Great Food in Kampong Vietnam
Teet teeeet…incoming sms.
Ri: “I just arrived.”
I hurry myself, shut down my mac and take my bag. “Have a nice weekend!” I greet my entire office mates that are still stuck in front of computer. After giving a hurry-up sign to Shilla, I go out to meet Ri. Ri shouts when I open the door asking where Shilla and Alit are. I answer that Shilla will come out in the minute, but Alit unfortunately can’t join this time. There’s a slight of disappointment in her face, but she understands that Alit has to be in another place for “Arisan”. It’s unacceptable that we had miscommunication on the schedule causing Alit absence in our pig out session.
Less than five minutes, Shilla enters the car. This time, our pig out session is missing one of the piglets. But anyway, show must go on, our tummies are singing the symphony of hunger now, need to be responded wisely…hehehe… Take off from the office exactly at 6.30 pm, heading Jl. Wijaya and to find “Lang Viet”, a Vietnamese restaurant that was recommended by Thang. He said it’s the best Vietnamese restaurant in town, the real Vietnamese food.
Entering Jl. Wijaya, we get bit lost, since we have no idea where the place is. Shilla refuses to call up Thang to ask the exact place. So, three adventurous piglets with singing tummies search in any way to find the place. Shilla orders us to enter Grand Wijaya, she’s sure that Lang Viet locates there. After a single round and quick stop in ATM, Ri decides to call David (Ri’s husband) and asks him to google the place. We finally get the number and we drive out from Grand Wijaya. It’s quite funny that we have to come back to Grand Wijaya, since the Lang Viet receptionist directs us the place and apparently Shilla’s right! Lang Viet is next to Texas fast food restaurant, in the same row of Wijaya 21. Damn, we missed it! I said, “to find good thing, needs a long road.” We’re all laughing at our stupidness.
We park the car opposite to the restaurant, we are lucky enough to find near park place. Grand Wijaya is pack tonight; most cars are parked in this row, since Wijaya 21 is the biggest attraction here. From the park place, we can see Lang Viet signboard, oval greenish sign with quite low luminance that placed above the entrance door. Shilla said that we’re not stupid enough to miss the place, since the sign is not clear.
We enter the place, two-waitress stand behind the door. One of them opens the door and both welcome us. No other customer inside, the place is not big, but not small either, it’s around 15 m sq. We take the table near the glass drawer that decorates with small statues of typical Vietnamese figures. The table and the chair are comfortable; there are around seven tables of four more inside this room. The room is neat, warm and peaceful, bamboo leafs and couple fake trees calm the room. The cashier table locates in the right side of the entrance door, followed by dine tables in the middle and the kitchen in the back of the room. There’s stair to other floor, next to the stair I can see a direction said galley at the 3rd floor. “Lovely place,” I said.
I’m distracted when the waitress comes and gives us two menus, one for beverage and the other for food. The menus are cute and are formed like big leaf written Lang Viet in the first page. We read thru the pages, start from beverage menu. I order “ca phe sua nong” (hot Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk) and mineral water. Ri gets herself a glass of ginger tea and Shilla orders the same like I do. We have difficulty to decide what we want to eat and after 15 minutes, we finally can decide something. We order “tu quy” (four kinds of Vietnamese roll), “banh mi ga” (roasted chicken with French baguette) and “banh xeo” (crepes a la Saigon) as starters. “Pho bo” (rice noodle beef soup – typical north Vietnam) is ordered as our main course. The prices are also quite cheap, it starts from IDR 10.000 to 20.000 for beverages and IDR 30.000 to 60.000 for food.
The drinks come in around 5 minutes and starters in 10 minutes. We are amazed with the presentation; several leaves are placed as garnish… nice and tempting! We are very hungry and start to try on the starters. We start on “tu quy”, there are four kinds of roll with two pieces each and each roll was cut in two, they’re served in fried and in steam, three sauces are served with them. They taste really good, very appetizing. A couple of mom and daughter come in and seat next to our table. Eventually, Lang Viet is only start crowd after 8.00 pm. We continue and try “banh mi ga”, it taste even better. Fresh ingredients of slices of roasted chicken, tomatoes, carrot, and cucumber with mayonnaise are filled inside the baguette… great combination and very tasty! The last starter is “Bahn xeo”, a yellow half round crepe with slices of shitake mushroom, bean sprouts with sour sweet sauce (taste like “cakwe” sauce) apparently, it’s not as good as the others, but it’s good to try it. Even though I’m almost full, I won’t miss “pho bo”, actually this is not the first time I try “pho bo”. I’ve tried it in Vietophia and Pho 24 in Kebayoran area and it taste good in both restaurants. This time, apparently Lang Viet “pho bo” taste the same like the one in Vietphia and Pho 24, but I think the one in Vietophia taste bit better. I can’t manage to finish the ”pho bo”, I’m too full!! I lean on the chair and slurped “ca phe sua nong”… ouch, very nice! I watch Shilla and Ri spooned their last “pho bo”, they look satisfy like I do.
