hanoi, Vietnam.
Pictures taken with the Canon Ixus 80 IS.
3 Foodie Comments:
The beef looks good. You should have just ordered a plain rice to go with it.
September 15, 2010 at 6:23 PMHaha! I like how the fact that the service staff, were somewhat too "friendly"!
September 16, 2010 at 12:37 PMwen: i was too hungry i guess hahaha...
September 18, 2010 at 8:36 PMglenn: vietnamese men are smaller sized, hence i assume they have smaller appetites. but they can see my size and know i would probably eat twice their amount!
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