While on our way to visit the Hanoi Opera House, we stopped by the iconic Trang Tien Plaza which is Hanoi’s first high-end luxury shopping mall. It is located across the road from the southern end of Hoan Kiem Lake in the Old Quarter. Expect to find familiar brands here such as Cartier, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Versace, Nike, Mango, Paris Baguette & many more. It’s really just a regular shopping mall and the only thing special about it is probably its French-style architecture – that’s all.
Shopping here wouldn’t be an inexpensive affair obviously and I don’t recommend Singaporeans to buy your usual labels from here as the prices for the same brands seem to be more reasonable in Singapore.
But I must say this mall makes a great spot for a toilet break because it has the grandest and cleanest public toilet in the city which is very, very rare. Haha.
I did find a Singaporean restaurant here that offered dishes like frog leg porridge, chilli crab, laksa and a whole range of tze char style food.
Could get fresh seafood here too. If you’re craving for SG food while in Hanoi, here’s an option.
Just a short walk away from Trang Tien Plaza is this popular ice cream shop by the name of Kem Trang Tien or Trang Tien Ice Cream.
It’s located on 35 Trang Tien and opens daily from 8.00am to 9.00pm.
You can find 4 types of ice cream here – mochi, ice cream on sticks, ice cream on cones and soft serve.
At the front was the counter for mochi ice cream that came in several flavours like green tea, strawberry, coffee and vanilla.
To the left, you’d see this lane that led to another 3 ice cream counters inside. This place could also be considered as a drive-through ice cream shop i.e. people can drive their scooters or motorbikes in, have a rest and enjoy an ice cream.
This place has been around for almost 60 years. Definitely a 老字号 (long-established brand).
This was the counter for ice cream on sticks.
5 types of flavours – rice flake, taro, green beans, coconut milk and cocoa. Very cheap too, only SGD0.40 – 0.50 each stick.
And on the right…
…there were soft serve and…
…ice cream on cones.
I got the cone (12,000 VND) one as it was supposed to their signature ice cream. Only available in vanilla flavour. Normally I don’t fancy vanilla ice cream that much but their recipe was quite different – perhaps the secret lies in the milk used? Anyway, the texture of the ice cream was the icy type, not the creamy & soft kind so it didn’t feel cloying and was in fact very refreshing. Wasn’t very sweet too. The cone tasted like the egg rolls we’d eat during Chinese New Year. Overall, this was really nice! Must try when you’re in Hanoi! ???
if dropping in some small ice-cream stall on the street, you can find ice-cream of indan taro flavor which has distinct and delcious taste. Let’t try it and you’ll be surprised