[Hue, Vietnam] Dinner at the Terrace outside King's Panorama Bar, Imperial Hotel

[klyeoh (Peter)]

Imperial Hotel, at 16-storeys-high, is one of the tallest buildings in Hue. Its roof-top bar, King’s Panorama, has expansive views over downtown Hue, with the Huong River meandering its way lazily across the landscape.

The city’s iconic Trường Tiền Bridge (built 1900) colourfully lit-up at night.

Our dinner at King’s Panorama:

1. Salmon salad with olive, cherry tomatoes & cucumber - a rather retro dish, but well-executed.
   

   

2. Crabmeat, basil (húng quế), parmesan cheese crisp on tomato soup - the tomato soup itself was pretty good, tasted light and fresh, but we loved the fresh crabmeat enfolded within the parmesan tuile.
   

   

3. Grilled prawn and squid with soba - the main course was simple, straightforward and, again, relied on very fresh, good quality ingredients used. The grilled prawn and squid were both done perfectly, and the light passionfruit-flavoured sauce was delicately light.
   

   

4. Caramelised bananas with vanilla ice-cream and strawberry sauce - must confess here that I have a sweet tooth, and the caramelised bananas here, paired with vanilla ice-cream was, again, simplicity itself and which worked beautifully.
   

   

I overlooked mentioning this earlier: the aperitif, the house special Imperial Special cocktail - watermelon liqueur, strawberry liqueur, passionfruit liqueur and 7-Up, was quite fruity and enjoyable - Hue’s answer to the Singapore Sling.

Address
The King’s Panorama Bar
16th floor, Imperial Hotel Hue
8 Hùng Vương, Phú Hội, Thành phố Huế
Thừa Thiên Huế, Vietnam
Tel: +84 234 3882 222
Operating hours: 7am to midnight

[KTLA]

Beautiful pictures (both the food and the city view and restaurant). Hue will be on top of list of places to visit in Vietnam. Thanks for sharing.

[klyeoh (Peter)]

My pleasure. Vietnam has so many beautiful cities, each with their own character and regional cuisine: Hanoi, Saigon, Danang, Hoi An, and, of course, Hue, which is regarded as the country’s culinary capital.

Hueans have a reputation for being more finicky with their food preparation. It’s become a matter of pride to them to “show off” to other Vietnamese that, when it comes to food and cooking, no other place in Vietnam does it better than Hue!

But I do miss some dishes which I couldn’t find on this Hue trip: Hanoi’s bún chả (grilled pork meatballs on noodles) and chả cá (sizzling catfish in turmeric on noodles); and the bún riêu cua (pork-crab-meatballs with soup noodles) I get from Saigon’s Ben Thanh Market.

[Presunto (--> Back in Athens - Goat's/Sheep's Yoghurt every day ... [Fleeced Taxpayer :@)) :@)) ])]

What kind of food/cuisine is it?

[klyeoh (Peter)]

It would be deemed “fusion”, but the local Vietnamese would call it “Western” and seemed to adapt from several foreign cuisines: French, Italian, American. The main, for example, was simply Western-style grilled seafood, but paired with Japanese soba noodles.