Toppers Buffet Restaurant & Waqu

Toppers Restaurant/Last days in Vietnam
Its been exactly a week since I've arrived back in Australia and it feels great to breathe in clean, fresh oxygen :) I've been lagging with blogging as I have been out almost every single day. My last night in Vietnam was spent celebrating my aunty's birthday at a buffet called Toppers Restaurant in Parkson Shopping Centre in Saigon. What a better way to spend it after almost three weeks of excess consumption and sleep! My family arrived late as the taxi driver drove us all around the city and jipped us by pretending not to know where the shopping centre was. I must warn, anyone traveling to Vietnam should catch well renowned branded taxis! I told my parents to just stop the taxi and catch another one as our meter kept rising and we were heading to nowhere. We got out on a random street and asked shopkeepers for directions to Parkson and luckily, we were only 5 minutes away from it. We arrived there at 7pm (was supposed to be there at 6.30) and I was quite surprised with what was on offer. There were dishes such as steamed chicken, duck stir fried noodles, fried rice, banh xeo (Vietnamese pancakes), seafood (BBQ prawns, sea snails,grilled octopus, pippies), deep fried and fresh canapes (spring rolls, fish cakes, rice paper rolls, vegetable har gow), assorted salads, prawn and snow pea curry stir fry, Thai style noodle soup, roast beef, pasta, fresh fruits and che (sweet pudding). I'm sure there were many more dishes but that should do for now.

Excuse my bad photography but i had all the servers staring at me weirdly for whipping out my iPhone and quickly took some pictures. At the end of the night, our family went to bowling and this time round, I whipped both my sibling's bottoms and won :D We went home at 10pm and by this time, I felt less bloated thank goodness!

My last day in Vietnam will not be spoken about as I had spent all day ensuring I packed everything and being frustrated at Jet star for making our trip extremely difficult. The only great thing was that our plane was not delayed and we'd arrived on time back home.

 

Street Christmas lights

The most expensive wrap I have ever paid for !

Home sweet home!

Waqu Restaurant
A couple of days after, the boy took me out on Friday night to Waqu Restaurant. Actually, we had booked it 5 weeks in advance incase there weren't any reservations left. Our reservation was booked for 6.30pm and we ended up arriving 30 minutes earlier. The manager welcomed us in and lead us to our table at the back of the restaurant. We were greeted with the set menu and chose our dishes, where we chose to have 5 course menu for $60. For entrees I opted for the prawn + ricotta mezzelune pasta while Drix had pork belly west x east. We also ordered our beverages where Drix ordered me a glass of sweet wine (West Cape Howe, botrytis riesling) and for himself lemon lime and bitters along with still water. Our waiter brings out a complimentary dish (cannot remember the name) but it had crisp prosciutto, corn chip and slaw. Definitely an interesting mix, in which the slaw reminded me of KFC's coleslaw!

Lemon lime & bitters $4, VOSS Still water $8, Botrytis Riesling $10

Complimentary dish (crisp prosciutto, corn chip and slaw)

It wasn't long after til our amuse bouche came out. The three layered chicken and vegetable terrine was beautifully presented on a brown slate, which i believe is inspired by Japanese culture. What i enjoyed the most of the dish was the light, airy rolled sponge served with the vegetable puree. It wasn't too heavy and tasted wonderful while Drix could not help praise the terrine, in which he adored the leek layer.

Three layered chicken & vegetable terrine (white wine daikon sauce, seasonal vegetable purée and rolled cake, prosciutto)

I think about 5 minutes after, our second dishes comes out. This was a dish that Drix had feared, as he isn't the biggest fan of raw seafood or anything along the words of 'sashimi'. The scallop tattare creme vichyssoise was fascinating on appearance but unpleasant on taste.  I was actually curious about this dish and took a spoonful of the wasabi infused scallop & tomato water jelly. It tasted very odd and since we do not like the taste of wasabi, this was Drix & I's least favourite dish of the night. However, the other components of the dish were nice especially the creme vichyssoise, which was smooth, creamy and went well with the bitterness of the rocket puree.

Scallop tartare creme vichyssoise (tomato water jelly, yuzu + olive oil dressing, rocket salad purée, red capsicum mousse)

I could see in Drix's facial expression that he certainly was not impressed by the dish at all as he looked like he wanted to throw up but at least we know we have a few dishes to go. I was anxious about our entrees coming out as I could see other diners consuming what i believe was the ocean trout, which we both didn't order. When the entrees came out, I was astounded by the presentation of the pork belly dish compared to the prawn+ricotta pasta. It looked magical and too pretty to even eat! I was slightly disappointed with the presentation of my entree but it was actually appetizing and enjoyable. The scampi was cooked right and the combination of ricotta and prawn was nice; however  the texture of the pasta was quite thick yet, it was an enjoyable dish. The two portions of the pork belly was braised to extreme tenderness (with one portion left with a crisp crackling) and was very delectable. Both Drix & I compared the eastern inspired pork to both our mother's caramelised braised pork & egg, which we both love. The miso crumbles were actually tasty and did not taste like what I thought it would.

 Pork belly west x east (pork belly confit and kakuni, asa-zuke salad, dengaku miso crumbles, hollandaise sauce)

Prawn + ricotta mezzelune pasta (grilled scampi, cauliflower flan, apple bisque, parmigiano foam)

Our first three dishes arrived pretty quickly but when it came to our mains we had a good 20-30 minute wait, which I guess was to ensure our stomachs had settled down from the previous dishes we consumed earlier. The waiter finally comes out with two massive plates. I almost forgot to add the waiters do describe the components of each dish to us after it has been presented, which is great as i did forget some aspects of the dishes I ordered beforehand. The presentation and execution of both dishes were even more mind blowing and I couldn't wait to dig in. The roasted veal loin was very tender & juicy, but not being a fan of rare meat spoiled my satisfaction for the dish. I must add, the toasted quinoa tasted interesting along with the truffle essence. The roasted duck was extremely juicy and flavour some, a dish I had intended and should have ordered. I could tell it was an Asian inspired dish, as the combination of the duck breast and hoi sin jus reminded me of Peking duck pancake. The zucchini fritter was unforgettable. It wasn't oily as I expected and the melted cheese centre was yummy. 

Roasted veal loin (truffle essence, aromatic mustard, enoki + quinoa, snow pea sprout matsunomi ae)

Roasted duck (hoisin jus, mango purée, zucchini zukushi, crispy prosciutto)

Now that we have almost finish dining, we both weren't anticipating on dessert as the thought of 'souffle' was unpleasant. One of my first experiences of tasting souffle left me feeling queasy & dissatisfied and since then, I have avoided ordering any 'souffle' desserts at restaurants.(it was the passionfruit souffle I had at Est. Restaurant that had me hating on souffle). We were both wrong about our desserts, which was both our favourite dishes of the night. The white chocolate macaroon was delightful and full of flavour but the highlight of the dish was the orange cheesecake souffle itself. It was so light and melted in my mouth. Actually I should say, each component of the dish was absolutely enjoyable and divine!

Orange cheesecake souffle (blood orange sorbet, orange coulis, mascarpone espuma, cardamon yoghurt, white chocolate macaroon)

 

Good evening to the most beautiful city in the world!

Although the servings are quite small, I was satisfied with my experience at Waqu. The wait staff were attentive, the food was enjoyable and most of all, it was nice to be able to spend my night with my other half after three weeks of not seeing each other :)