French Grill six course dinner

18.09.2014

My friend Jeremy wanted to know about my meal in excruciating detail so here it is.

On my last night in Vietnam I decided to splurge and spend all the money I had left on some crazy dinner. I looked on Tripadvisor and the top restaurant was about a 40 minute walk from my hotel.

This is how they described the "Chairman's Dinner" : Celebrate the weekend at French Grill and discover chef Raphael's 6 courses menu! Tuna & compressed watermelon, seared Rougié foie gras, consommé & roasted langoustines, scallop & Iberico ham, Kobe style rib eye, Signature seasonal dessert.

So, I got all dressed up in my traditional Vietnamese dress (ao dai) and walked over to the Marriott for a nice meal. The amount of stares and enthusiastic pointing that subsequently occurred was hilarious.

When I arrived, there were at least five people just waiting for people to show up at the door. Not sure what they were doing. I was ushered over to a table by the window by one of them. My view was of a dark pond in front of a highway beside some massage parlours. Not the nicest. I felt a little rushed, but the whole ordeal took about an hour and a half despite the waitresses running around at full speed to get my dishes.

There was an open kitchen which is cool, but I always feel bad for the chefs that work there, because they can never express frustration or happiness or make any loud noises since everyone in the restaurant would hear them. I prefer a kitchen I can't see because I think it's more humane, even if that means it's possible someone might spit in my dinner.

They had lots of wonderful soft brown bread with nice room temperature butter. Even though there are baguettes all around Vietnam, there is nothing like the bread at French Grill. The first course was an amuse bouche of tuna tar tar. They didn't tell me there was watermelon in there and you couldn't see it because it looked like the tuna, so I liked the surprise a lot. Good one.

Next was a huge chunk of fois gras which was perfectly seared and served with pears, beet sauce and edamame. Normally I hate hate hate fois gras, but this one was surprisingly delicious. Of course, at a French restaurant, I don't think you can get away without eating it. But I asked for a substitute anyway, and they wouldn't do that, so I just went with it. I was not disappointed.

The chicken consommé with mushrooms was boring, but the langoustine that had sunk to the bottom was soooo soft and amazing. Like little tiny lobsters that fit in your mouth and are shelled for you already.

Then they brought me a big scallop, sitting on cauliflower puree accompanied by some cured ham on top surrounded by saffron foam. Soooo gooooooddddd and the texture was amazing.

Kobe steak was the main dish, done medium and the softest steak I have ever had in my life. I think. Beside it, there was what I think was sweet potato and spinach puree decorated with a bunch of seasonal fall vegetables, carrots, artichokes and beets.

Dessert was all about figs. There was some sort of red (maybe raspberry) sorbet that exploded in your mouth with ginger, then stewed or steamed figs and "fig chutney", all served with cookie crumble dots of vanilla cream. I didn't really think this was up to par, but it was alright and went with the whole fall theme of the dinner.

So Jeremy, there you are.

Open kitchen