A Dinner Date at Du Viet (CLOSED)

Last Saturday, my partner took me to a very cosy Vietnamese restaurant. I have walked past Du Viet countless times and once in a while I would study their menu which they placed at the ground floor entrance. It never occurred to me to give this place a try on my own as this restaurant is located on the first floor and I am too scared to venture up there by myself. Yeah, I am a big fat coward.

The restaurant is brightly lit and I love the cosy ambiance. As you make your way upstairs, you see this nice decoration on the wall.

I thought it was rather vibrant and fetching. And I love the hanging lights. What was I afraid of? Silly me :D

At the entrance, I was already convinced that Du Viet was going to make it into my very short list of favourites. Nice!

The dining area is divided into two sections. This is the outer section. We made our way into the inner section.

There were nice pictures on the wall but I did not snap more pics. We were the first customers for the evening.

Right after we took our seats, a group of young people came in and sat at the table next to ours. I got busy checking out the menu. At every table, an order chit and pencil are placed on top of the menu. Every item on the menu has a code and once you make your selections, just write it on the chit and give it to the server. I quite like this style of ordering.

For starters, I simply had to have the rice paper rolls. There were 12 pieces all together and I suspect I ate 80% of it muahahaha! Notice that only 3 are deep fried? I wonder why. It would have been nice if half of these Spring and Summer Combo Rolls Delite were deep fried.

It was served with two dipping sauces. I am familiar with the clear sauce with chillies but the creamy one is something new to me. It has a subtle peanut taste and upon checking the menu again, it turns out that this is a peanut sauce. I preferred the more familiar chilli dip.

My partner has been here before and he highly recommended the beef noodles because he knows I love beef. I opted for the special with extras. This is how the Special Mixed Beef Noodles looked like.

A lot of liew in this soup.

It was one huge bowl of beef noodles! The portion size is very generous even by my standards. My partner's remark was "This size very ngam for you". hah...hah...hah... There were beef slices, beef balls, tripe and tendon with flat rice noodles.

The noodles were accompanied by a platter of beansprouts, mint, basil and a wedge of lime. The chilli sauce was pretty good and packed a very spicy kick. I had double dose as my partner gave me his. Whoa! I digged in with gusto but was struggling to finish the whole lot as it was indeed a big portion. So, small eaters beware. It is best to share if you want to eat this.

My partner does not eat beef, so he opted for the seafood noodles. But his serving was not as big as mine. 

I don't know how it tasted because I was too preoccupied with my beef noodles to bother tasting his. I suppose it was alright as my partner did not complain. The only thing he said was that the portion was small. And he enjoyed the side serving of beansprouts and mint/basil as he finds it very refreshing.

For drinks, my partner recommended the Lemongrass and Ginger Tea and asked me to give it  a try. I opted for cold while he had it hot. I like cold drinks and I even take my coffee cold in the morning.

This I think is strictly for lemongrass and ginger lovers. The flavours were quite strong and I liked it. I found it very refreshing and this is a drink which I won't mind having again.

At the end of the meal, our dessert arrived. Durian Pancakes!

Even with my stomach at bursting point, I could not say no to this. How could any durian lover resist creamy durian and whipped cream encased in crepes? My partner ate only one and let me have the rest. How sweet of him. Frankly, if I had not had such a huge bowl of noodles, I could easily eat two portions of this yummy creamy dessert.

So was I happy with dinner? Absolutely! Though I enjoyed the beef noodles, I thought that the soup was a bit lacking in flavour. I don't know. I would have expected a more beefy and aromatic stock but then it has been while since I had Vietnamese Beef Noodles. I can't remember what it should taste like. I would have to sample another one, perhaps at Vietnam Kitchen before I can draw a proper conclusion.

What I know for sure is that I will return to Du Viet again. As a matter of fact I did return just yesterday! This time with the brother for lunch. We ordered two appetizers.

The Imperial Prawn Spring Rolls came first. Don't worry. There were actually 3 on the platter. As I was chewing away, I realised I had forgotten to take a photo. So here is the solitary prawn roll, which my brother split into two to share with me. I took the tail end. It was very good, crispy and tasty. It was served piping hot as it should be. But 3 were just too few hee..hee...

Next came the Deep Fried Dilled Prawn Fritters. It looked rather impressive.

But sadly, the fritters were not crispy. It was cold and soggy. It appeared to me that it was not served immediately after it was fried. Maybe it was sitting on the counter for too long waiting for the garnishing.

Tastewise, it was alright but a disappointment in terms of the lack of crispy factor. Fritters should be crispy and served hot, right? Never mind, I was prepared to let this one go. Mistakes do happen.

This time I managed to snap some photos of the nice pictures on the wall.

For mains, my brother was very keen on the beef noodles. I did warn him that it was huge but it was no big deal. My brother had no trouble finishing his beefy noodles. So I asked him what he thought of the soup. Just like me, he felt that the flavours were not strong enough. I took a sip and it was just like how it tasted on Saturday evening.

And what did I have? I decided to try the Special Mixed Grill Noodle Salad. It was 3 skewers of lemongrass chicken, lamb and beef served on top of rice vermicelli (meehoon) and greens. It came with peanut and fish dipping sauce (it serves as the salad dressing here), just like the ones served with the Spring and Summer Combo Rolls Delite which I had on Saturday evening.

This was halfway through the meal. I keep forgetting to snap before I eat!

It was very tasty tossed with both the dressings and I enjoyed this dish very much. The lamb in particular was exceptionally good. Very tender and well seasoned. I forsee myself ordering this again. And to finish, how could I not order the Durian Pancake sagain? My brother was delighted with the dessert as he also loves durian. My only complaint is that the crepe was a bit on the dry side but the rich creamy durian filling more than made up for that.

So that was it. My two visits to Du Viet and there will be many more to come. By the way, if you are interested, Du Viet is in Damansara Utama. Same row as 99 Speedmart.