Contemporary Vietnamese Cuisine at Anan Saigon, Ho Chi Minh
The name of the restaurant is ănăn, which means ‘eat eat’. It is located in Chợ Cũ along Tôn Thất Đạm Street, a wet market right in the center of bustling Saigon.
Anan Saigon specialize in street food-inspired dishes created by the award-winning chef Peter Cuong Franklin. Chef Peter’s creative new Vietnamese cuisine reflects his vision of a Vietnam that is deeply respectful of its history and traditions yet progressive and international in its outlook.
Chef Peter Cuong elevates humble street food and traditional dishes to gourmet level using quality ingredients and modern cooking techniques, all while retaining the spirit and flavor at the heart of Vietnamese cuisine. He takes inspiration from the country’s vibrant food culture and uses fresh ingredients often sourced from local markets while incorporating French culinary techniques. The result is a focused menu of deeply flavorsome dishes.
Anan Saigon was one of our main agendas on our first trip to Ho Chi Minh city after hearing lots of plaudits. The restaurant does have ala carte menu but we can’t miss the opportunity to try the unique tasting menu. There were 4 different tasting menus from Chef’s tasting menu, Beef 7 ways tasting menu, Sai Gon tasting menu and Vegetarian tasting menu. Being beef lovers, naturally we opted for the Beef 7 ways based on the traditional Saigon celebratory feast called Bo Bay Mon. The menu is for a minimum order of 2 and costs USD38 per person.
We arrived early and headed for the roof top bar to check out the sunset. We wanted to have drinks here but the extremely warm weather made it too uncomfortable for us.
We took a seat on the ground floor and started off with a bottle of Prosecco to whet our appetite.
Soon after, the food came pouring in…
We loved all the courses but our favorite was the Pho Dac Biet with Wagyu rare beef, beef ribs, marrow and black truffles. The Wagyu beef was like butter in our mouth and the bone marrow slid off the bone like a water slide. Even the noodles and broth was simply out of this world. Easily the best Pho we have had in our lives. Even though we were almost full by the time we reached this point, we can’t help ourselves but to clear the whole bowl.
The overall dining experience including the service of the staff exceeded our expectations. We would really liked to try the other tasting menus but we had little time left in Saigon. If we were to visit Saigon again in future, Anan Saigon would definitely be on our main agenda.
Anan Saigon
Address: 89 Tôn Thất Đạm, Bến Nghé, Ho Chi Minh City, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam
Phone: +84 90 479 29 20
Web: anansaigon.com
Also if you haven’t heard of the $100 Pho and $100 Banh Mi, you can get it here at Anan Saigon. Imagine paying 10x for these Vietnamese street food. Worth a try? Find out more from the video here. $100 Vietnamese spring roll next??
