Viet Lang Restaurant

After watching a performance at the Arts House, my friend and I were hungry and so decided on the spur of the moment to grab a bite at Viet Lang which was right next door. The restaurant's decor is elegant and quiet - would be nice for a romantic evening.

I ordered the mango, papaya and shrimp salad, while my friend ordered the vegetable curry. Both were absolutely delicious. My salad came with large round pieces of keropok - the idea being to use the keropok as little biteable bowls for the salad - which really made the dish alot yummier. The waiter explained the process very helpfully, which I was glad for - otherwise I would have unknowingly eaten them separately! The dressing was full of flavour without being overwhelming, and the shrimp was good and fresh. My friend's curry was hearty and extremely tasty without being over-spiced.

I have to say that the service we received was truly excellent. We were never kept waiting very long, and all the servers were polite to a fault. My friend ordered lemongrass tea (so good with honey!) and the waiter brought me a cup just in case I wanted to try some too. At the end of the evening my friend needed to break a large note and when the server discovered that he didn't have enough small change in the restaurant till, instead of asking us to use another means of payment, he walked over to a neighbouring restaurant to make change for us! Without any complaint, and speedily accomplished. That's first class service right there.

Only (very minor) complaint - the curry dish didn't come with rice; you had to order it separately. And this place isn't extremely expensive, but it's not cheap either (although I suppose that's a given for most restaurants in the area!). My salad was $16, my friend's curry was about $20 with the rice, and the (pot) of lemongrass tea was $7. Our dishes were considered small entrees/appetizers, I think, because the larger entrees with meat/fish etc. were priced in the $30s to $40s.

Nevertheless, I was very content with the size of my meal, and it was a great dining experience all in all, so I think it was money well spent.

Been wanting to try ths place following all the positive reviews.

So we went on a sunday for lunch. I enjoyed the food and ambience, but the prices were very steep ($17 for a bowl of beef pho ??) and the portions were not generous to warrant the pricing in my opinion.

I enjoyed the Imperial rolls and my cold noodles, we shared the pomelo prawn salad which was refreshing and good and served with prawn crackers. Husby enjoyed the beef noodles but was disappointed by the very scant portion, the chicken pho that my 2 young kids shared was barely enough ($17) for two small eaters. The iced drip coffee was good but for $7, I will settle for Yakun! Other diners seemed to be enjoying their food around us as well.

Niceplace for a change, attentive service and cosy enough with decent and fresh food, but the sting from the bill will keep me away for awhile!

This place takes the medal for top Viet cuisine, in my book.

The dishes here are every bit as good as Indochine, without the hoopla and fancy pricing.

We were four guys out for a mini reunion boys-nite-out, and the restaurant didn't disappoint. The premise was cosy and understated, and the service was efficient, attentive and unobtrusive.

We ordered a bunch of food (too much, probably), with lots of Viet beer and a bottle of wine. I was particularly amused to learn that our Viet beer was named "Ba ba ba" - I quipped to one of our group that it was the cry of his love interest in New Zealand.

The appetizers (Imperial Roll, Papaya Salad, Shrimp on sugar cane stick, and more) were all exquisite, and I especially appreciated the good dollop of mint leaves and lettuce. The main courses (braised beef, black cod, chicken, eggplant, fried rice) were generous in portion and very tasty. The desserts were ok, although we were a bit disappointed that they'd run out of banana fritters.

Obviously, I am coming back. I'm especially looking forward to trying their Pho noodles for lunch - if this passes muster, Viet Lang will join my canon of great eats in Singapore.

p.s. I returned recently to try the pho noodles for lunch, along with the pomelo salad and banana fritters. No disappointments all around.

I've only had really good meals here. The ingredients are always fresh and generous without being overbearingly so.

In fact, I could stop this restaurant review right now as that's really all one should ever need to know. I mean how many restaurants can one say that about? But since my opinion only means a great deal to myself only, I'll elaborate further...

Starters: Beef mince wrapped in leaves (with rice sheets, salad, herbs), imperial rolls, 'healthy' summer rolls, etc. All nicely done.

Salads: usual culprits: green mango, pomelo, beef: all bitingly fresh in a nice portion with all the trimmings.

Mains: Hot pot for 2 (v good, free beef stock top up) is great and a real bargain, prawns cooked in a coconut in its own juice (about 10 sweet bouncingly fresh prawns- $23), the pho has fragrant herby tones in a pleasantly beefy stock.
Most mains are $16-20 with crab ($36) and lobster ($44) dishes costing more.

