Name: Hoi An Odyssey Hotel
Address: 40 Luong Nhu Bich, Xuyen Trung , Cam Nam ward, Hoi An city, Quang Nam, VIETNAM
Telephone: +84 235 3 911 818

The Son Bistro Hoi An

May 5, 2023May 5, 2023Bar, Restaurant, Vietnamese

The Son Bistro Hoi An is one of my new favourite places to sit in Old Town to do work, have a beer, and watch the masses of Hoi An Tourists pass by. It is on the small street in the middle of Old Town that leads down to The Hoianian, and so, as The Hoianian is often busy outside and their WIFI sometimes too bad to work, I sit outside here instead. The street gets quite busy, especially at weekends, and so there is plenty of opportunities for good quality people-watching. It can also get quite busy here too after 5 pm so get there early if you want to guarantee a prime spot.

The Son Bistro Hoi An is a family owned place, and the husband and wife team that run it are very friendly and are often around in the evenings talking to customers. The staff here are also very friendly and the service is quick and reliable even when you are sitting outside. There is also an inside section, which is very pretty and cozy, but I have to be honest, I have never sat in there; the outside is just too nice a place to sit. They also have an aircon section upstairs if you are feeling hot after a hard day’s walking, but I have never even ventured upstairs as I don’t really like sitting in aircon too much. When the weather is nice they a have a good selection of tables to sit at outside, both high and low, so this is where I prefer to spend my time. I do prefer the regular height tables, though, as the low tables are difficult to work at with a laptop, but all give a great view of the passing throngs of people.

They also often have a couple of musicians playing music in the evening which gives the place a lovely relaxing feel and has even prompted some people to start dancing in the street on occasion. Not me, though, obviously :).

One final thing that I really like about The Son Bistro, which not everyone would look for in a review of a bar or restaurant, is their toilets. It may not be important to everyone, but it is to me. The toilets are spacious and clean and almost “inviting”, if that’s a word you can use with toilets. Obviously I wouldn’t recommend going here just to experience the toilets, and I don’t have to when it has so much else gong for it, but it’s nice to know they’re there.

The Son Bistro Hoi An busy night outside

The Food

As with most places I sit at, and work, and watch the world go by, I haven’t really eaten here, and so don’t have much of an opinion on the food. I did, however, eat here once, as my friend and I were both a little hungry and wanted some snacks. He went for the seafood noodles, and I went for the beef skewers. Although not the cheapest food around, the price wasn’t too bad for being in the centre of Old Town. I think the noodles were about 130,000 VND and my skewers around 110,000 VND or something like that. I can’t comment on the noodles, but my friend said they were quite good, and my skewers, while a little small, were tasty, and the sauces that accompanied them were good. I would certainly consider eating here again, even if just for something small again, as the quality was good.

The Drinks

The Son Bistro Hoi An has a good selection of drinks from cocktails, to wine, to draught beer, as well as a welcome selection of teas and coffees and soft drinks, and the prices aren’t too bad. There is something for everyone here, and so a good place to sit for a drink with a large party with eclectic taste.

For me, though, the beer is the real hero here. As well as some solid craft beers from the local 7-Bridges brewery, they also offer Huda on draught. Not only that, but they also offer the draught Huda as a Happy Hour special. The Happy Hour might not be the best around, as it only offers buy 2 get 1 free, but it is reasonable for draught beer, and is also generously lengthy–I believe it runs from 2pm to 7pm, although I will have to check that again.

Overall, The Son Bistro Hoi An is a place I like to spend time, and is a place I go to regularly (probably a little too regularly) and would recommend it as a welcome pitstop on your tour around Hoi An Old Town. Maybe even make it your destination for dinner. I haven’t yet, but I may well do soon.

Directions

As mentioned before, it is in a prime spot, just up from the river on Le Loi street, which has The Hoianian on the corner.

