Revisiting another favorite eating spot down town

In district 1, the tourist area, we have a place that we found many years ago

Nhu Lan bakery more info‎ 64 Hàm Nghi, Bến Thành, Quận 1 

 It is a bakery but a lot more as it has a full menu sit down restaurant and sells other items that you do not normally find in a bakery. The set up is off sales booths around the outside of the place and restaurant seating in the middle. Not fancy but a good place to get out of the sun and enjoy some good food. It is not a tourist place but you do see a few in there trying out the the food.

 As you can see they do have bakery items for sale and they seem to do a brisk business with the local people lining up to take stuff home. They have various stations making and selling food to the customers on the street and for the orders from the restaurant. It is a great way to see your food being prepared (some is done in the back kitchen) or at least to watch the selling of food from the vendors point of view.

 We had just had a snack at a coffee shop but once we saw the place we had to go in and eat. When we are Vietnam and we find something we want to eat we tend to get hungry no matter what.

 We started off with a couple of fresh salad rolls that were deliciously crunchy and tasted great. Nothing surprising here, just well made Vietnamese staples.

 Next some barbequed pork that was being cut up right behind me, great way to make a customer want some. The look and smell was selling it; even the sound of the chopping was making me hungry for a taste.

I have to say that it was good but I have had better a a couple of east Vancouver Chinese shops. It had all the important BBQ points covered; but it was not quite as strongly flavored as back home.

 Next for me was a bowl of Banh Canh Cua that was tasty with crab and shrimp. The noodles were perfect and everything satisfying to the palate. It did remind me of the best bowl I ever had of this soup. It was a tiny place run by a woman that had only two soups on the menu; the whole menu was the two soups. She had only the two dishes but they were excellent. I was a daily stop for me for about a week when my wife was away doing business. The place was gone the last time I was here and I miss the food and the friendly service.

 My wife had roasted chicken with rice, flavorful with a soya based dipping sauce.

Views of the various items for sale, would have gladly tasted them all. W had wanted some of the barbequed duck but they kept selling out as there was a line up outside the restaurant waiting for every scrap.

 Pizza










The view from outside