2.8 millions dinner - French ofcourse !

What is the most expensive meal you have ever had ?  How about $ 2.8 million ?

One night in Ho Chih Minh City ( locally called Saigon in Vietnam),  Romance hits overule any sanity.  Took a taxi slip in and out as the usual Vietnam way of traffic, reached this not-so-bright bangalow, not that outstanding looking if were just passing by.

The restoran is called Au Manoir De Khai, located at 251 Dien Bien Phu.  If you visit Saigon and pick up any trourist guide looking for Fine Dinning on French, you will most likely to end up with this restoran as well.

This is the sign out of the building ...

name printed on the menu

Amusement starts when entered through the door.  A lot of lightings hang around trees shows that runner of this place did try his best to justify the price he is going to charge for ...

nice stand up candle lights before entering into the house - restaurant

Once inside the restaurant, its pretty dark around everywhere.  Seems like romance is definitely the theme here ...

The brightest part of the room is the roof ...

here is a view of the room

so we finally sat down ...

Its French, ofcourse there is wine glass ... opps, wine glasses

Table setup, everything looks pretty golden just because of the holder there ...

its also a cinema, off the phone please ... great show about to start ...

OMG, even the bread tasted so great !  The tiny chesse bread is the Most Unforgetable bread I have ever tasted !

see ?  Its French ... damn tiny portion, taste is great, pretty Olive taste

size gets bigger, this one is pretty typical western taste

Soup is great, but I wouldn't call it any more French than Italian

I think this is goose liver.  Most of the goose liver I tried in Hong Kong and Malaysia are usually minced.  So this is the First time I have ever tasted a Whole Piece of Goose Liver.  Only now I understand why some say goose liver is the best food ever.  Its so soft and solutable in mouth.  Although very small piece, when reaching the 2nd half, I started to feel full due to the strong liver taste ...

Wine is just great to go with the liver ...

Then suddenly this dish come up.  Its a big ice cube with blended ice cream on top.  The icy cream is very sweet and sour.  This is what they call mouth washer, normally served after the front part of the meals and before the later part - main course.  Basically it is to clear up your taste bud before having their main course.

The thing is after finishing the ice cream, there is a hole beneath it.  Inside the ice hole, there are some liquid in it.  I tasted it and its hard liquar !  But the hole is really small so its not easy to drink the every drips in it.  Since the whole thing is an ice cube, so I cann't really take the whole thing up and drink it like a cup.

Actually you are suppose to push the ice cream into the hole mix with the hard liquar and then dig the ice cream from the hole.  That way, you can finish the whole ice cream and the hard liquar.  Below picture shows some left over hard liquar sips through the ice when it start to melt ...

Da da !  Main courses ....

But the main courses aren't that special.  Basically French does not marinate or add too much spices.  They tends to show the most original taste of the meat.  And these meats are exactly from Saigon so ....

Would I recommend this to all ?  Hmm ... not for the food.  You can probably have 80% match of the food here with 50% of the price out there.  But then again, its a great once in a lifetime experience.  Ya ... once in a lifetime expenses as well, 2.8 million !!