GOASIAPLUS January 2019

FOOD
Food Guide who will serve the
food and drinks, and is available to
answer questions. After the meal is
completed, diners will be led back
to the lounge where the mystery
of their meal will be uncovered as
they are informed about the kind of
dishes they had been served.
NOIR – DINING IN THE DARK
If you want to take dining to a higher sensory level,
try it in the realm of darkness. Deprived of the sense
of sight or blind tasting, diners at Noir embark on a
culinary journey heightened by other senses - taste,
smell, touch and sound.
Founded in 2014, Noir aims not only for diners to
fully appreciate a sense that so many of us take for
granted, but create job opportunities and promote
awareness about the visually impaired in Vietnam.
“Just like other people with disabilities, they
often live on the margins of society. In Noir, we turn
this around by putting them in charge,” says Germ,
referring to the team of 11 visually impaired servers.
How the dining works:
This unique gastronomic journey
begins at the lounge where welcome
drinks are served and diners can
select from one of three mystery
menus (each is a three-course meal
where the dishes are undisclosed).
The menu from the East is
Asian/Vietnamese while the menu
from the West is international/
European, both of which change
every four months. The vegetarian
menu changes twice a year. As you
can guess, wine pairing is also a
mystery. Diners then play with a
game to heighten their sense of
touch. After that, they are led to the
darkened dining room by a blind
Cuisine:
Contemporary Asian and Western.
Past menu:
The current menu is, literally, kept
in the dark, so a glimpse of its
past menu will give an idea of the
dishes served. Aimed at delighting
the senses, the items range from
the familiar to the exotic – prawn
tomyum soup, vegetable lasagne,
pan-fried seabass, slow-roasted
marinated duck breast and basil
tomato ice-cream.
178 Hai Ba Trung District 1
+84 8 6263 2525 / +84 9 8663 2525
noirdininginthedark.com
KOTO SAIGON - A TRAINING RESTAURANT
Founder Jimmy Pham, a Vietnamese-Australian on his
first visit to Vietnam in 1996, was struck by the plight
of street children. He set out to ask some of them what
they wanted out of life, to which they replied: “We need
skills so we can find stable jobs.”
That sparked his concept for Koto (“Know One,
Teach One”), a not-for-profit social enterprise aimed
at transforming the lives of at-risk and disadvantaged
youths through a holistic training programme. Students
learn English, culinary and hospitality management and
life skills (healthy living, personal financing, first aid,
communication and among many others).
Koto started in Hanoi as a small sandwich shop with
only nine trainees in 1999; the first restaurant opened a
year later, and another in Saigon in 2010.
Almost a thousand young
people have graduated from
Koto, with about 200 in training.
Both training restaurants which
serve as venues for trainees
to practice their hospitality
skills also partially sponsors
the training programme. Every
six months, 40 disadvantaged
youths (16-22 years old) are
recruited and after graduating
from two years of training, they
are able to work in five-star
hotels, resorts and restaurants in
Vietnam and overseas.
Cuisine:
Traditional Vietnamese,
Southeast Asian and Western.
Signature dishes:
The Set Met is a crowd-pleaser
for a two-person date. It
comprises of seven dishes:
stuffed pork, beef roll, green
mango salad, crispy duck
wontons, salt and pepper frogs,
pork satay, and lotus fried rice.
Specials:
A three-course set lunch is priced at
98,000 Vietnamese dong.
19 Nguyen Dinh Chieu,
Da Kao Ward, District 1.
+84 28 3822 9357
www.koto.com.au/koto-trainingrestaurants
ALSO
CHECK
OUT
BLOOM RESTAURANT
SAIGON
It is a non-profit restaurant that
provides culinary training for
orphaned and disadvantaged
children around Vietnam
operated by Aid for Children
Without Parents at Ward Dakao,
District 1.
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