To finish our pig out session, Shilla and Ri order two kinds of “che” (pudding), lotus seeds with taro and mung beans with tapioca seeds, both are served hot in small bowls. They are hot, but nice and I like the “che” with lotus seeds and taro… it’s more like soup than pudding… sweet, but not too sweet and there’s a relieved feeling when I eat it. The lotus seeds give different taste and I like it a lot. We are all full and very pleased tonight, the food is great, the atmosphere is superb and friendly service, the last but not least, the price fit us, IDR 351.500 only… cool!!
Before we go out from Lang Viet, we go to 3rd floor, curious to see the gallery. Apparently, Lang Viet is two floors restaurant, there’s dine table in 2nd floor, but no one there, only couple workers on the kitchen. The toilet also locates in 2nd floor, one room toilet; neat and clean. The gallery is small, contains with typical Vietnamese products, crafts, paintings, statues, etc. The prices are also affordable, starting from IDR 50.000 to 1 mio. I ask to the lady in the gallery about the ownership of the restaurant. She said that Lang Viet belongs to Vietnamese couple who lives in Indonesia for more than 20 years and they are already get Indonesian citizenship… mmmhh so it’s really Vietnamese food, since it comes from Vietnamese hand.
Lang Viet not only serves real and good Vietnamese food, but the owner has successfully transferred the Vietnamese atmosphere. Lang Viet itself means Kampong Vietnam, well like the name, the place is representative and fits the idea. Wish to come back there for lunch…
Lang Viet
Grand Wijaya
Tel. 720 6774
Open daily 10 am – 10 pm, close Monday
Ri: “I just arrived.”
I hurry myself, shut down my mac and take my bag. “Have a nice weekend!” I greet my entire office mates that are still stuck in front of computer. After giving a hurry-up sign to Shilla, I go out to meet Ri. Ri shouts when I open the door asking where Shilla and Alit are. I answer that Shilla will come out in the minute, but Alit unfortunately can’t join this time. There’s a slight of disappointment in her face, but she understands that Alit has to be in another place for “Arisan”. It’s unacceptable that we had miscommunication on the schedule causing Alit absence in our pig out session.
Less than five minutes, Shilla enters the car. This time, our pig out session is missing one of the piglets. But anyway, show must go on, our tummies are singing the symphony of hunger now, need to be responded wisely…hehehe… Take off from the office exactly at 6.30 pm, heading Jl. Wijaya and to find “Lang Viet”, a Vietnamese restaurant that was recommended by Thang. He said it’s the best Vietnamese restaurant in town, the real Vietnamese food.
Entering Jl. Wijaya, we get bit lost, since we have no idea where the place is. Shilla refuses to call up Thang to ask the exact place. So, three adventurous piglets with singing tummies search in any way to find the place. Shilla orders us to enter Grand Wijaya, she’s sure that Lang Viet locates there. After a single round and quick stop in ATM, Ri decides to call David (Ri’s husband) and asks him to google the place. We finally get the number and we drive out from Grand Wijaya. It’s quite funny that we have to come back to Grand Wijaya, since the Lang Viet receptionist directs us the place and apparently Shilla’s right! Lang Viet is next to Texas fast food restaurant, in the same row of Wijaya 21. Damn, we missed it! I said, “to find good thing, needs a long road.” We’re all laughing at our stupidness.We park the car opposite to the restaurant, we are lucky enough to find near park place. Grand Wijaya is pack tonight; most cars are parked in this row, since Wijaya 21 is the biggest attraction here. From the park place, we can see Lang Viet signboard, oval greenish sign with quite low luminance that placed above the entrance door. Shilla said that we’re not stupid enough to miss the place, since the sign is not clear.
