2026 Vietthai Trip: The Tasting Menus, Pt. 3 - Danang & HCMC

Nen

1.) Today - Evil Chicken and Good Eel

A great start to give the usual little small amouse bouche bites a vibrant theme, chicken cooked to black and a chicken mousse filling the black box on one sid,e and then creamed eel mousse to a sheen of white hard to describe in a food on the other. Lovely little start.

2.) Sunset - Bird's Nest & Scallop

I talked in my RedBox review about loving a squid film on a dish. Here it was scallop film (the color thing you see) and below it chunks of scallop, squid and other delicacies in a lemongrass cream dressing. This was an unreal dish, the first of a few, and moreso even than the first two bites let me know I was in for something special.

3.) Tai - Veal & Durian

Durian is the notable stinky fruit that is craved by some and simultaneously banned by others in Southeast Asia. Nen didn't get afriad of it, using a light durian broth raised to near boiling temperature to pour over those little discs of veal to create a makeshift durian pho. Super inventive and they did a great job toeing the line close to the edge on just how much durian flavor there was in the broth - but indeed it was perfect. The veal also cooked into this brilliant consistency (where they told you to eat all of them in the first 20-30 seconds, lest they got too overcooked). Awesome stuff.

4.) Once Upon a Time - Red Cornetfish & Arbor Tea

This was the next magical dish, the fish cooked about as well as the fish I talked about in the Friend's Table review. Not sure what cornetfish is, but it was so flaky and the red dust and sauce on top was brilliant. As nice was the tea and cashew sauce in the middle, which was a potent combination for the fish, or as a dip for teh fish bone cracker. On the whole, this was to me the best dish of the night.

5.) Everything Changes - Fish Roe, Shrimp and Rehmannia

The little spring roll type thing in the back was far from it - a paper mide from fish, with shrimp inside and fish roe inside of the fish. Rehmannia is a local spice used for teh sauce, adn the little strips on the left were a crunchy local vegetable to add some tartness within bites. A super well constructued and thought through dish with so many textures adn flavors, however the red vegetable was maybe a tad too firm.

6.) Heal - Sea Urchin, Scallop

Interesting dish, where under the fish tuile was a mousse of some of the spiciest chilies they have in Vietnam and sea urchin, served cold. How to best to cool your pallate? A sea urchin broth on the other side served warm. A great hot and cold combination, even if I didn't find the chilies as spicy as I was led to believe they were.

7.) All My Time - Duck, Nen & Gooseberry

Another just home run here with perfectly cooked duck (if maybe 5% less good than it was at Friend's Table) but some special sides. The gooseberry sauce was unreal. Then the side was a version of a banh mi, with duck pate infused with local herbs and banh mi bread made into more of a classic buttery bun. The two halves of the dish had little to do with each other - though I guess the duck was the connective tissue, but it doesn't matter - everything in this was great.

8.) Past - Sapodilla and Coffee

Sopadilla is the other name for Cherimoya, a fruit name i'm familiar with. I've never seen myself as too much of a fan of the good ol' Cherimoya, but I may have to reconsider my priors after this. The cherimoya custard brulee in the cherimoya skin was amazing, especially when you realized you could also eat more or less the entirety of the cherimoya walls as well. The coffee sorbest was dusted with cherimoya and had the cherimoya foam - and I'm shocked how brilliantly those two go in combination.

9.) Future - Nipa Palm Nectar

Honestly, kind of a weird end because it was a comedown from the brilliance of most of the other dishes. Not that it was bad in any way, just a bit, I don't know, normal. But in the end, I'll forgive Nen for that when the other dishes were about as flawless a tasting menu I've had in a long time has been.

Coco

1.) Luong Dong - Field Eel Three Ways

Starting off with a bang - eel done three ways, each better than the last. My favorite to be honest might have been the eel broth, or the fried eel with some local vegatbles (the second one), but truly all three were excellent and so Vietnamese in flavor and spice.