Desserts: Sorry, I never have enough room for these.

Drinks: Nice range, bit on the expensive side by a few dollars. Drip ice coffee is tasty.

Value: not cheap, but decent portions. The prices are hardly 'fine dining' but each to their own.

Ambiance: Nice decor, music, and with a nice colonial secluded feel to the place.

Negatives:
The grade of beef is acceptable but the pho deserves better (personal issue here: decent non-Wagyu beef cannot be found in Sg. Yes, nice beef without the 70% fat can and does exist).

The frogs legs fried rice has what I believe to be frozen legs which is disappointing (but quite common for restaurants, just like eel, I suppose)- but the rice is so moreish so forgiveable.

Its true that the food is not the most authentic, but I care more about decent food then authenticity. In any case they are catering for a Sg taste so I guess allowances must be made.

Most of the (predominantly Viet) wait staff do not speak English, so some 'authentic' language problems can be experienced. Ha ha!

Biggest gripe and also a bonus is why is this place always so empty!! (a bit like Cugini). It really kills the ambiance, the place has no buzz- its too Zen for me.

But I never have to book to get a window side table so its a fantastic standby (apparently they were really busy this Sat, I really wanted to ask how many covers did they do but decency and courtesy stopped me).

Can anyone else suggest a better Viet restaurant is Sg?

I just came back from my lunch! Had the beef cold noodles there & of course the imperial roll! My friend had a stir fried glass noodles with softshell crab...

They were soooooooo generous in the beef & I was full by just eating the beef. The taste of the beef has a little (just nice) of sweet sauce & I just want MORE!

Can I just say all these are the must try!?!?!

We (My wifey, another gal friend and me) were actually enticed to try out this restaurant because of the super good review of this place. With all the hype, of course we went there with a high expectation.

In the beginning, we were actually quite impress with the atmosphere and the decoration. It’s lovely and feel very comfortable. Everything was going nicely, until the waiter start to speak. Can you imagine that you went into a fine dining restaurant and the waitress can't pronounce or speak in proper English? We were certainly not impressed. For the menu presentation can be improve though, the font need to be bigger and clearer to make it easy to read.

So for starter we ordered the Cha Cuan (Fried Spring Roll / Imperial roll), Goi Cuan (Rice paper roll / summer roll) & the Banh Xeo (Vietnamese Crepe). The Cha Cuan is perfectly done, crispy on the inside. For the summer roll, I feel that they try to put too much vegetable inside and it tasted a bit bitter instead of refreshing. The Vietnamese Crepe also nicely done.

For the main we ordered 2 bowl of Pho Bo (Beef Noodle Soup) and Mien Xao Cua (Fried Glass Noodle with soft-shell crab). This is where the disappointment starts to kick in. The Pho Bo, come with a dark colour broth. Why is it disappointing? Because the true Vietnamese beef noodle soup suppose to come with clear soup, not dark, and it does not even have enough beef taste in the broth. This is base on my personal experience from tasting Pho Bo in Vietnam, Hawaii and Aussie. Instead of Vietnamese Beef Noodle, it looks more like Indonesian Beef Soup (also known as Rawon).

The Mien Xao Cua, its just ok. A bit dry, but it is normal for a fried glass noodle (Next time I should order claypot glass noodle, a little gravy for glass noodle is good).

Since we are all a bit full, we only order the Che Chuoi Chung (which is Bobo Chacha Vietnamese version), It's sweet and full of the coconut milk flavour. Give it a go if you have a thing for sweet desert.

Overall, we feel that the entrees are the best part of the meal. The rest of the food is ok only. Service need to be improved for a fine dining standard but the atmosphere here got my thumbs up. This is a good place for gathering, catch up with your friends, first date & romantic dinner.

The price of the drinks is ridiculous, $6 for Soda Chanh and $7 for Sour Plum. You can get a beer for this price in a pub. I feel that Viet Lang need to adjust their pricing and service standard to continue to thrive. Because when we leave the restaurant, Viet Lang only half full, while the restaurants around the area seems to have more customers. There must be a good reason for this.

I returned with my to this restaurant within 10 days to eat. An absolute record.
The food is that good. The service is that good...

A sister restaurant of Via Mar, this is fusion Vietnamese food at its best. For my birthday dinner, we had 3 appetizers - Imperial Rolls (beautiful and crisp, lovely with the dip, the basil, mint and lettuce), the vegetarian salad roll (fabulous with the dip) and the lot leaves with minced beef (takes a little getting used to, but a lovely flavour).

