Vietnam’s history is fascinating and its influence on the country’s cuisine is obvious with Chinese rule, French colonisation and Southeast Asian intrusions. The Vietnamese cuisine has three regional variations and the Spices Garden Restaurant represents the Northern Vietnamese cuisine with its lighter and more balanced flavours compared to the rest of the country. Freshwater fish, crustaceans and molluscs used together with fish sauce, soy sauce, prawn sauce and lime are the most commonly used ingredients in the Northern Vietnamese cuisine and are widely used at the Spices Garden Restaurant.

Sofitel Metropole Hanoi houses the Spices Garden Restaurant and has been Hanoi’s number one luxury hotel since 1901. The fairly big city hotel has three restaurants and a great club level floor which we can recommend to stay at.

Executive Chef André Bosia delivers a good job together with his kitchen team and the healthy cuisine with exotic flavours and local herbs & spices does well to your taste buds, but we would have wished for somewhat stronger and more distinct flavours.

Not being a Vietnamese makes it fairly difficult to remember all names of the typical Northern Vietnamese dishes like pho, bánh cuon and bún riêu, not to mention dishes from the countryside, but the taste plays along and makes you happy. Especially the different versions of spring rolls that are typical of Vietnam.

Spices Garden Restaurant gives a good introduction to the Vietnamese cuisine and should be tried out of everyone not used to it and of all lovers of it as well. There are many alternatives when it comes to excellent Vietnamese cuisine all over the country, but stop by Spices Garden Restaurant when you are visiting Hanoi. And you can attend the restaurant’s Vietnamese cooking school as well if you want to know more about the country’s unique food culture and how to prepare its cuisine.

Written by Andy