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The Sea Shell by Nu Eatery, Hoi An

February 27, 2023February 28, 2023Restaurant, Vietnamese, Western

The term “hidden gem” is often overused in travel books and blogs and restaurant guides, but if ever there were a restaurant that deserved to be called it, it is the Sea Shell by Nu Eatery. Situated in a small alley off the street that is accessed by crossing the Japanese covered bridge, you would be forgiven for thinking that this small restaurant would never be found. The street over the bridge seems to get significantly less footfall than the roads before the bridge, and yet this well-hidden two-storey house-restaurant always seems to be packed to the rafters.

The first time we tried to eat here, we failed, simply because there was a queue of people waiting to get inside. Even when we finally did get a table on a subsequent visit, it was still very busy. I can only presume it is in a guidebook somewhere, because I can’t imagine it could be this popular through random passers-by alone. But once you know about it, you need to go, because you will be well rewarded.

The restaurant was, I’m guessing, once a small two-storey house that has been converted into a restaurant. Downstairs is an open-plan kitchen that you walk past to go to the toilet, and a small room with several tables. Upstairs I guess there are more tables, but we didn’t get to see it as they were so busy.

We ate downstairs, and it was a lovely intimate experience, with almost the feeling like you are eating in someone’s house, but without the raging anxiety that imposing on someone else would bring with it. It is a nice spot, but in this case, it is not the ambience that makes this restaurant stand out–it is the food.

The Drinks

Before we can get to the food, though, I have to discuss the drinks. Not just because it is the usual format that I write these reviews with, although to be fair I AM a stickler for routine, but also because the drinks are noteworthy in their own right. Why are they noteworthy? Well, mostly because they have glasses of decent red wine from 90,000 VND. The 90,000 VND glass is a merlot, but I didn’t try that because for a piffling 5,000 VND extra I could get a rather tasty glass of Cabernet Sauvignon-Carmenere. So why wouldn’t I get one? Well actually I didn’t, because I ended up getting two.

The Larue was only 30,000 VND, but I wasn’t going to get that when the wine was only 95,000 VND, and I still stand by my decision.

The Food

This is where The Sea Shell by Nu Eatery really shines. I’m not entirely sure how I should characterise this restaurant, but if I had to, I would say that it is like Vietnamese-inspired Tapas. That’s really the feeling I got when we were ordering. It is not a huge menu, but diverse enough to keep things interesting. We ordered several things and they mostly came one after each other like they were different courses. Luckily, most of the things come in sets of two so you can share and don’t have to fight over them.

The first thing we ordered was the pork belly steamed buns, as Phuong had heard they were good. She wasn’t wrong. The flavours in these things are phenomenal. I think one day I will go back and just order a portion of each of their steamed buns (they have 4) because they are so good. In fact, while we were there, the table behind us did just that: They ordered a table full of steamed buns. And it looked glorious.

The bun itself is so light and is a wonderful contrast to the flavoursome meaty goodness of the filling. This was a very good start to the meal. And only 40,000 VND. What a bargain.

A single steamed bun. There should be two, but, you know…

The next things we ordered were two soft taco dishes. We got one portion of the barbecue pork taco with wasabi dressing, and one portion of the turmeric white fish with white noodle taco. Again there were two of each so we each got to try one. These didn’t disappoint and were a strong follow-up to the steamed buns. I still can’t decide which I liked best, as they were both delicious. Part of me wants to say the fish because the batter was so light and crispy and they just look amazing. But who doesn’t like barbecue pulled pork tacos? Let’s just call it a draw.

Both of the tacos were a measly 60,000 VND each, so not too taxing on the budget so far.

The next dish we ordered was a plate of garlic baguette toasts topped with chili lime shrimp, followed by an avocado and prawn salad. Both were wonderful dishes to share. Very fresh and tangy and tasty. The salad was good as salads go, but salads never really get my socks popping, so I have to admit I kind of wished I had ordered more tacos. I couldn’t stop thinking about them. I realised I started to miss the fish more than the pork, so I guess that won the duel after all. The prawn garlic toasts were good though, and could stand on their own with any dish.