We also had the yee sheng, which is really the stage stealer. With banana flower (probably the pith of the banana flower stem), shredded lotus root and water convolvulus(kang kong), cranberry sauce, chunks of pomelo, ginger and other vegetables, this dish is very much more flavourful and fragrant than our Cantonese version. At $38, it is truly an experience. The cranberry sauce adds a nice sweetness and tang to the dish, which is wholly different from the local plum sauce version. My aged parents and aunt loved it so much we ordered several to take away!

For the mains, we had the jungle curry, lovely chunky vegetable stew with exotic vegetables and herbs, the cod (pricey at $30, but beautifully infused with perfectly balanced flavours), prawn in coconut (expensive at $30 and the most disappointing dish that night), braised lamb (fork tender, tasty and a dish you could want to eat on your own) and a not too memorable chicken dish.

Desserts were nice, but coconut based and very sweet.

Lunch, was amazing. We took the CNY Set B. It opened with the wonderful yee sheng (4 of us gulped it down in no time - Note, enough for 6, really), a lovely fish maw soup, wonderfully infused with lemon grass, a crisp and tasty dish of deep fried grouper fillets (fillets could do with a little more salt rubbed onto them before the trying) which was wonderful with the cranberry sauce and the green mango slices, a fragrant lotus leaf glutinous rice dish and crisp New Year Cake with yam and sweet potato. But the shining dish of that afternoon had to be the duck with chocolate sauce. Thick slices of duck breast, with the skin grilled to a perfect crisp, with a little underlying layer of fat, was drizzled with a chocolate sauce. The tenderness and moistness of the duck, with its full flavour and crisp skin is just excellent. After this dish, I was simply speechless... Unfortunately, this only comes with the CNY set, so GO EAT THE SET TONIGHT!

What is best about this restaurant, the service is top notch. All the wait staff are well versed in the menu, patient and kind, and what really pleases my Mum - they change the plates after each dish.

This is truly fine dining at a very reasonable price. A wonderful atmosphere for a relaxed meal with top notch nosh.

A mustr try!

I just returned from Hanoi disappointed, because I expected food there to exceed that at Viet Lang, and it didn't.

Then again, I have to say that I am glad Viet Lang is in Singapore! Nice plush decor and attentive staff with good quality of food, and it's not even expensive compared to similar restaurants in Hanoi.

Must tries are the jasmine glutinous rice cakes (it came as a side but I forgot which dish it was...), spring rolls and grilled beef/pork. Sorry I don't remember dishes very well but generally, we always have good food there. Oh yeah, there's one I remember... the coffee jelly with ice-cream, though lacking in creativity, was a good way to end my meal.

Well, I have to say that there's a lack of Vietnamese Restaurants in Singapore. However, I happened to chance upon VietLang through the Internet.

Went there with a friend for her birthday and we were impressed with the ambience and the location had such an artsy feel to it as the restaurant was in the Arts House building.

We were greeted by friendly staff and because we made a reservation early, we had a good window seat. The ambience was cozy and it's good for dating spot. The staff were attentive and helpful.

The very sad part was that we both felt the restaurant was under-rated and we were the only two in the restaurant and only 3 tables were filled when we left. I'm sad that Vietnamese food is not very popular among Singaporeans and I really hope that VietLang will not shut down.

We ordered a few "popular" vietnamese dishes such as Cha Cuon-fried spring roll ($14), Chao Tom-Shrimp on Bamboo ($6.50 per pc), Goi Cuon-Rice paper springroll ($5.50 per pc).

We also ordered Crispy Lemongrass Beancurd ($14) and the fried lemongrass tasted very well. We had grilled chicken with deep fried glutinous rice ($16) - the chicken was spicy and yummy and we were impressed with the unique fried glutinous rice.

However, we were abit disappointed with the Morning Glory with garlic ($10) without knowing that Morning Glory was actually KANGKONG! anyway, it didn't taste too bad but normal.

We ended off with a dessert which was vietnamese coffee jelly with strawberry ice-cream. I love the coffee jello. You can actually taste the richness of the vietnamese coffee.

Total bill: $93 - Abit pricey for Vietnamese food

It's a worthwhile Vietnamese food experience. Definitely will come back again.

Excellent quality and true Vietnamese food. I got what I paid for.
Had a satisfying dinner, topped off by a nice ambience. Will definitely be back...