After two failed attempts to find banh xeo, I was just thrilled to discover Banh Xeo Zon while exploring the eastern side of the Old Quarter (east of Hoan Kiem Lake) so even though Hubby and I had already eaten dinner beforehand, we still decided to go for a second round. #NonStopEatingWhileTravelling
Banh Xeo Zon
25 Lo Su Street
Hanoi, Vietnam
Tel: +84 4 3991 9955 Hanoi
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/banhxeozon/
Opening hours: 10.00am to 9.00pm daily
This had got to be one of the most nicely done up restaurants we had dined in while in Hanoi. More modern, up-to-date and very clean too. Great atmosphere. Pleasant environment.
Here’s the menu board on the wall. It’s not an extensive menu as they specialise mainly in banh xeo but good enough if you just want a light meal. For a trendy-looking restaurant like this which wasn’t that many in Hanoi, we were prepared to be charged higher prices but in actual fact everything was priced rather affordably though overall prices did seem to be slightly on the higher side by local standards. At least it wasn’t a tourist trap – good.
Since we came in here specially for their banh xeo which are rice flour pancakes with savoury fillings, we ordered one of each available flavour – shrimp, beef and chicken (not shown on menu board).
The banh xeo would come with accompanying rice paper wraps, vegetables/herbs and nuoc cham (fish sauce based) dipping sauce. If it’s your first time having banh xeo, the staff would wrap up one roll to demonstrate how the banh xeo is normally enjoyed. Basically, you just cut each banh xeo pancake into half. Transfer one half of the banh xeo onto a rice paper wrap and top with a bit of every vegetable/herb on top, roll up and dip into the sauce – it’s a pancake eaten like a spring roll. Delicious. The banh xeo was slightly crispy on the outside and the vegetables gave a nice crunch. The nuoc cham was very well-balanced too.
We also ordered the Bun Rieu Cua which was rice vermicelli in a tomato broth with crab meat. First tried this at our hotel during one of the breakfasts and thought it was not bad.
Banh Xeo Zon’s Bun Rieu Cua was like a Vietnamese version of tom yum soup. It was tangy and tomatoey with a rich crab flavour. The bits of crab meat were sweet and flavoursome. We added some dried chilli with oil into the soup – absolutely potent – gave a great kick. The fried tofu puffs were very tasty and as they had absorbed the broth, they were quite juicy to bite into. Worth a try!
For the whole meal, we spent 115,000 VND (SGD7.20) inclusive of 1 hot tea which was very reasonable. Food was good. Service was excellent. Utterly satisfied. ??
Looks very good! We hard a hard time finding decent banh xeo away from the central coast of Vietnam. There it was amazing!