부페 Seafood buffet lures upmarket food buffs

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Guilt free to guilty: With salad options and oysters on one side, the buffet also offers a wicked assortment of desserts. — VNS Photos Marianne Brown

Name: La Brasserie

Address: Hotel Nikko, 84 Tran Nhan Tong Street, Ha Noi

Tel: 04 3822 3535

Comment: Top nosh, high prices

(19-10-2008)

Seafood buffet lures upmarket food buffs

Marianne Browns attempts to block out the news of more global economic gloom by splashing out on a luxury buffet lunch at La Brasserie, in Ha Noi’s Nikko Hotel.

Ok so the financial crisis may be tightening its grasp around my purse strings but every once in a blue moon I can’t resist the little voice at the back of my mind that whispers "go on, splash out, you know you deserve it." Lunch at Hotel Nikko Hanoi’s La Brasserie is certainly my definition of luxury: with oysters, goose liver pate and a chocolate fountain. And at US$20 per head it has to be a buffet extraordinaire.

Japanese-owned Hotel Nikko, stands at the corner of Tran Nhan Tong Street and Le Duan, a towering building adorned with bunches of greenery and glass windows on the ground floor that look right onto the immaculately arranged table settings of La Brassiere Restaurant. The hotel is actually like a global village. Chinese-style food is served at the Tao-Li Restaurant and there’s also Benkai, which advertises "authentic Japanese cuisine". For snacking and drinking there’s the Cakeshop and Portraits Bar.

As you might expect, La Brassiere has a European theme. Heading the kitchen is French chef Glaas Yannik, who has been working at the hotel for about six months. Although the Frenchman admits he doesn’t have all the freedom he would like in the kitchen, the restaurant doesn’t give up customers’ favourites for the spirit of promotion. "My best professional knowledge is to be able to make something normal, great," he says.

Every month the restaurant offers a new theme, which is good if like me you are prone to an outburst of spending every four weeks or so. October is a "seafood festival", which predictably enough, means lots of fish. The leaflet exclaims that the seafood on offer is "bigger than ever on the buffet this month! You will enjoy many kinds of fresh fish that will be cooked right in front of you!" Yes, it is cooked. And it is dead before it’s cooked. This is the hotel’s European restaurant after all.

Not a top choice for vegetarians but I am a keen fish eater so the idea of a seafood bonanza was the perfect lure, I snapped it up.

Inside is a cool, smartly-upholstered restaurant with an ambience as you would expect from a high-class worldwide hotel: clean, fresh, carefully arranged but not wildly imaginative. The space is comfortable though and relaxed. I wouldn’t shrink with embarrassment if I spilled my coffee on the tablecloth but at the same time I would expect a group of rowdy drunks to be quietly told to simmer down.

Top class but not daring: the same can be said about the food. The lunch buffet is arranged in two squares of tables. The inner-square begins with pates and plates of raw meat (white fish, beef, chicken, prawns) which is cooked on the spot by chefs and eaten like lau (Vietnamese hot pot) with noodles. Next is the salad section, including sweetcorn, pear and pork in strawberry yoghurt and my favourite, the inexplicably named dry jelly salad. There’s also a special fish option: baked salmon with a filling of spinach and cheese.

On the back wall is a selection of hot dishes: lime chicken, fish pie, fried tofu with garlic and duck stew with olives. Also two soups: pumpkin soup and sweetcorn soup but quite frankly I don’t think you should fill up on soup when there are so many other things to try.

Fishy pick and mix: Some of the ready-to-cook fresh seafood and a selection of mixed salads.

Finally, there’s a corner dedicated to desserts, which you should force yourself to eat even if you have eaten too much already because they are small and therefore not calorific. If only.

Yes the choice is large, and yes I have seen most of them before. But at La Brasserie you’re not paying to take a risk – stockmarket investors take heed – you’re paying for a predictably good feed.

Among the dishes I chose as second helpings was the salmon and spinach. A chef will obligingly slice you a chunk of the fish, fit to measure the size you think you can fit in your stomach. The cool lightness of the spinach works brilliantly with the strong salmon flavour, especially as you have to bite through the succulent fish meat to reach the stuffing.

Another favourite of mine was the dried jelly salad. At first I thought the "dry jelly" was actually a jellyfish, horrors! But much to my relief it is actually a root vegetable, which grows to about the size of a man’s fist. It is sliced wafer thin and mixed with sesame seeds and a smoky sauce. The texture is firm and moist.

Of course, to satisfy our lavish tendencies, me and my dining partner saved enough room to warrant a visit to the chocolate fountain. Here you can spear a marshmallow or melon with a toothpick and dip it into the warm torrents of chocolate, dark and not too sweet. Or, if no-one’s looking, you could even try it with your finger but that might get a bit messy.

If a chocolate fountain for lunch is a bit too much for you, there are plenty of other choices: white chocolate mouse, creme caramel, small cubes of brightly coloured gateaux, ice cream and fruit to cleanse you palate. Unfortunately, coffee costs extra. So if you think you just can’t push the boat out any further, you’ll just have to stick to the free soft drinks and beer.

Next month favours piscatarians yet again, as the restaurant arranges its tables for "northern European fish delights". So if you have a craving for some top-quality pickled herring you know where to go. I can justify the expense once in a while if the food is really worth it. — VNS

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