2.) Rau Tru Que - Local Herbs & Sorbet

Yeah, it was a bit of a weird dish to be second up - take some local flowers, greens and herbs (literally herbs in the sense of mint, cilantro, etc.) and a local herb sorbet, but once you mixed it up and turned it into an icy salad, it was awesome. Sometimes you just have to marvel a bit at the creativity to make some of these dishes. Who would have thought just herbs and greens and a couple flowers could combine to make something this clean and beautiful.

3.) Ga Tam Ky - Chicken Ball & Yolk

The chicken ball was great, particularly the lovely sauce underneath and but the chicken itself was smokey and tart. The real star, though, oddly was the yolk over rice - its odd these more simplistic parts of dishes can be the ones that you remember or stand out but that definitely was the case here. Still, both bites were quite wonderful.

4.) Nem Nuong - Un-Traditional Sausage (Fish)

So at Coco each of the dishes had some connection to street / home food in variois parts of Vietnam, and this one the connection being to a grilled chicken sausage stick. Even after the explanation, I didn't quite get how that turned into this, but who cares - this dish was brilliant on its own with the fish under that gelatin, and the little dollops of various herbs on teh ring. Again, not really buying the story here, but the dish was super tasty and creative nonetheless.

5.) Nuoc Mam - Fish in Fish Sauce

When they explained it was a fish coated and aged in fish sauce and then cooked over fish sauce, I first wondered what all that meant and then secondly wondered if that would be too much fish sauce. Alas, though, it was the right amount. If you just had the fish by itself, you did get thhis beautiufl little hint of fish sauce. When you add it to the suaces underneath which were also rich, unctious and fish-sauce infused, you got a pretty special dish.

6.) Mat Nau - Crab with Grape Nectar

Just an exquisite dish - the crab and scallop was cooked brilliantly, and worked so well with the grape and yogurt sauces underneath. The caviar added another great touch, maybe my favorite use of caviar I've ever had as the rest of the dish was powerful enough to compete with teh caviar, but not so powerful it makes the caviar irrelevant (as I think happens with way too many of these dishes that include a dollop of caviar). I still can't get over how tart and nice that grape sauce was.

7.) Ot Me Kon - Tamarind Fish

You know, if I didn't have slightly better versions of this dish at Friend's Table and Nen, I probably would think better of it, as the fish was cooked well and the tamarind sauce was quite nice, but I just think the fish was cooked 10% less perfectly as it was in those other two dishes. High, high bar in this case.

8.) Lau Tem - Local Prawn Hotpot

Yeah, this was a bit kitschy but also just an unreal version of a prawn hotpot - the broth was beautiful, the noodles slurpily and great, but the prawn itself was so well cooked and then warmed by the broth. The combiantion of all of it was special, bringing back memories of yuor cup of noodles days with all the right levels of associated elevation that this dish.

9.) Mam Com Mien Nam - Family Feast

There were actually two other components to this "family feast", but the feast probably centered these three. First that brillaintly grilled (and finished right in front of you on the mini grill) pieces of iberico pork jowl (easily my favorite cut of pork) and wagyu loin. You would expect those to be great. You would maybe less expect rice to be amazing, but both teh white sticky and black spiced rice were great in tandem. The little tart of vegetables was also a wonderful little bite to lighten the main. I've had a few tasting menus that go this "banchan" style of main plates and sometimes they can lose the plot a bit too much (Masque had this issue with its prawn curry with like five small dishes aside it) but here it was the right level of breadth, variety and taste flavors.

10.) Sinh To Sapoche - Sopadilla

Another return for our very good cherimoya, the star of the star dessert at Nen two days prior. Here it was quite similar in thought - a cherimoya sorbet served in a cherimoya, but here the cherimoya it was served in was fully part of the meal itself, a makeshift cover for the sorbet that had the right flavor as well. I think of the two cherimoya dishes, Nen's was slightly better, but so impressed on how omnipresent this one dessert is.

11.) Coc Oi Mia Ghim - Local Treats 

Three final bites, all jiggly and wonderful and fully Vietnamese. This was somehow the only tasting menu I did that did a traditional Petit Fours type close (though others had final dishes with a bit of same size and intent, but limited it to just one). My favorite probably was the jasmine based one on the right, but all three were great, and a great end for Coco.

