Cơm Tây Hồ

50 cents, $1 or $1.50 doesn’t buy you much food in Australia. However, on the streets of Vietnam $3 will get you all 3 dishes above. 10,000VND (about 50 cents) gets you some torn up boiled chicken and rice. Doubling that will upgrade you to a drumstick and splashing out all of 30,000VND will get you some meaty bits, some rice noodly bits and some vegetably bits in a hot soup. Oh, don’t forget they all come with complementary fish sauce, pickles and some leaves representing herbs.

These meals aren’t served on a footpath or street. As seen in the images, it’s a surprisingly clean yet simple restaurant featuring wooden tables and cutlery. Not a plastic table in sight! Only the plastic stools serve as a reminder you’re in Vietnam.

This is not fine dining nor does it pretend to be. It is such a satisfying meal due to its simplicity. Although most hungry adults would need 2 servings that still represents killer value for money as far as I’m concerned, even on the streets of Vietnam.

At Cơm Tây Hồ, 214 Nguyễn Trãi, P. Nguyễn Cư Trinh, Q. 1, TP. Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam