As it is with name, the menu of this restaurant, located inside the Blue Wave Mall along Diosdado Macapagal Blvd., is a mixture of French and Vietnamese. At the moment Vietnamese dishes outnumber the French, three to one, but Vienne Cuchi promises more French specialties on their menu as the restaurant goes further into its operations. Since it’s opening last October, the only French dishes on hand would include Duck Liver or Foie Gras, Prawn Bisque or Crema di Astice, and several steaks such as the St. Emillion T-Bone steak, and the Vienne Porterhouse with demiglace.

Beef Curry

But for a taste of Vietnam, one can start with a platter of Fried Spring Rolls (Cha Gio), which are deep-fried rolls of minced pork, with cucumber, mint leaves, and cabbages wrapped in gossamer thin rice paper, and are best dipped in nuoc mam sauce. Nuoc mam is a customary Vietnamese dipping sauce made from vinegar, fish sauce, and tainted with the flavors of chili and garlic.

Other dishes for starters are the Bo Nuong Xa or the Beef Barbecue. Diners can take skewered barbequed beef tenderloins swathed in minced garlic, and wrap it in rice paper with pickled radishes, carrots, and mint leaves, and drop it in a shrimp paste sauce. The Swamp Cabbage Salad or Goi Rau Muong consists of stir-fried slices of beef with kang kong leaves, topped with chopped peanuts, onions, mint leaves, and dressed with nuoc mam.

Good choices for noodle dishes include the Chicken with Lemongrass (Bun Ga Xao), which is chicken sautéed in lemon grass served with nuoc mam sauce. And the hot noodle dish Saigon Noodles or the Hu Thieu Tom Thit, which is a bowl of vermicelli rice noodles, topped with pork asado, shrimp, quail egg, squid, flavored with lemon grass and mint leaves, and showered with bean sprouts which does more for texture than flavor.

The Vietnamese Fried rice (Com Chien Thap Cam), which is rice, stir-fried in tomato sauce, with sliced pork tenderloin, green peas, egg, and shrimps, goes well with servings of Beef Curry or Cari Bo. Unlike common milky thick curry, the Vietnamese curry dish is thin and lightly flavored with lemon grass. The beef sautéed in olive oil is sprinkled with minced garlic and onions. Another good dish is the Lapu-lapu with Vermicelli Noodles or Ca Chung, which is sweetish fried Lapu-lapu with rice noodles and garlic.

For dessert one can try the Taro Sticky Rice with Coconut milk or the Che Khoami Mon, which is sweetened taro with sticky rice doused with coconut milk. Or the unusual Italian gelatos with flavors such as ginger, and spicy chocolate, which is chocolate laced with chilies that leave sweltering lines on the palate. To cap a meal, one can always try Vietnamese coffee, hot or iced, served the traditional Vietnamese way dripping from a sifter, and mixed with milk.

Other Notable Dishes in their menu include, the Seafood with Ho Fan Noodles (Pho Xao Do Bien), Seafood Noodle (Hu Tieu Do Bien), Pork Pie (Cha Chien), Duck with Ginger (Vit Kho Gung), the Vietnamese Calamari (Muc Chien Don), and the Salted Egg Fried Rice (Com Chien Ca). Vienne Cuchi also serves sandwiches, such as the Banh Mi Thit Ga (Chicken) and Banh Mi Cha Lua (Ham), using French baguettes flown-in from a Vietnamese refugee camp in Palawan.