Experience the finer tastes in Hoi An

Tasty tradition:Com ga and cao lau are renown specialities in the area that are served at Trung Bac Restaurant. Looks good: A small sampling of the local cuisine. Eat up: Trung Bac Restaurant receives customers from different countries but all agree that their dishes are nice and delicious. VNS Photos Ta Tuan Anh Trung Bac Restaurant Add: 87 Tran Phu St, Hoi An. Tel: (0510) 864 622 Price: from VND20,000 Hour: 6.30am-10pm Comment: Wonderful local food, warm environment in old house space and smiling staff.

Hoi An has become my annual destination for holiday, not only because of its beautiful surroundings but because of the typical food that I had chance to taste at Trung Bac Restaurant, which I believe is one of the best in the city.

Like many people, I collected information on my journey before I left, especially places to eat because I was bringing my little boy who can be a fussy eater.

Trung Bac was saved in my notebook because the restaurant is located in a 100-year-old house and was renowned for serving good traditional food.

It is not a difficult restaurant to find, being on Tran Phu Street, but we stumbled across the place due to a funny incident.

My three-year-old boy suddenly wanted to go to the toilet. While I was trying to find one for him, he instead took matters into his own hands and decided to take a pee on the door step of what turned out to be Trung Bac Restaurant.

While I blushed in shame, and cringed at the abuse I was likely to receive from the restaurant owner, I was instead surprised by the smiling welcome, with the owner claiming she wasn't worried as it would bring good luck to her business.

What the owner said seemed true as after my family, big groups of friends came and the waitresses had to work hard to take orders although it was a little late for a dinner.

As I was visiting Hoi An, I decided to opt for the local specialities, so I ordered a dish of Hoi An com ga (chicken rice) for me and my son and a bowl of cao lau noodles with pork and two bottles of local beer for my huband.

The prices ranged from VND20,000 to more than VND100,000. But when I tasted my food I thought that was "quite reasonable" as they were really nice.

The com ga dish was cooked with saffron with sliced chicken mixed with spices and sweet and sour salad accompanied by a small bowl of chicken stock that was decorated with some coriander.

That dish was so good that my boy who claimed not to be very hungry asked me to cook the same for him for the next day's meal.

The cao lau was stranger to me, with big flat flour noodle with fried lean pork, some different kinds of herb, bean sprouts, fried wonton skins and a little stock and some slices of hot chilli and lime.

Eating the dish I found it sweet, sour, spicy and fatty, offering a perfect combination in one.

There are different options for cao lau as eaters can replace pork with chicken, beef or seafood, which according to a waitress had their own tastes and were difficult to compare with each other.

In fact there are so many options I'd advise going in as big a group as possible to sample the full range of the dishes that are available here. All of them, look at photos, were really mouth-watering.

While my husband was also satisfied with his meal and his beer, I actually commented that beer at Trung Bac was nearly double what we drank on the street.

Yet, sitting in an old house with its original and authentic Hoi An architecture, it made such a price still acceptable to me.

Because of its fame, the restaurant's style has been imitated by several new restaurants mushrooming next to it.

However, none of them match the friendly service found here. The waitress, when finished her ordering, tried to make friends and talked with my kid so that we could focus on enjoying the great food. She was also ready to chat with us when I tried to find out some information about the city.

The nice restaurant also has a creative way to promote itself by hanging two calendars on its walls which allows customers to freely write comments and feedback in different languages including Japanese, English, French and Spanish. Most of them praised the restaurant a clean, cheap and welcoming while the food was noted as being tasty and delicious.

My meal concluded with a complementary plate of watermelon that the owner gave us as a thank you for bringing them luck in the form of some additional diners.

We left Trung Bac at around 10pm, feeling a little sorry for the staff who had to work all day but we received a warm smile and a useful recommendation about a river-side bar where we could continue to enjoy Hoi An at night. — VNS

Experience the finer tastes in Hoi An

Tasty tradition:Com ga and cao lau are renown specialities in the area that are served at Trung Bac Restaurant. Looks good: A small sampling of the local cuisine. Eat up: Trung Bac Restaurant receives customers from different countries but all agree that their dishes are nice and delicious. VNS Photos Ta Tuan Anh Trung Bac Restaurant Add: 87 Tran Phu St, Hoi An. Tel: (0510) 864 622 Price: from VND20,000 Hour: 6.30am-10pm Comment: Wonderful local food, warm environment in old house space and smiling staff.

Hoi An has become my annual destination for holiday, not only because of its beautiful surroundings but because of the typical food that I had chance to taste at Trung Bac Restaurant, which I believe is one of the best in the city.

Like many people, I collected information on my journey before I left, especially places to eat because I was bringing my little boy who can be a fussy eater.

Trung Bac was saved in my notebook because the restaurant is located in a 100-year-old house and was renowned for serving good traditional food.

It is not a difficult restaurant to find, being on Tran Phu Street, but we stumbled across the place due to a funny incident.

My three-year-old boy suddenly wanted to go to the toilet. While I was trying to find one for him, he instead took matters into his own hands and decided to take a pee on the door step of what turned out to be Trung Bac Restaurant.

While I blushed in shame, and cringed at the abuse I was likely to receive from the restaurant owner, I was instead surprised by the smiling welcome, with the owner claiming she wasn't worried as it would bring good luck to her business.

What the owner said seemed true as after my family, big groups of friends came and the waitresses had to work hard to take orders although it was a little late for a dinner.

As I was visiting Hoi An, I decided to opt for the local specialities, so I ordered a dish of Hoi An com ga (chicken rice) for me and my son and a bowl of cao lau noodles with pork and two bottles of local beer for my huband.

The prices ranged from VND20,000 to more than VND100,000. But when I tasted my food I thought that was "quite reasonable" as they were really nice.

The com ga dish was cooked with saffron with sliced chicken mixed with spices and sweet and sour salad accompanied by a small bowl of chicken stock that was decorated with some coriander.

That dish was so good that my boy who claimed not to be very hungry asked me to cook the same for him for the next day's meal.

The cao lau was stranger to me, with big flat flour noodle with fried lean pork, some different kinds of herb, bean sprouts, fried wonton skins and a little stock and some slices of hot chilli and lime.

Eating the dish I found it sweet, sour, spicy and fatty, offering a perfect combination in one.

There are different options for cao lau as eaters can replace pork with chicken, beef or seafood, which according to a waitress had their own tastes and were difficult to compare with each other.

In fact there are so many options I'd advise going in as big a group as possible to sample the full range of the dishes that are available here. All of them, look at photos, were really mouth-watering.

While my husband was also satisfied with his meal and his beer, I actually commented that beer at Trung Bac was nearly double what we drank on the street.

Yet, sitting in an old house with its original and authentic Hoi An architecture, it made such a price still acceptable to me.

Because of its fame, the restaurant's style has been imitated by several new restaurants mushrooming next to it.

However, none of them match the friendly service found here. The waitress, when finished her ordering, tried to make friends and talked with my kid so that we could focus on enjoying the great food. She was also ready to chat with us when I tried to find out some information about the city.

The nice restaurant also has a creative way to promote itself by hanging two calendars on its walls which allows customers to freely write comments and feedback in different languages including Japanese, English, French and Spanish. Most of them praised the restaurant a clean, cheap and welcoming while the food was noted as being tasty and delicious.

My meal concluded with a complementary plate of watermelon that the owner gave us as a thank you for bringing them luck in the form of some additional diners.

We left Trung Bac at around 10pm, feeling a little sorry for the staff who had to work all day but we received a warm smile and a useful recommendation about a river-side bar where we could continue to enjoy Hoi An at night. — VNS