Café Qing is not very far from the Indochine, and aside from being an after-hours type of place, it boasts quite an extensive wine list, and an eclectic food menu. The manager is a renegade ex-pat from the UK, with a zillion miles of adventures and stories that were hard to envision, though they never lost their appeal. The first page of the blue food menu acquaints you with the word "Qing". It is explained as a polite way of asking for something, or telling somebody to do something. The more to-the-point meanings: 3. nname of our bar, Saigon’s latest F&B hangout on Dong Du Street, and 4. the place where you can sample global food in style. Amen!
The inside had a cavernous look to it, and lots of noise, as expected, around the bar. The exterior had four seating groups, a bit crowded but more inviting for us. We sat closer to the interior and were occasionally tickled by plant leaves.
Expect nouvelle cuisine service, with prices between $2 and $6 for the tapas and $6 and $11 for the entrées. The most expensive item is the divinely described "Coriander Crusted Rack of Lamb, Tomato and Olive Mash".
We ordered the salmon and avocado rolls, which were wrapped in soft rice paper, and the spiced crab cakes with chilli mango salsa. Other temptations were pork and pineapple sates with spicy peanut sauce, warm beef salad in Thai chilli sauce, and shrimp and bamboo shoot salad. Though we did not have any main dishes, I don’t believe that people come here for dinner as much as they do for drinks and appetizers. Or perhaps the very decadent desserts. There was a coconut crème caramel lurking on the second page, together with a pineapple tart served with caramel ice cream. No restaurant in Vietnam would be complete without crème brulée, and the most corrupt of them all was the "molten Valrhona chocolate cake served with vanilla ice cream", for which they request ten extra minutes for preparation.
They were featuring a Portuguese variety as wine of the month and also serving some interesting things by the glass – of course, I don’t drink, but I was nevertheless fascinated by the descriptions: from South Africa , serving Obikwa Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc; from New Zealand , Coopers Creek Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc; from Australia Lindemans Bin 95 Sauvignon Blanc. The only name I recognized was that of Ernest & Julio Gallo, whose Napa Valley white zinfandel made the list. Guess what a bottle of Dom Perignon goes for? VDN3,000,000. Well, that’s less than $200, which is a bargain, isn’t it? Our server was a lovely young woman named Hang who spent quite a bit of time talking with us about her life and her job. This happens frequently in Vietnam, as folks are eager to either practice their English or tell you their story.