Hanoi Xoi Com, a restaurant on the Michelin list recommended for its "delicious, cheap" dishes, brings diners a sense of closeness with simple, home-made dishes.
Around 12 noon, Xoi Com was almost full of 14 tables because it was located in an office area in Dong Da district. The crowded, noisy atmosphere of the restaurant contrasted with the nostalgic decorations of Hanoi in the 1990s with tiled floors, yellow walls and wooden tables and chairs. The gentle music of "Winter Story" in the cold of Hanoi at the end of the year reminded diners of a bygone era.
The restaurant is an old-style apartment building, kept almost intact after decades. The bowls and plates for rice are imported from craft villages. The dessert plates are made from ash glaze, a typical glaze of Vietnamese pottery from the 11th century, which has now largely disappeared. The ash glaze is rough and rustic because it is hand-molded. The connection to the past at Xoi Com can also be seen in the chopsticks, both large and small, used to scoop rice.
The space inside the restaurant. Photo : Tung Le
Le Minh Tung, the restaurant owner, is an amateur in the culinary world. Xoi Com opened in 2020 and is just a part of his job, besides his main job in communications. However, after three years, the restaurant was honored by the world-famous culinary rating organization Michelin in the "Bib Gourmand" category, for eateries that meet the criteria of delicious and cheap, in the middle of the year.
As the name Xoi Com suggests, the dishes at the restaurant are not too elaborate, just right and neat. The menu includes familiar dishes in the Northern Vietnamese meal such as stir-fried beef, fried shrimp, stir-fried chayote, sweet and sour pork ribs. That is also Tung's wish when opening the restaurant - diners feel close, cozy, like a simple home-cooked meal.
The chef is often considered the "soul" of the restaurant, but at Xoi Com, that is not the top factor. The owner emphasizes that bad ingredients cannot make delicious dishes. Regarding the preparation, he said that the kitchen staff only need to follow the traditional way and ensure neatness and cleanliness. Ingredients such as meat, fish, and eggs are imported from a large supermarket chain in Vietnam. Vegetables are sourced from two small farmers in Mu Cang Chai in Yen Bai and Son La.
Ingredients are selected according to the principle of each season, focusing on local characteristics to bring a good experience to customers. For example, when choosing squash, Mr. Tung will choose the old squash variety, weighing about 6 kg each. Or ginger will be the type that has been preserved for many years, ensuring aromatic essential oils, not too hot to eat. The broad beans must also be the old variety, delicious, sweet, with a light purple color around the edge of the fruit, not appearing much in the city.
A meal consisting of one vegetable dish, two protein dishes, a pot of rice, and dessert costs about 150,000 VND per person. The portions are just enough to fill you up, a plate of sweet and sour ribs has about 5-6 pieces, costs 85,000 VND. When eating, diners do not find the flavor to be much more outstanding than home-cooked meals.
Ms. Thanh Ha, working in Dong Da district, commented that the food was well-seasoned, the amount of ingredients was a bit small compared to the price. The female customer highly appreciated the quality of each dish, the service and the space of the restaurant.
Hong Ngoc, who visited the restaurant for the first time, said the quality of the food was average, most of the items were a bit blandly seasoned. A meal of 5 dishes and drinks cost about 320,000 VND. She liked the braised pork and eggs the most because the meat was soft, and the pickled vegetables were cooked just right, not sour.
According to the restaurant owner, the restaurant's prices may be a bit high for people with average incomes, but just because it's Vietnamese or home-cooked doesn't mean it's cheap.
A tray of food with just enough dishes for a meal at a restaurant. Photo : Tung Le
He said that foreign fast food or street hot pot "also costs about 200,000 VND per meal", while most of the food is frozen. Therefore, Vietnamese dishes with guaranteed quality "can be sold at the same price".
The restaurant changes its menu every day and does not reuse leftovers to ensure the freshness of the food. The dishes are also renewed seasonally to suit the weather, for example, in summer it tends to be sour dishes, in winter it focuses on spicy, hot, fried dishes. On average, the restaurant has about 15 dishes every day, made from 30-45 ingredients. Every day, the restaurant will change 6 dishes, the remaining 9 dishes are seasonal or fixed dishes such as eggs, soup, rice.
About an hour before opening, the restaurant will check all the prepared items to ensure standards. Although new to the culinary world, Mr. Tung and the restaurant manager have been eating bland food and learning to taste food for many years. Thanks to that, both of them have the ability to evaluate flavors, find the advantages and disadvantages of each ingredient and improve every day.
Mr. Tung said that when Michelin first named the restaurant, it was overloaded and had to turn away many customers who did not make reservations. The increased number of customers made the restaurant noisier than before.
"The Michelin effect has its good and bad sides, but I am proud that traditional Vietnamese meals are introduced to the world by experts with the word 'delicious'," he said.
The restaurant currently has about 6-9 employees per shift. Since being named to the "Bib Gourmand" list, the restaurant has had many foreign customers, so the staff has had to learn English to help with ordering and introduce Vietnamese dining culture.
Many people also came to discuss franchising or investing more in the restaurant, but Mr. Tung refused because he wanted to keep his own "character". For him, Xoi Com may not need to be too grand or ostentatious, but every guest coming here must always feel "the familiar taste of a home-cooked meal".
Tu Nguyen
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