Brett Davis - AsiaLIFE Magazine

and a top floor entertainment
venue. The restaurant, bright
and decked out in futuristic
white plastic, features several
varieties of bun noodles at reasonable
prices. The lounge goes
for the opposite vibe—dark and
sleek, with black furniture and
moody curtains. The entertainment
space holds performances
on the weekends, usually of
well-known Vietnamese singers
such as Hoang Bach. Admission
is 100,000 VND, or 200,000 VND
for VIP seating. A glass elevator
with views over the street
transports visitors between
floors. WE is affiliated with its
neighbour further up the street,
Pho Ta.
Ngoc Suong Restaurant
17 Le Quy Don
This seafood staple is celebrating
its 55th anniversary, a
rare feat of longevity for any
Vietnamese institution. The
original restaurant was started
in Cam Ranh and there are
now several locations around
the country. The Le Quy Don
location is run by the founder’s
grandson Alan, who returned
to Vietnam from St. Tropez nine
years ago and brought some of
the French Riviera back with
him. Ngoc Suong is meant to
evoke a Mediterranean open-air
plaza, complete with canopied
bistro fronts and an enormous
wall-size print of a seaside
promenade. Live seafood, music
nightly and frequent parties and
events keep the large outdoor
space always lively and always
full. A sister restaurant, Marina,
is right around the corner at 172
Nguyen Dinh Chieu and offers
more of an indoor, fine-dining
experience.
Pho Ta
12-14 Le Quy Don
From the owners of well-known
Bun Ta, comes the newer Pho
Ta, specializing in—you guessed
it— pho. This is no ordinary
noodle soup, though—the menu
is the creation of a celebrity
chef, Dang Tuyet Mai. Mai is
the ex-wife of Nguyen Cao Ky,
who served as Prime Minister
of South Vietnam from 1965 to
1967, and then as Vice President
until his retirement in 1971. She
was well-known as a glamorous
figure in pre-1975 Saigon. After
the war, Mai became a singer in
the United States (her daughter
is also a well-known performer
in the Vietnamese series “Paris
by Night”), before returning to
Vietnam to sing and make pho.
The restaurant is connected with
WE down the street (“ta” means
“we” in Vietnamese).
Nguyen Thuy Salon-Spa
18 Le Quy Don
A cool and laid-back salon and
spa catering to a fashionable
local crowd. Three floors cover
hair, nails, facials and spa and
massage treatments in a pleasant
space bedecked with natural
woods and stone. A hair and
nail package is 495,000 VND
and a body spa package costs
627,000 VND. Their specialty
is the candle massage, a wax
treatment exclusively found at
Nguyen Thuy (400,000 VND).
To create an even more inviting
environment, the staff makes it a
policy of not accepting tips.
Nha Tang Le
25 Le Quy Don
Where do the powerful and
well-connected go when they
die? They make a stop here at
Nha Tang Le, a viewing house/
memorial site for recently deceased
VIPs. The massive structure
blends temple architecture
with Soviet-style grandiosity.
Spice Restaurant
27 Le Quy Don
Get your toms, yams and kaengs
at this popular Thai restaurant,
open since 2003. The multilevel
restaurant has a Middle Eastern
tinge to the décor and features
mosaic tilework (no apparent
reason, but it’s an attractive
enough space). The magazinelike
menu features around 100
dishes, from traditional to more
fusion-like creations; on Thursdays
a lunch buffet is available
for 100,000 VND.
Duc Minh Art Gallery
31 Le Quy Don
This small private museum
holds pieces from the collection
of Duc Minh (1920-1983), one
of Vietnam’s first and foremost
20th-century collectors
of art. The Hanoi-based Minh
frequently lent pieces to the
Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts,
but during many tumultuous
years of war he was forced
to keep most of his collection
under wraps. As the museum’s
biography rather poetically puts
it: “Like an underwater iceberg,
[the collection] indolently drifted
on to its destination against
the current of time and worldly
affairs.” Duc Minh’s collection,
maintained by his son, has
surfaced on Le Quy Don, where
visitors can view and buy the
primarily traditional works.
Dolezza House Fashion and
Coffee
26A Le Quy Don
The coffee part of the equation is
closed indefinitely, but the fashion
side of Dolezza is still going
strong. With all designs by label
owner Nguyen Thanh Van,
Dolezza offers women’s wear in
a range of colours from subdued
grays to bright purples. Shirts,
pants and dresses feature pleats,
ruffles and lots of attention to
detail. Sample prices: pants,
567,00 VND; top, 479,000 VND;
dress, 789,000 VND.
Au Manoir De Khai
251 Dien Bien Phu
Set behind high walls on the
grounds of a glorious old
colonial mansion, Au Manoir
de Khai is but one brick in the
many-faceted Khai Silk empire
of restaurants, fashion and retail
and residential developments.
Traditional French cuisine is on
the menu here, with prices to
match the pumped-up luxury
of the setting. Set dinners range
from USD $60 to $85. Seating is
available in the outside garden
or in the dark, plush, interior
“with a hint of bordello style,”
as their website advertises.
Quan Cay Tre
37 Le Quy Don
This restaurant offers a quanlike
menu, but in a much more
stylish setting than the usual
fluorescent lights-and-metal
table aesthetic. Here it’s all
about vines, exposed bricks,
wooden beamwork and dim
lighting, giving this indooroutdoor
space a truly inviting
atmosphere. One end of
the restaurant features a lush
bamboo garden (cay tre means
bamboo). The house specialty is
Vung Tau-style banh khot, mini
savoury pancakes with shrimp.
Children’s House of HCMC /
Hoang Thai Thanh Theatre
36 Le Quy Don
By day, the Children’s House
of HCMC offers classes, sports
and recreational activities from
martial arts instruction to chess
clubs. In the evening, the main
facility is a live theatre, with
rotating performances twice a
week of dramas and comedies
and programmes for adults
and kids. Tickets are 90,000 to
100,000 VND.
Meet Your Street
Le Quy Don
(1726-1784) was a philosopher, poet, government official and
one of the most prolific savants of 18th-century. His writings
include Vietnam’s largest encyclopedia (the nine-volume Van
Dai Loai Ngu), a 30-volume history of Vietnam through the Le
Dynasty and a large collection of verse. Le Quy Don was born in
what is modern-day Thai Binh Province, in the Red River Delta
region. There are several schools named after him, including
Le Quy Don Technical University in Hanoi, and a junior high
school on this very street (2 Le Quy Don).
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