That said, next time I go, the steamed buns and tacos will be the only nailed on certainties to my order. After all, I have to give room to try something else. The garlic toast with pork meatballs for example. I still for the life of me can’t figure out why I didn’t order that the first time. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly wouldn’t be disappointed to eat exactly the same dishes again next time. They were all very tasty indeed. I would just feel like I was missing out on some other great possibilities. This is the problem.

Overall, then, apart from being extremely high-quality food with exceptional flavours and textures, the main joy, for me, of eating at the Sea Shell by Nu Eatery is being able to try so many different dishes and share them, even if there is only two of you. You don’t need a big group to get many different flavours. The dishes are small enough and cheap enough to allow you to fill your table with a multitude of different dishes and still have enough money left for wine.

And enough room in your belly for dessert.

Yup, of course we did. Why wouldn’t we?

We ordered a cheesecake and a cinnamon roll. The cheesecake was fantastic, and although the cinnamon pastry was wonderfully cinnamon-y, the white sauce over the top was a touch too sweet for me. That said, we still finished them both completely. They were a lovely end to a quite wonderful array of courses.

All-in-all, the total bill came to around 900,000 VND or so, for two people with wine. Of course, it’s not all about the cost, but the cost being low for each dish does make it easier to just order many things to try. Trust me, there are a lot of things that you are going to want to try, and being able to order them one after the other like tapas is fantastic. The hardest part is deciding what things you are NOT going to try.

The Sea Shell by Nu Eatery is a wonderful place to eat, and if you like trying different things, and you like the idea of Vietnamese inspired tapas, then you will absolutely love this place.

I will be back for sure. For that table-full of steamed buns if for nothing else.

Directions

The Hoianian Wine Bar & Restaurant, Hoi An

February 27, 2023April 17, 2023Bar, Restaurant, Vietnamese, Western

When the weather is fine, the Hoianian bar is one of the best spots in town to sit outside and watch the world go by. It is a lovely little place with two floors, a balcony terrace upstairs overlooking the street, and tables outside lining the side street along the length of the building. It is right in the centre of old town and next to the river, so it gets a lot of people passing by in the daytime and the evening. If you are a people-watcher, like me, then there aren’t many places better. This is what you might call prime-people-watching real estate.

Sitting outside people watching is a tiring job

Outside is where I like to sit when it is sunny, but if the weather is not so good, or you are in a larger group then you can sit inside. Downstairs is a cool place to relax, with a bit of a bohemian feel, with sofas and chairs, but also some tables to eat at. There are more tables upstairs, which can also cater for larger groups, although I would suggest booking if you want a group table in the evening as it gets quite busy.

The Drinks

This is a wine bar as well as a restaurant, and drinking outside in the sun is the reason I mostly go here. Another reason, which goes together well with the first reason, is happy hour. The happy hour at the Hoianian is a rather generous seven hours, from 12:00 pm to 7pm. Most bars and restaurants in Old Town offer happy hours like buy one get one free, but most bars and restaurants seem to limit their offers to cocktails. Since I am not much of a cocktail drinker, they don’t hold much appeal to me, but the Hoianian sits much more comfortably within my wheelhouse–with a happy hour also featuring wine and local beer. Now, that’s a happy hour I can get behind, and one which does the name proud. The good thing is, the prices aren’t overly expensive anyway. A bottle of Larue at full price is 39,000 VND, so the buy-one-get-one-free offer is a no-brainer. Glasses of wine at full price range from around 140,000 VND for several South American options, so with buy-one-get-one-free, you are looking at around 70,000 VND, which is not too bad at all. I haven’t tried the white yet, but the reds that I have tasted were surprisingly good for happy hour fare.

