Today, I will review a dish from one of the higher end restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City, which my girlfriend took me for my birthday dinner We had a variety of great dishes, but this time I’m just going to focus on the delicious pork ribs which I got to taste.

Sườn nướng lá chanh from “Mountain Retreat” in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City

This restaurant is on the rooftop of a building right near the city centre, and you can get a great view of the city from there. However, you have to be physically (and mentally) be prepared, as you will need to climb five flights of stairs in order to reach the restaurant, since the building has no elevator. Plus, the building containing the restaurant is very difficult to find as well if you’ve never been there, with not many signs leading the way—my girlfriend and I mistakingly climbed the opposite building and therefore had to climb about nine flights of stairs in total

The restaurant has a very nice atmosphere—a beach house-like theme, a dim & warm romantic lighting, and a very nice night view of Ho Chi Minh City from the balcony. The staff were kind and attentive too. As it had rained earlier that day, balcony seats weren’t accessible, but we could still see the night view well from where we sat (about five metres from the balcony). We ordered quite a few dishes that evening, but today I’m just focusing on reviewing the pork ribs we had there, which was served first up.

The ribs smelt very nice—a wonderful fusion of spices, meat, and a slightly burnt aroma. Feeling extremely hungry after the unexpected exercise, it was too difficult to hold back until other dishes arrived and decided to start. I first took a bite without any sauce. I could feel that the meat was really soft and tender, and didn’t need much effort to bite off at all. Chewing on the meat, the juices erupted inside my mouth and I could feel a sensation of flavours dancing on my tongue. As my girlfriend once explained to me, Vietnamese dishes tend to have a ‘vertical’ flavouring, while other Asian food, such as Chinese food, have a ‘horizontal’ flavour profile. It’s a bit vague, but one way to picture this is that Vietnamese food have layers of spices, and you can feel each layer of flavour separately while enjoying the dish. You can definitely feel this in this dish, where it takes you on a journey of different flavours from the moment you put it on your tongue to until you swallow it.

The dipping sauce, although made mainly from chilli, was only just a tiny bit spicy. Instead, it brought out some flavours in the ribs which may have been missed otherwise. The flavour of the sauce itself is quite subtle—just a light flavour of chilli and lime, and not so sour either, compared to common Western style chilli sauces like Tabasco. The sauce simply made the ribs more refreshing without completely overruling the taste of the ribs, just complementing in a very positive way.

Overall rating

The rating for this dish is 8/10. I absolutely loved it but the -2 points come from the fact that the serving size was too little, and also the pork dish my girlfriend made for me before was much much better