Vietopia

My experiences with Vietnamese cuisine are rather shallow and my best ones were certainly a few years back when I made a trip around Vietnam. I'd say the food taste like Thai. Strong in lime, lemon, vinegar and can be spicy sometimes. Definitely my kind of food!!

F.W brought me to this Vietnamese restaurant in Cikini Raya. If you are unfamiliar with the area (just like me) then I assure you that 'Vietopia' will easily passes you by going unnoticed. The restaurant looked gloomy, unkempt and not inviting from the outside. I arrived there around 9 pm and there were only 3 tables occupied on a Sunday night. Maybe it was due to the fact that it is after dinner service peak hour.

Menu : Cha Gio

Price : Rp 26,000++

Score : 6.5 / 10

>> The number one rule : you can never skip spring rolls as your starter in all Vietnamese restaurants and I delightfully obeyed. This is basically a fried spring roll with minced chicken inside. The fillings inside were alright but what made this a delicious dish was the fried skin. It has this gooey slight chewy on the inner side and yet still crispy on the outside of the skin. Yumm - ooh !!!

Menu : Pho Bo

Price : Rp 45,000 ++

Score : 6.5 / 10

>> Pho is a Vietnamese renowned beef noodle soup is served with hand cut rice noodle, generous amount of sliced beef, beef brisket, Vietnamese basil, scallions, coriander, beansprout, lime and chilies to taste. I definitely seasoned my soup very well to adjust my palate. 5 wedge of lime and a few spoonful of cut green chilies. The warmth of the broth definitely warmed my heart.

Menu : Ca Mu Chien Voi Gung

Price : Rp 48,000 ++
Score : 6.5 / 10

>> Resembles 'Gurame Asam Manis' but brought up to a few notch higher. This is a one portion dish of fried grouper served with mushrooms and poured with "Noucmam" sauce. Best eaten with steam white rice. Love the sweet and sour taste!

Menu : Ca Phe Sua Da

Price : Rp 22,000 ++
Score : 6.0 / 10

>> Served in the Vietnamese traditional way of drinking coffee. The coffee potion will slowly drip from the miniature pot on top of the glass filled with sweet condensed milk at the bottom. This might take 10 minutes for all the coffee to be filtered all the way through. You can have this in both hot and iced! Order their 'Ice lemon grass tea' (Rp 15,000) instead if you are extremely thirsty and couldn't wait for 10 minutes.

Total Cost for the meal of two : Rp 180,000 (inclusive tax)

Vietopia

Jl. Cikini Raya No 33, Jakarta Selatan

Phone : 021 - 3915893