A tiny downside to sitting outside the Hoianian is the service. It can be a little hit and miss. When it is very busy, it is usually ok, with staff coming outside to check on customers fairly regularly, but on days when it is not so busy, it can sometimes be a while before staff venture outside, and so you might have to go indoors to place your next order. This is certainly not a deal-breaker for me, though, and is a small price to pay for an outside table.

A couple of other minor things that irk me a little, but not enough to stop me going, are the WIFI, which tends to be a little hit and miss and not always very fast, the backs of the outside chairs are a little uncomfortable, and they don’t always open the outside seating area until later in the evening. I suspect this is due to staff limitations when it is not busy, but it can be rather disappointing when you want a mid-week al fresco beer before it gets dark.

If the weather is nice, then, and I can get a table outside during happy hour, The Hoianian becomes one of my favourite bars in Hoi An. It is just a great spot to sit and soak up the sun and the Hoi An atmosphere, and with the great happy hour prices, there is just nothing not to like. Well maybe the service and the WIFI.

The Food

As of yet, I haven’t managed to eat at the Hoianian. It is on my list of restaurants to visit, but for now I can only comment on the Hoianian as a winebar. I will update this section as soon as I can.

Morning Glory Signature Restaurant, Hoi An

February 27, 2023February 27, 2023Restaurant, Chinese, Italian, Seafood, vegan, Vietnamese

Morning Glory Signature on An Hoi island in Hoi An is one of my favourite restaurants in Hoi An. I am not saying it’s the best, mainly because I’m not a professional food critic, and I believe food will always be subjective, but it is definitely one of my personal favourites. Unlike the original Morning Glory in Old Town that serves up wonderful traditional Hoi An and Vietnamese food, Morning Glory Signature caters to a more eclectic palate with its diverse menu and fusion-focused Vietnamese dishes.

The way it does this, is not simply by offering a wide menu, which it does, but by being so cavernously huge. This place is several restaurants in one, with multiple places to sit and drink and eat. The main Morning Glory Signature restaurant is upstairs and has a wonderfully large balcony overlooking the street below. It is a fantastic place for people watching, but fills up very quickly, so is often best to book if you know you want to be sitting there.

Morning glory signature hoi an balcony area

Morning Glory Signature Hoi An busy balcony

But apart from the eponymous Signature restaurant, there is also a vegan restaurant, Vy’s deli, and a Cafe selling Chinese dumplings. These are all nice places to sit (although not as nice as the balcony area, it has to be said) and all well covered by a fast-moving and efficient service staff.

The real beauty of this place, is that although there are several restaurants and menus to choose from, you don’t have to be sitting in the correct place to see each menu. In other words, you can be sitting in Morning Glory Signature and still order from the menu of Vy’s Deli, or the Vegan place. This opens up a world of possibilities, giving you the choice of everything from Vietnamese, Chinese, to Italian; from steak to seafood, to beef stew, and it means that each member of a party can order from a different menu and get a completely different style of food. It is not often that you get such a variety of different foods served in the same place with such a high level of quality.

This is the main reason it is one of my favourite restaurants in Hoi An. Of course, having so many options can get a little confusing, and sometimes finding what you want might be a little testing, but if you do find yourself getting frustrated looking through the menus, just ask the staff for the ipad, they will happily give it to you. And the ipad has pictures of all the dishes too. A much better way to peruse the menus, especially if you are a visual eater.

The Drinks

As you might expect, a place of this quality comes with a well-stocked menu of drinks to choose from. You will find everything you want here, from soft drinks, to beer, to spirits, to, of course, wine. This is the kind of place I like to drink wine in, and they have a lot of choice available. The better news is, that it is not as expensive as you might expect. In fact, a glass of red or white starts at around 120,000 VND, and there are several choices around this price point. This is certainly not as expensive as you see in other restaurants of this quality, and yet another reason why I keep coming back here.

