3 Marcus Ung - 4 years ago
Quintessence:
The food was somewhat between good and mediocre. Their spring rolls are definitely a highlight. The waitresses were very friendly and polite, but sometimes a bit obtrusive. The interior is very beautiful.
In detail:
My friend and I went to The 21 on a very snowy Thursday evening at 7pm ish. When we arrived only three other tables were occupied. Throughout our dinner only few new guests entered the restaurant.
We ordered the Mama Matcha (Matcha extract with milk, mint leaves, pandan syrup, pandan leaves, and ice cubes) and Papa Matcha (Matcha extract, mint leaves, lime juice, sugar, ice cubes, and water). In addition we ordered the Nem Thit (spring rolls with pork and prawns) and the Goi Cuon (summer rolls) as entrees, the Bun Nem (rice vermicellis with spring rolls) and the Com Nieu Tom (steamed rice served in traditional Vietnamese crock witj vegetables, egg, Thai hai basil, chili and a special sauce) as main course, and the Banh-Chuoi ("banana sticky rice with coco milk sauce") as dessert.
Their Mama Matcha was mediocre. I could only taste the Matcha and the milk. I did not taste any pandan flavour or mint at all. There were definitely a few slices of pandan leaves inside my drink, but if you just put in a few leaves without crushing them you don't get any or very little pandan flavour out of it.
Their spring rolls were very delicious and very crispy. They were wrapped with rice paper and filled with ground pork, shrimps, glass noodles, carrots, and Muer mushrooms. Their summer rolls on the other hand weren't as good. They were filled with heaps of lettuce, slices of cucumber, slices of capsicum, sliced carrots, very little coriander, rice noodles, and cut in half shrimps. I was asked if I wanted to have my summer rolls served with their Nước Mắm Chấm (dipping fish sauce) or with their hoisin style sauce. So I chose to have my summer rolls served with their Nước Mắm Chấm and it was only okay. They could have used more garlic and lemon juice or lime juice and less water to make the sauce taste more authentic. Moreover there was no chili in my sauce. My friend on the other hand got his Nước Mắm Chấm with chili. What bothered me most about my summer rolls was the fact that they did not wrap any mint into my summer rolls but only used a few mint leaves as a garnish. Mint is an essential ingredient in summer rolls, not a garnish.
In addition to the main ingredients in Bun Nem (spring rolls and rice vermicellis) they added lettuce, sliced carrots, sliced cabbage, slices of cucumber, slices of capsicum, slices of (not ripe) mango, pieces of pineapple, crushed peanuts, and served it with their Nước Mắm Chấm. Again they used mint only as a garnish but not as an ingredient in their dish. I did not enjoy the capsicum, mango and pineapple in this dish. I have never ever seen anyone using these three ingredients in Bun Nem before. Moreover this dish lacked a lot of herbs. They could have at least used some coriander and/or mint.
Their Banh-Chuoi ("banana sticky rice with coco milk sauce") was okay. It's a pity they did not use a fresh banana but instead a canned banana for this dessert.
The waitresses were friendly and polite, but sometimes a bit obstrusive. I mean, of course it's in their interest to maximise the restaurants' profit, but sometimes I felt a bit annoyed that they wouldn't give me some time to decide what to drink next or what dishes to order. As I mentioned in the beginning the restaurant wasn't very crowded. There's something else that kind of bothered me. Both waitresses suggested my friend have a beer, when he had not decided what to drink yet. I don't think they should have suggested anything unless being asked.