2026 Vietthai Trip: The Tasting Menus, Pt. 1 - Gaggan

1.) Yogurt Lily Explosion

Almost all of the dishes this time were different than my last visit 18 months back, except for this one. Always, except for this one. Some of the contours of Gaggan's famous Yogurt Explosion may change over the years (comparing it now to the 2019 one I had say), but the brilliance of it never does. The betel leaf also adds a nice crunch to it as well. Just a perfect start, as it always is.

2.) Chili Crackers

Nearly three weeks on (as I write this), I forget the specifics around this dish. I'm sure there was interesting story or what not. But it was a really interesting mix of flavors, it was spicy of Indian street food, and that little dollop of crab in it was brilliant. Another really nice bite.

3.) Aloo Gobi Cookies

The story behind the dish (a cookie made with zero normal cookie ingredients - say flour, eggs, etc.) is hit or miss. The bite itself, though, is a home run of a hit. This is one of my favorite Gaggan type dishes - where they put something like this in front of you, and say it is Aloo Gobi (a famous potato dish in India, which needless to say looks nothing like this) and you wonder how that can be, and then you eat it and it is just the strongest taste of Aloo Gobi. Will never get it, but will never not enjoy it.

4.) Scallop Curry in its Own Shell

I should've taken a picture after I took the shell top off, because underneath was this beautifully raw scallop with a brilliant South Indian, coconut milk curry, with great sharp spices as well. Wonderful dish, mixing temperatures (the scallop was cold, everything else hot) and flavors.

5.) Mushroom Milk Tart

I'm sure this was great, but probably one of the more forgettable dishes in the sense I don't have too much to say about it. That's fine, there are 25 after all to talk about.

6.) Bread Butter Cardamom Saffron

Now this one I do remember - much like the Aloo Gobi earlier, this ended up tasting like Idli Sambaar. Not sure how, other than the top bit I guess does have some sort of similarity in look, color and consistency to an Idli. Other than that, not sure how it worked. Just an awesome bit, probably my favorite of the "India", leaving that country with a bang.

7.) Pistachio Kabu Matcha

I annoyingly forget what this one was like. I'm not usually a matcha guy, but it worked well here, as did the nutty flavor. Totally forgot what is inside. Lesson to me: next time I do a trip to Gaggan and want to write about it, probably best to do it the next day.

8.) Cucumber 42-degree Trout

This I do remember, and this was brilliant - a Thai version of a sushi, with this beautiful leaf (I do forget the exact tree) as the seaweed, the trout was unreal, the cucumber so well pickled and bright, and that little hint of white underneath the trout was a squid gel - you know, for fun! This was an absolutely lovely bite, probably my favorite dish so far.

9.) Crab Rice Mistuba

This one may have topped it. I would probably go with the prior sushi, but this came close because of how inventive it was. It looks like a little mochi ball, and it mostly is, but somehow it has crab rice in it, and not some token shred of crab and grain of rice, but actual crab fried rice. The chewiness of the mochi worked so well with it. Would love to know the thinking that went into crafting this up.

10.) Uni Ika Gunkan

Uni with some fish I remember sashimi underneath, with I think a dehydrated woodyear mushroom wrap. I can imagine how this got crafted up, but who cares, it was still awesome. Particularly the uni (obviously), which normally I don't like, but when you serve it on top of a lovely little piece of sushi, it starts to work quite well I do say.

11.) Japanese Flowers

Underneath those flowers, that were made out of thin gels of real flowers and japanese melon, was sliced sashimi of a white fish, and then a gel of shrimp on top. All of was so jiggly - a rare taste of layering the same type of textrue somehow enhancing all of it rather than detracting. Wonderful dish. I think my favorite of the Japan section.

12.) Fruits Underground

Gaggan had done this type of dish before, when you pull something out of the ground, but it's usually a savory one. This was a dessert, with some sort of fruit and mushroom cold conconction on the end of that edible stick. This was a dish that reminded me of Borago.

