posted about 2 months ago by francneary
about the venue: La

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La has got to be the most unusal combination! The most-understated, unassuming restaurant I have evry been to while combining a very serious attitude to food and service qualities.

Quality is the key word here. A menu that could hold it's own in any European city, perfectly cooked food, attentive but definitely low-key service, and to top it off, a pretty damned good wine list. But it gets better! The great wine we had was served at proper temeperature!

Myself and my nearest and dearest had a beautiful meal there, one quiet evening and we were stunned by the fact that such good food could have been cooked in such an unpretentious place, and was exactly what we ordered (sorry, maybe I have been in Hanoi too long when I make the mistake of going to a good restaurant and being surprised when we get good service and good food?).

HOWEVER dont go there! I want this little secret just for us. A little oasis in the city of "I didn't order this......oh, go on then I'll have it anyway, I'm hungry".

Bravo!

posted about 6 months ago by francneary
about the venue: Restaurant Bobby Chinn

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"Thank you bobby for the serious dose of botulism which myself and my colleague contracted while eating our over-priced meal in your restaurant-like throw back to some 1980's chef-school-drop-out greasy-spoon. Thank you also for saying that it was my fault (the impertinence! the cheek!), for ordering a burger "medium" (the impertinence! the cheek!).
We ate in bobby's restaurant two weeks ago, and the service was initially good. We were seated at the window and everything started well. We chuckled at the menu and the little quirky ad-libs, remarking how if you had never been outside Hanoi, yes, you probably would find it funny. We had our starters, which appeared ok; again nothing special, and I have eaten most of these things before, only the from original menus, rarely in such an obvious imitation form.
We then waited for 45 minutes for our main course to arrive. We didn't complain, but after 15 minutes of waiting, two "amuse bouches" arrived compliments of the chef (our server quietly informed us that the "chef had fucked-up....again" and had lost our orders). Another 15 minutes later, another amuse bouche arrived (this time slightly less amusing, as it happened), a blatantly undercooked scallop. However, we persevered and waited for what we thought were our simple enough entrees.
My colleague ordered confit of duck and I, (desirous of a plain simple burger(medium))decided to throw caution to the wind, order "The Burger" . The duck arrived, not undercooked, it just had not been cooked - but more of this later- while my burger was, essentially, raw. Ordinarily, I enjoy rare beef, and as this tasted ok and appeared to be good quality meat, I ate most of it.
My colleague also continued, but did not enjoy his food, on the basis that it was badly hung duck, and of cheap quality.
I have subsequently found out that the kitchen in bobby chinn's (intentional lower case) diner (it does not warrant being called a restaurant in my opinion), is not capable of dealing with the numbers of clientele they normally experience, and consequently, the cook (again the guy who cooked my food was not a chef!) prepares or par-cooks many of the dishes in bobby chinn's kitchens in the basement of his house (near West Lake) and it is transported down to the establishment in a van. This is then chilled or left at room temperature until it is heated in a microwave or flash-fried to give the impression of being cooked, "en-maison" or a la carte.
The reason I know this to be true is that I trained to be a chef in Switzerland (I am not associated with any restaurant in Vietnam, therefore I have no personal grudge against any restaurant-I just appreciate good quality food), and I am familiar enough with the health and safety science of par-cooking food and then how it is stored prior to cooking or service. I also recognise when duck has been "ovened" or "panned" to give the effect of having been cooked one time, and anybody who has ever eaten in a proper world-class restaurant (firstly would not see this) would know the difference.

mr chinn himself, was present on the night in question, but was not cooking; instead he busied himself with screaming (audible from the restaurant floor) at the kitchen staff. Perhaps if he had spent sometime learning how to lead a team of chefs rather than imitating other truly good (but also hotheaded) chefs, then I would have been spared three days of discomfort, muscle spasm, cramps and temperatures, culminating in a number of injections in the French Hospital (all apparently my own fault for ordering a medium burger!).

The bottom line? Essentially, if you really, really, really want bad, over-priced food, there are probably a few places to get it in Hanoi. If you want food-poisoning, but with good, smiling service (rather similar to having a rectal examination from a highly-disturbed proctologist who confuses surgical steel with barbed-wire), the bobby chinn's is the place.

Or better yet? Why waste $100, when you can spend $20 on bobby's book (check the mark-down section first), buy the ingredients from the local street market and still have a beautiful meal at home and have change from $35?

My advice? Don't eat in bobby's; gargle with some water from the Red River, it'll have the same effect."

"...............and in case anybody thinks my review harsh, I contacted the diner bobby chinn's and asked them to comment a few days ago.......they didn't."