The Vietnamese Dinner

Just returned from all I can say is quite possibly the best meal we have had so far in Sri Lanka!

Colombo is currently holding a World Spice Festival and all of the hotels and fancy restaurants have selected a country and in some cases brought a chef from that country to make something special.

Chris and I went to the outdoor festival and was not impressed. All the food was very generic and we didn't sample anything. So when Chris told me about one of the hotels serving Vietnamese I was a bit skeptical. We both love Vietnamese food and the curiosity got the best of me.

We went to the hotel and found the restaurant (They have three) and conversed with the manager a bit.

After taking our drink orders we browsed the buffet and wow and double wow. First nothing had been touched so the display was extraordinary, you just wanted to dive in. But what caught our breath was the Pho' (Vietnamese soup) station complete with a Vietnamese chef.

We started off with cheese dishes sampling a little bit of everything, bree and plums, yum!

Next was the salads, plural, I can't even begin to describe the many different salads with calamari and tuna and even dried sardines. Honestly I think the salads may have fallen closer to a Mediterranean style, but very good. The shrimp rolls in rice paper wrap was so good and the peanut sauce had a mild kick to it.

We then had to go for the Pho' and it did not disappoint. There was a sous chef that added the accoutrements which was a little different as your typical Pho restaurant has this on the table.

Afterwards we made a platter of the hot dishes. Incredible. Meat falling off the bones of the pork ribs and a fish that had you wanting more and more.

Could we do another round of Pho', maybe more salads. I was thinking of a few more shrimp rolls or do we just do what we both knew we wanted to do...yes, hit the desert line.

The deserts are in little portions so you can sample a little of each without feeling guilty. I'm not even going to try to describe the deserts, so good!

The bill didn't hurt so bad, worth every penny. Live lounge music played all night with many of our favorite tunes. It wasn't crowded and just scant few tourists. Two and half hour dinner, gotta love it!