We enter the place, two-waitress stand behind the door. One of them opens the door and both welcome us. No other customer inside, the place is not big, but not small either, it’s around 15 m sq. We take the table near the glass drawer that decorates with small statues of typical Vietnamese figures. The table and the chair are comfortable; there are around seven tables of four more inside this room. The room is neat, warm and peaceful, bamboo leafs and couple fake trees calm the room. The cashier table locates in the right side of the entrance door, followed by dine tables in the middle and the kitchen in the back of the room. There’s stair to other floor, next to the stair I can see a direction said galley at the 3rd floor. “Lovely place,” I said.I’m distracted when the waitress comes and gives us two menus, one for beverage and the other for food. The menus are cute and are formed like big leaf written Lang Viet in the first page. We read thru the pages, start from beverage menu. I order “ca phe sua nong” (hot Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk) and mineral water. Ri gets herself a glass of ginger tea and Shilla orders the same like I do. We have difficulty to decide what we want to eat and after 15 minutes, we finally can decide something. We order “tu quy” (four kinds of Vietnamese roll), “banh mi ga” (roasted chicken with French baguette) and “banh xeo” (crepes a la Saigon) as starters. “Pho bo” (rice noodle beef soup – typical north Vietnam) is ordered as our main course. The prices are also quite cheap, it starts from IDR 10.000 to 20.000 for beverages and IDR 30.000 to 60.000 for food.
The drinks come in around 5 minutes and starters in 10 minutes. We are amazed with the presentation; several leaves are placed as garnish… nice and tempting! We are very hungry and start to try on the starters. We start on “tu quy”, there are four kinds of roll with two pieces each and each roll was cut in two, they’re served in fried and in steam, three sauces are served with them. They taste really good, very appetizing. A couple of mom and daughter come in and seat next to our table. Eventually, Lang Viet is only start crowd after 8.00 pm. We continue and try “banh mi ga”, it taste even better. Fresh ingredients of slices of roasted chicken, tomatoes, carrot, and cucumber with mayonnaise are filled inside the baguette… great combination and very tasty! The last starter is “Bahn xeo”, a yellow half round crepe with slices of shitake mushroom, bean sprouts with sour sweet sauce (taste like “cakwe” sauce) apparently, it’s not as good as the others, but it’s good to try it. Even though I’m almost full, I won’t miss “pho bo”, actually this is not the first time I try “pho bo”. I’ve tried it in Vietophia and Pho 24 in Kebayoran area and it taste good in both restaurants. This time, apparently Lang Viet “pho bo” taste the same like the one in Vietphia and Pho 24, but I think the one in Vietophia taste bit better. I can’t manage to finish the ”pho bo”, I’m too full!! I lean on the chair and slurped “ca phe sua nong”… ouch, very nice! I watch Shilla and Ri spooned their last “pho bo”, they look satisfy like I do.
To finish our pig out session, Shilla and Ri order two kinds of “che” (pudding), lotus seeds with taro and mung beans with tapioca seeds, both are served hot in small bowls. They are hot, but nice and I like the “che” with lotus seeds and taro… it’s more like soup than pudding… sweet, but not too sweet and there’s a relieved feeling when I eat it. The lotus seeds give different taste and I like it a lot. We are all full and very pleased tonight, the food is great, the atmosphere is superb and friendly service, the last but not least, the price fit us, IDR 351.500 only… cool!!Before we go out from Lang Viet, we go to 3rd floor, curious to see the gallery. Apparently, Lang Viet is two floors restaurant, there’s dine table in 2nd floor, but no one there, only couple workers on the kitchen. The toilet also locates in 2nd floor, one room toilet; neat and clean. The gallery is small, contains with typical Vietnamese products, crafts, paintings, statues, etc. The prices are also affordable, starting from IDR 50.000 to 1 mio. I ask to the lady in the gallery about the ownership of the restaurant. She said that Lang Viet belongs to Vietnamese couple who lives in Indonesia for more than 20 years and they are already get Indonesian citizenship… mmmhh so it’s really Vietnamese food, since it comes from Vietnamese hand.
Lang Viet not only serves real and good Vietnamese food, but the owner has successfully transferred the Vietnamese atmosphere. Lang Viet itself means Kampong Vietnam, well like the name, the place is representative and fits the idea. Wish to come back there for lunch…
Lang Viet
Grand Wijaya
Tel. 720 6774
Open daily 10 am – 10 pm, close Monday
1 comment:
hiks...one missing piglet cried :( next session i have gotta be there!!!!
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