Carven's Table

While we all know not to expect too much of spectacular experience when going to an Asian Restaurant, except for fast and tasty food. It doesn't bother me much if they were not providing top notch service or the tables were sticky, or using chipped crockery, as long as the food is good. Unfortunately ... Dao Vien is not like the others.  An empty restaurant with tired looking decor  Walking into the restaurant for lunch, immediately gave me a weird sense of vibe. It was hot and stuffy, I wondered if it was open as there were no other customers during lunch peak hour. We waited long for the lady owner to notice us and gave us a table. It was a huge place with lots of table but majority of the small table have dirty dishes that were left uncleared. Dirty tables all around us Well, first impression didn't quite make the cut, we were feeling uncomfortable and intimidated. Several negative thoughts were running in my mind, "did we just walked into a bad restaurant?...

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 s...