KHÔNG GIAN XƯA restaurant, the best Hue to eat

We were so lucky to have traveled again with sinh cafe (now called Sinh Tourist) Vietnam as they are not only a good company, their staff in Hue directed us to an excellent restaurant serving traditional Hue food. KHÔNG GIAN XƯA restaurant should be declared a world heritage site as the look of the place and food represent the traditional Hue food so well. The place can be located here and it is worth the drive. It was so good we went there twice and would have gone there more but we booked a few tours that kept us looking at the real world heritage sites in Hue. As this mostly a food blog I will leave others to talk about the areas’ attractions but I will say that Hue is a great place to get a feel for the history of Vietnam beyond the American (we call it the Vietnamese) war.

Now to the experience of Khong Gian Xua restaurant, we were impressed the minute we walked into the restaurant; the atmosphere was a reproduction of the the ancient buildings of the region that we have seen examples of during our tours. The main difference was the restaurant was in pristine condition with examples of Vietnamese art / culture on the walls. I took a couple of photos but the restaurant website has better ones to show the look of the place. I would love to do a restaurant in Vancouver just like this one as it is so impressive that it sets the perfect tone for the food to follow.

The table was set with an assortment of condiments for our meal, picked mustard leafs, picked egg plant, fish sauce based dipping sauce, and a fermented shrimp based sauce.

We started with a Bitter melon salad made with shrimp, it had a nice spicy fish sauce based dressing and caramelized onions on top. The bitter melon was not too bitter and was nice and crunchy. the sauce was a nice spicy balance to the fresh bitter melon. The shrimp was perfectly cooked and great with the melon. I am always happy to find dishes that are made with bitter melon that taste great and this is now one of them that I love. Bitter melon can take some time to gain a taste for but once you do it is a treat that is suppose to be good for you.

Have to stop writting right now as we are going to eat 🙂 good reason to stop.