Cungdinh Vietnamese Restaurant, Jalan Doraisamy

This is a fine dining restaurant, serving cuisine from the Hue province in Vietnam. To enter, you need to walk across a ‘bridge’ and once I was at the entrance proper, I couldn’t but feel a sense of warm welcome.

The ambience is pleasing with soft Vietnamese music in the background. Vern, the  friendly owner gives me a menu that is thick and heavy. I jokingly said that the menu can kill and she informed me that was because they have about 100 varieties.

I ordered hue rice cake (RM29.80 for 6) , which looked like this. Placed in a tiny plate , which is more aptly labelled as a saucer, you first need to use your spoon and make a complete circle, thereafter cut the rice cake into 4 equal portions, pour some spicy sauce on top –and there you have a ready to eat hue rice cake. Well, the sauce lived up to its name –spicy!  But how should I describe the taste of the rice cake..well, in a nutshell it tasted like chee cheong fun, but of course with a smoother texture.

 

 

I also ordered a set meal –Set number 6  (RM22) consisted of an appetiser, my main course of coconut rice, coffee and dessert. For my post today I shall only cover the appetiser and the coconut rice.

The appetiser was huge – it had fried spring roll, a fresh spring roll, pickled prawns and some shredded chicken salad. I love the minty taste of the fresh spring roll and the springy texture of the spring roll skin. The pickled prawn was a tad sour for my liking, but I really enjoyed the salad which was  slightly tangy and zesty.

 

 

My main course – coconut rice. It looked plain and boring, but don’t be fooled by its looks. I must admit I was a little let down because I had the expectation that the coconut rice should naturally be served in a coconut. Putting my disappointment aside, I realised that my senses were definitely tickled by the aromatic plate of rice placed in front of me. Fried with coconut milk and some prawns the rice was absolutely delicious. I polished it clean within minutes!

 

 

Address : 36-38-40 Jalan Doraisamy

Asian Heritage Row, Kuala Lumpur.

Tel : +603 2692 2288

Opening hours : 12-4pm, 6pm-12am

Mastercard and Visa accepted

Cung Dih, Jalan Doraisamy

Armed with a Groupon voucher costing RM128 for a 10-course meal for 8 pax, we arrive at Cung Dih. Drinks were not included in this set, so we settled for plain lotus tea which costs less than RM5 per head.

 

Lantern spring roll – stuffed with prawns, crabs and chicken, the spring rolls are placed on toothpicks and stuck onto the skilfully crafted pineapple. If you look carefully, you will notice that there is a tealight candle inside the pineapple. This helps to keep the spring rolls warm.

 

 This is herb marinated minced beef served in a porcelain bowl. What enthralled us was the way this dish was presented to us. It was only semi cooked when it arrive at our table. Our friendly waiter who hailed from Myanmar ‘fired’ up the bowl. We asked him what it was and he told us he was merely lighting up the cooking gel and that the beef would be ready in a couple of minutes. So we waited patiently and that patience was rewarded – we got to eat well-cooked  luscious beef!

 

This soup looked like our Malaysian version of tofu with salted fish…but don’t be fooled, it just didn’t taste anywhere near it. In fact this is vegetable soup with pineapple, ladies fingers, tomatoes, bean sprouts and some tofu. I’ll describe it as being a combination of hot, sour and sweet.

 

Chicken salad:-

 

BBQ chicken – lovely!

 

Grilled prawns flavoured with chilli salt – I love this dish and wished there were more prawns!

 

Stewed fish in claypot :-

 

Try guessing what this is? Given up? Well, it’s grilled eggplant.

 

Garlic fried kangkung:-

 

Northern Hanoi sytle fried fish fillet served in a hot plate – the fish was a little too dry for my liking.

I would definitely rate this deal as being worth every sen because the food here is unrivalled.

 

Address : 36-38-40 Asian Heritage Row,

Jalan Doraisamy,

50300 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: +603-26922288  

Mastercard & Visa accepted

 

O'Viet -Sunway Pyramid

Vietnamese food is definitely that I seldom indulge in. After a few hours of walking (and shopping) at Sunway Pyramid, I decided that I could no longer walk and took a short rest near the skating rink area. I look up and spotted O’Viet.

So the 5 of us made our way to O’Viet to have a rest and rejuvenate..and obviously to eat, as well. We ordered lemon grass ginger tea (RM7.90) – I love the fragrance of lemon grass, which always reminds me of a spa. As I took sip after sip of this drink I couldn’t help but feel refreshed. All fresh juices here are served without sugar. The photo below also shows watermelon juice and mango juice. If you are wondering what the brown drink with tiny black strips are –that’s a drink called Michael J (RM5.90). I’ve decided to not spoil the fun by describing the taste of Michael J, but I’ll just say that I highly recommend it.

This is steamed wrapped roll (RM9.90). With bean sprouts on the side and fried onions on top, this was appetising.

Fried spring roll (RM8.90) was delicious as well.

Not bad, I thought, so far so good and I am really enjoying my Vietnamese meal. Next came the stuffed tomatoes (RM18.90) .  Frankly I had no idea what to expect when we ordered this. The outcome – exceptional. The sweetness of the tomatoes combined with the well marinated meat i.e the stuffing made this dish go very well with rice.

Beef salad (RM19.90) – this has to be my favourite salad from now on. I’ll pass on the Caesar salad…more beef salad please!!

Fish grilled with lemon grass and basil (RM23.90). The grilled fish was yummy on its own, but when dipped into the sauce provided tasted really superb. Love it!

Tamarind prawns  (RM28.90) – well, the name of this dish says it all – prawns cooked in tamarind sauce.  I must admit that I have a penchant for  food with a tinge of sourness and this really made my day.

Chicken soup with bean sprouts and basil (RM8.90). I love the spicy earthy note of basil which lends a sharp contrast to the taste of chicken. The end result – a bowl of ‘rat ngon’ soup….well, those are  the 2 words I learnt that day – meaning very delicious.

For dessert we had ice cream with fruits (RM9.90) and Viet cendol (RM8.90)

Address:

G1.45 Sunway Pyramid

46150 Bandar Sunway

GPS Coordinate : 3.073297, 101.607576

Credit cards accepted for RM 50 and above