This time last year, restaurants across Ho Chi Minh City were scrambling to adapt to the social distancing restrictions that were put in place in response to the Covid 19 outbreak. For many local outlets, there was nothing to do but close the doors until further notice. For others, it meant having to quickly improve delivery services or make adjustments to the menu. But for Saigon’s fine dining restaurants, where providing a total ‘dining experience’ is essential to what they do, it seemed that the restrictions may be impossible to overcome.
However, even the most traditional of fine dining restaurants is well experienced in adapting to change and surviving changes in culinary trends. Whilst many other businesses struggled to adapt to the ongoing crisis, chefs across the city were creating and evolving and providing answers to questions that had never been asked before. Restaurant layouts were changed, alternative suppliers were found, new safety measures were introduced. As the saying goes, ‘if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen’, and over the last 12 months Saigon’s culinary community have certainly proven that that a little extra heat is nothing they can’t take.
At La Villa, Thao Dien’s renowned French fine dining restaurant, Chef Thierry Mounon and his team were one of the first brigades de cuisine to react to the distancing measures. Just days after restaurants were closed adjustments had been made to La Villa’s usual fine dining menu. Changes that have not only allowed the restaurant to survive 2020, but to evolve and expand during a year where disruption and uncertainty were never far away.
A Rapid Response
For a decade, La Villa has been carefully crafting a reputation for providing an exceptional dining experience. With this in mind, many may have been surprised when their first ever delivery menu offered a selection of ‘Banh Mi’. Ubiquitous in Vietnam, Banh Mi (a short baguette filled with a variety of different meats, sauces and vegetables) are usually sold by street side vendors often for less than a dollar each.
Of course, Chef Thierry did not simply offer customers a simple street snack. As with everything at La Villa, the five gourmet ‘Banh Mi’ options were created using only the finest ingredients and combining the most complementary flavours to elevate the ‘everyday’ to the ‘exceptional’.
Described as having ‘French taste with a Vietnamese soul’, La Villa’s Banh Mi traded up from regular street style fillings, such as fried eggs and pork sausage, to distinctly gourmet options such as a lobster, king crab and duck confit. The response was overwhelmingly positive, and La Villa’s delivery service was born.
Since then, La Villa’s delivery service has blossomed. So much so that a full range of fabulously French dishes are now available for customers to enjoy in the comfort of their own home. And it is a truly gastronomique experience when you order from La Villa. Where many restaurants can now deliver items from their menu, the team at La Villa have taken vast amounts of time and effort to create a menu that offers the same attention to detail, exceptional quality and excellent service that customers would experience if they were visiting the restaurant itself. This is not simply ‘take away’, this is ‘gourmet at home’.
Gourmet at Home Menu Highlights
Poulet Roti
Despite the success of La Villa’s gourmet Banh Mi menu, Chef Thierry’s next dish to be available at home provided customers with a taste of authentic, rustic French cuisine. Aiming to recreate the experience of dining in the restaurant itself, La Villa’s Poulet Roti provides friends and family with an opportunity to gather around the dining table and enjoy the comforting taste of home cooked cuisine.
Of course, this is not just a ‘roast chicken’. As regular visitors to La Villa will be aware, every dish on the menu is prepared using only the finest ingredients and the highest amount of care. Poulet Roti is no different. Each perfectly roasted French, yellow chicken is served alongside sauteed potatoes, a delicious flavourful jus, and Dijon mustard to provide an authentic French dinner for the whole family.
Every Poulet Roti is prepared to order, so if you wish to treat your family and friends, please remember to order in advance via the La Villa website.
Le Hambourgeois & Le Croque Monsieur
For those who wish to enjoy a gourmet experience but may not wish to have a full sit-down meal, La Villa’s delivery menu offers two exceptional choices. Whilst burgers and sandwiches would not appear on the restaurants a la carte menu, Chef Thierry’s Le Hambourgeois and Croque Monsieur uphold the standards of any dish that dine in customers would receive.
Exclusively available for delivery or take away, ?? ???????????? is a classic beef patty made from 150g of premium Wagyu Beef. Cooked to melt- in- the- mouth perfection the burger is topped with a generous serving of creamy Morbier cheese and placed inside a light, brioche bun that is handmade at La Villa. The result is a burger of exceptional quality that many connoisseurs will consider to be among the best they have ever tasted.
Croque Monsieur may have originated as a snack in Paris, but at La Villa diners are provided with a substantial sandwich that will not only satisfy their appetite, but leave them wanting more of this mouth-watering offering. Combining thick cut French ham with a creamy béchamelsauce and the fruity, nutty flavours of Mimolette cheese, La Villa’s Croque Monsieur is surely the finest in the city. Served with a simple green salad and homemade dressing, this ‘snack’ has evolved into a full meal for one.
Perfect Pastries
When we talk of French pastries the mind often wanders to desserts, which of course La Villa’s chefs are well known for creating. But the selection of savoury pastry dishes available for delivery are also outstanding and make for a tasty and convenient option for a group meal.
Classic French dishes such as Quiche Lorraine, Spinach Tart and La Tielle, a delicious pie filled with tomatoes and squid sourced from the Mediterranean, all make for a delightful lunch or a light dinner in the comfort of your own home. Served with a green salad and delicious, homemade dressing, all you need to do is put the dishes on a plate and enjoy.
For some, the idea of fine dining delivery may seem unusual, impossible perhaps. The idea of fine dining is so often combined with crisp linen tablecloths, highly polished silverware and formal dress codes. But the team at La Villa have always insisted that fine dining is more than that. At La Villa, fine dining is about preserving traditions, providing exceptional cuisine, and taking care of the customers.
And that is exactly what you receive at La Villa, whether your meal is delivered to your table in the restaurant, or to your table at home.
Bon Appetit!
To La Villa’s full delivery menu please click here. Orders can be made by calling
028 2898 2082 or 09077 19879