The Food

As I have already stated, one of the positive points about Morning Glory Signature is how much choice you get from being able to choose separately from all of the different menus that they have on offer. Another positive point is just the sheer quality and taste of the food that comes. And I mean everything. Be it Vietnamese food, Chinese dumplings, or Italian food, the quality is high and the flavours immense.

The first time I came here was when my family was visiting from the UK. We went in as a large group and got seated on the balcony. This would be almost impossible now without a reservation, but Hoi An was still opening up after Covid at that time, and so the tourist numbers were lower. We ordered pretty much everything from their Vietnamese fusion menu and put everything out on the table to share as a group. This, in my view, is the best way to eat Asian food if you are in a group as you get to taste so many different things. And the tastes present in the dishes here are phenomenal. The standout for me is the crispy pork in tamarind sauce, but they are all so wonderful and varied. Each dish offers a completely different flavour profile to the next, so it gives your palate a good work out, in a very good way. These dishes are not your run-of-the-mill Hoi An dishes that you find in every other cafe and restaurant in Old Town, these dishes are special.

The next time we went to Morning Glory Signature, there was just me and Phuong. As expected we could not get a table on the balcony, so we settled for a table inside. This time we both fancied something different, though. Phuong had her mind set on dim sum, while I fancied a lasagna. Luckily we were in Morning Glory Signature, where all things are possible. We ordered a few different dishes of Chinese dumplings, a Greek salad with avocado, and I had my beef lasagna with garlic bread. A couple of glasses of Shiraz were in order to help wash the whole thing down.

As you can probably tell, I find it difficult to remember to take photos before I start eating.

The standout of the dumplings were the chicken and ginger dumplings. These were a taste sensation. If you like ginger, then you will love these. They were simply delicious with quite the ginger spice hit, and my only regret, was that there were only 5 of them. I know for a fact that I will be ordering these every time I come here, regardless of my other orders. Phuong liked one of the other dumplings more as I think the ginger was a little too strong for her, so bear that in mind. To be fair, though, they were all very good, and extremely flavour-diverse.

My lasagna was also unexpectedly excellent. I don’t know why, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so good. Probably because their Asian food is so strong, that I thought they must have a weakness somewhere, and that weakness would probably be the lasagna. It wasn’t. When it first came, I have to admit, I thought it might be a little small, but by the end of it, and with everything else we had to eat, I had eaten more than enough. And it was delicious. They nailed the flavours that I love in lasagna, but also got the texture of both pasta and meat spot on. It is now, for me at least, probably the best lasagna I have had in Hoi An. I would even put it above the lasagna in Good Morning Vietnam

The prices aren’t bad either. For this standard of food, in a setting so nice, you would expect to be paying a premium, but it’s really not that expensive. For a rough benchmark, my lasagna was 155,000 VND. I don’t think anyone could complain about paying about $6.50 USD for the “best” lasagna in Hoi An.

To the time of writing this, then, I still haven’t had a dish in Morning Glory Signature that i did not like, or that I thought was disappointing. The quality is superb. The choice is phenomenal. And it is still probably my favourite restaurant in Hoi An. Now, as I said earlier, taste is subjective, so you might not like it as much as I do, but you should still go try and see for yourself. At least once. And have the chicken with ginger dumplings.

Miss Ly’s Restaurant, Hoi An

February 22, 2023February 24, 2023Uncategorized, Restaurant, Vietnamese

We went to Miss Ly’s because we had always seen how busy it was and knew it was a very popular place, especially amongst Koreans, so we just had to find out what all the fuss was about.

If you get there at peak dinner time, you can expect to find a queue of people waiting to get in as the place is fairly small inside and the demand is quite high. There are a few seats outside if the weather is fine, but not enough to ease the congestion. Inside, the place is simple but nicely decorated, finished mostly in traditional dark wood, which does tend to make the place a little dark at night, but with lighter coloured walls adorned with traditional art, it is a pleasant place to sit.