13.) Foie Banana Curry Roti

Another desert as we hit th Thailand part, which was as sweet curry banana inside the "roti" of the top and bottom. It ate like a brilliant, tart, sweet, thai-flavored ice cream sandwhich, and if that isn't just the best combination of seven words, then I don't know what is.

14.) Coconut Soup Softserve

Tom Kha Gai in another ice cream like way! Ok, so maybe it was a bit repetitive, but Gaggan loves to serve some desserts mid-dinner (these being the 13th and 14th courses of 25), so I wasna't at all surrpised, but if anything this was another fairly forgettable one.

15.) Eggplants Chili Relish

This was forgettable, this was excellent, with that little bolinho having just perfectly roasted and then stewed eggplant inside. It's just consistently crazy how much flavor and depth Gaggan can pack into this little bites. It never gets old.

16.) Goat Brain Green Curry

Another classic is the one neon light inspired course to see things grow. In the past, tehre would be some elongated "you're eating rat brain" story on this, but now that type of weird pretense is gone. It's still brain in the sense it's goat brain mousse (it always was), but the green curry aspect was new and was an incredible addition to this dependably weird dish.

17.) River Fish Esan Herbs

Loved this - a brilliantly whole fish, just smoked right in front of you, with an incredibly rich, sweet rub on the fish and that dollop of herbs was so good as well. Honestly one of the best combination of flavors I've had on a tasting menu bite in a long time.

18.) Waffle Coconut Sesame Pandan

The last Thai dish is another dessert with that nice little plush pandan under the coconut crackers. Another great play on an ice cream sandwich, a really endless way to deliver some amazing savory or unexpected flavors in a dessert dish.

19.) Momo Green Peas Ricotta Tomatoes Fenugreek

Sometimes, the name of the dish just perfectly explains what it is - it is a green pea momo with ricotta cheese, and a fenugreek and tomato sauce. And all of those individual elements were nice, adn combined in that velvety sauce it all came together even better. Thank God really, though, for the fenugreek cutting the tomato flavor from the sauce. May have had some other opinions had that not been there.

20.) Not a Taco Buckwheat Tikka

Odd he did tikka, as Gaggan had in past said he didn't like doing the faux-Indian type curries (this or butter chicken), but he can still do it well. It was crab, adn such lovely crab at that. Crab must be the food of the moment for him, as it was everpresent throughout the meal, but rarely better than it was here.

21.) Charcoal Vindaloo

My single favorite dish. Everytime I've gone, there has been some Goan cuisine element in teh menu, but this might have been my favorite of those. Well, that's probably still the Sorpotel Taco in 2022, but this came close. The vindaloo was both the pure sauce underneath, and inside the black-as-charcoal kachori, there is stewed vindaloo meat. Just an insane dish, so perfectly crafted, and so perfectly tasty.

22.) Triple Cooked Goat Ribs

Not sure how much the littel green chili on teh side added, because the cabrito-style stewed, cooked goat was good enough anyway. It truly was brilliant, as was the darker green curry type sauce on the top of it. I had a similar dish years ago at Restaurant 99, and I say this with all due respect, this was a good deal better - and that was a classic dish for me.

23.) Rice Spinach Corn

I don't know why Gaggan has this proclivity to have his last main be a rice-based dish. The first time it was rice, a coriander curry and egg. This had the same spirit (and colors). Others had some meat components. I guess it is some sort of kaiseki type thing given Gaggan's Japan procilivities, but it was a bit of a comedown after the insane brilliance of the last two dishes.

24.) Spring Leaf

Hey, another ice cream sandwhich type thing! This focused on three different Thai melons, from teh two dusts on teh top, to the meringue in the middle. Great dessert - probably not my favorite of the three ice cream sandwich tpes dishes, but still a damn good one.

25.) Pineapple, Rhubarb, Bash

The classic lick it up, and while over the year's it's migrated from an early savory course (2019) to the final dessert course (every other trip), it's always slightly different, this time with this lovely Sunflower look. It's always such a nice, special, inventive way to end the meal, just like the yogurt explosion is a great way to start it.