Sao Nam, Tengkat Tong Shin



I was there with a group of 20pax, apparently the organiser was quite close with the owner, so they organised a set menu for us. I've heard of good comment about them, so i was very looking forward to try this fine Vietnamese restaurant. 




The moment i was about to walk in to the restaurant, i felt in love with it. It was a fantastic idea transforming those old ancient looking heritage house into a restaurant.



Warm ambient, cosy setting, friendly hospitality, makes you feel like you just walked into a random Vietnamese house in Vietname itself. We were then served with their special beverage - ginger and lime juice, it was pleasingly refreshing, especially on a hot day like this, i don't remember how many glasses i had, because the waitress keep topping me up.

 
starter of starters - A combination platter of deep-fried
chicken spring rolls fresh prawn spring rolls, Beef "la lot" and shrimp on sugercane.

The first dish that we were presented was the starter of starters, this plate consists of all the starter goodies, it's good for people who can't make up their mind on which starter to order, i especially like the beef "alot" (the black colour wrapped up) and chicken spring rolls. The beef "alot" is something new to me, according to the description from the menu, this dish is from North Vietname,  it is minced beef with lemongrass, garlic, soy, shrimp paste and fried shallot rolled in wild pepper -kaduk leaves, i could eat this all day long with a glass of their lime and ginger juice. The rest of the stuff is very fresh and refreshing, exactly what you would imagine Vientnamese food to be, they are also pretty generous with the lettuce leaf and herbs too, i love those stuff!

 mangosteen and prawn salad (seasonal) - An award-winning dish and an extraordinary and truly unique combination of the fruit of the mangosteen, dried squid flown in from Vietnam, grated fresh coconut, chicken slices. Topped with fresh tiger prawns, peanuts and sesame seed. Chef Tien’s special kumquat dressing.


This is also their specialty dish - Mangosteen and prawn salad. Malaysian eat mangosteen all the time epecially eating them with durian, but never thought of putting them into a salad. This dish is really great, sweet and sour salivating your pallette, the only critism i have for this dish is that their prawn was a tad overcooked.
  

 
vietnamese crispy pancake - banh xeo > from south Vietnam
Starts with a rice flour batter, its taste enhanced with coconut milk, turmeric powder and spring onions. Folded in with minced chicken, prawns and bean sprout and skillfully fried till edges are crispy. 

This is also something special, but to us Malaysian, we would have thought this looks a bit like Roti Telur. LOL, it was rice flour pancake wrapped with chicken and salad. This is what i like about Vietnamese and Thai cuisin, they loves herbs and loaded up with salad, that's why their people are in better shape than Malaysian.


duck in orange - vit sot cam, French-influence in Vietnamese cuisine. Now a popular dish of Vietnam during Tet festival. Braise in orange puree, shallot, carrot and fish sauce.

We also had 2 other dishes, the beef stew and fish in dill, the fish in dill is rather quite nice, i didn't get the chance to take picture, but as i remembered they are boneless salmon pieces marinated in sour rice & turmeric and then grilled to perfection.

 
Vietnamese Coffee

After mains, we were presented with desserts - banana freeze (kem chuoi) it's ripe banana being wrapped in with coconut milk with grated coconut and peanuts, served frozen and served with chocolate topping. The presentation wasn't looking that attractive, but the taste was quite nice and something new too! The waitress also try to promote their Vietnames coffee, i have tried a really good vietnamese coffee before, but i don't remember where. The way they serve their coffee is quite new to me as i haven't been to Vietname yet, but the coffee itself wasn't as aromatic or as strong as i expected, if not, it would be an amazing thing to end the meal with.

SA0 NAM
Bukit Bintang
Fine Vietnamese Cuisine
25 Tengkat Tong Shin
Kuala Lumpur
50200
Tel: 03 21441225
       03 21448225
Bookings recommended

Food Quality: 4 Spring Rolls
Ambience: 4 Spring Rolls
Service: 4 Spring Rolls 
Will I Be Back: YES!

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