The Drinks

As it was a weeknight when we visited I couldn’t go all out and sample the drinks, but what I saw on the menu was a limited but standard menu for the smaller places in Old Town. I had a couple of Larue beers at the standard Old Town price of 40,000 VND. They do have some house wine on the menu which comes out at just under 500,000 VND per bottle for a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon or chardonnay, which isn’t bad.

The Food

The first thing I noticed, was that the menu is a little limited. I guess if you are new to Hoi An, it has all the foods that Hoi An has to offer and therefore is a perfect place to sample the traditional Hoi An staples. After living in Hoi An for several years, though, we were hoping for a little more choice. As one reviewer on Google succinctly put it: “Great option for ones who wants to try street food but not on the street”. This sums it up quite nicely. The menu comprises the traditional Hoi An foods of Cao Lau, White Rose, banh mi, and wontons, fresh starters such as spring rolls, as well as a few other simple fried rice and noodle dishes. They also have a fish in banana leaf, which I am sure is very good, but none of us fancied fish that night.

That said, we were willing to give the restaurant a chance and ordered some food. We ordered the wontons as a starter to share, followed by a banh mi, shrimp fried rice, pork fried rice, and papaya salad. I am not normally a fan of fried rice in Vietnam as they often crisp up the rice on the bottom of the pan, which I don’t particularly like, but it was the only thing I really fancied, and I like to see how different restaurants do the rice anyway.

Fried Rice

First of all it is clear that the ingredients they use are fresh. There is good use of vegetables and salads which gives everything an overriding feeling of freshness. The wontons were tasty, they were crunchy and light and not greasy at all, and the toppings were all fresh and tangy. I must say the spring rolls on the other table also looked good, and we kind of got a little bit of food envy over those. The banh mi was good too, although I only had a single bite. I kind of feel strange ordering a bah mi in a restaurant, as I buy them so often as a take-away from other shops and street stalls. I thought the presentation for the banh mi could have been done a little more creatively as well, it looked a little bit lonely sitting on that plate on its own and still felt more like a snack than a meal.

The papaya salad was superb. Lovely fresh papaya and herb salad, with a hit of heat and spice, just as I like it. It’s not the same as a som tam in Thailand, so don’t order it expecting that, but it is still good in its own right. It is the same as you get on the side of a com ga in Hoi An, but bigger, which by extension means better.

I am so glad we ordered the papaya salad, because I ended up mixing it with my fried rice. A possibly heretical move, but one that made my dish infinitely more enjoyable and akin to eating a com ga without the ga (chicken). Both Phuong and I were not overly thrilled with the two fried rice dishes to be honest. They were not crispy enough for her (she likes it the traditional Vietnamese way), and for me they were just a little too bland. They would have made great side dishes, but as the mains They didn’t really wow me. The chili sauce was nice and after mixing it all into the rice of my pork fried rice, it gave it a much better kick, but overall, it wasn’t really my kind of fried rice. The pork seemed a little bit of an afterthought and was drowned by carrots and green beans. It wasn’t too crispy, but it didn’t do anything to change my mind about Vietnamese fried rice. Although saying that, Phuong is Vietnamese and she wasn’t overly thrilled with hers either. It was a more traditional Hoi An style, but it will have to come a long way to beat the fried rice at Hai Cafe in my humble opinion. It was salvaged somewhat by the addition of the papaya salad, but if I hadn’t ordered that I would have been very disappointed.

Overall, then, if you are looking for a place that sells all the traditional Hoi An dishes in one place and uses quality fresh ingredients, then this might be the place for you. If you are new to Hoi An, you will certainly enjoy the food here, as the menu will seem varied and new, and as Old Town restaurants go, the prices are quite reasonable. The problem is that when you have been here for a while, the menu is made up of all things that you can buy from street vendors or specialist shops elsewhere in town, that are usually much cheaper, and frankly, quite often better, and I didn’t see any presentation differences to really differentiate the two.