How would you like your camel cooked? Al dente? With or without humps? How many dongs are you carrying? Seriously, for VDN60,000 (about $3.80), you can enjoy fried camel with… a side of mushrooms. Not engaged? Okay, let’s try something else. Fried perfume snail, perhaps? It’s not certain what kind of perfume goes in there, but take a chance!! Here’s a good one: " Sort of Crab"; well, what sort? Some folks are really particular, aren’t they? These are just a few of the tantalizing offerings from the City View Café in Hanoi, most likely the best positioned restaurant this side of Hoan Kiem Lake. DAMN, what a view! We are on the fifth floor (you can walk up, but take the elevator; it’s faster!), and this is tantamount to skyscraper status. For the first time in days, the sun was shining and the Old Quarter was beaming along with it. Chuck and I were doing a waltz around this building, as we had seen it when we had dinner at Kim Quy , which is directly across the street and a lot lower. We entered through a main door on one side and found ourselves browsing in a block-wide superstore selling household products, snacks, toiletries - something like one of our super drugstores here in the States, only larger. Presumably, there could have been an entrance to the multi-level restaurants we had seen, but that would be too easy. The entrance and the elevators that take you to the various floors is practically hidden, and were it now for an ambitious young recruiter on the ground level, we’d never find the place. It’s all timing they tell me.
As it turned out, we would have the entire balcony to ourselves for most of the meal. We opted for a table facing the lake, and it was impossible to sit still and not run around the three corners of the open space to "see what I could see."
Fear not, for the menu at City View Café has several pages of savory entrées, and you can go continental if you wish. What I did notice during this culinary exploration is that spaghetti is on almost every menu I’ve seen. And they do a great job with it, especially the Bolognese variety. So, we both ordered it. I had my usual lemon juice (which is actually heavenly limeade), and Chuck skipped the oats and had a coconut shake instead. The grated cheese elicited some laughter from us both, as it was Kraft and the rest was in Chinese.
The service was wonderful, and there are not enough adjectives to describe the view. See the pictures. I even stopped worrying about the traffic circle below.
Some other choices on the menu: curried chicken or seafood, Thai style; steamed crab meat; grilled oyster clam; Singapore noodles (beats me); fried beefsteak with pepper, and grilled beef, Hungarian style.