Michelin Guide-style 'cheap and delicious restaurant': 400,000 VND a meal, fish fillet in beef noodle soup?

Banh xeo at Banh Xeo restaurant 46A, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. The restaurant has just been voted into the Bib Gourmand list of Micheline Guide 2024 - Photo: NHA XUAN

Last year, the Michelin Guide, which was first launched in Vietnam, also received great attention from the public, along with many opinions agreeing and disagreeing with the dining establishments honored in each category.

This year, the Bib Gourmand list was announced a week before the official launch of the entire Michelin Guide Vietnam, and quickly became a hot topic.

There is controversy about the taste of the food, because each person has different tastes, and the Michelin Guide is also partly a reference for tourists coming to Vietnam.

However, with Bib Gourmand, people have additional questions about the prices of the selected restaurants, because this is a category to honor delicious restaurants with reasonable prices.

According to the Michelin Guide, the list of Bib Gourmand dining establishments is monitored by the Michelin Guide user community “in search of delicious meals at affordable prices without compromising on quality and taste.”

Among the many opinions disagreeing with this year's Bib Gourmand list, some people said that many restaurants have "sky-high" prices but the quality is not commensurate, while at the same time there are delicious restaurants but the prices are high, cannot be considered "affordable".

So what exactly is the “ceiling” for a Bib Gourmand restaurant in Vietnam?

400,000 VND per meal

According to an article published by Michelin Guide last May, since 1997, Bib Gourmand has been a title given to restaurants and eateries with good quality at reasonable prices.

This “reasonable price” is based on a three-course meal including appetizer, main course, and dessert.

The price limit for a restaurant to be considered for Bib Gourmand status varies from country to country and depends on the cost of living there.

Specifically in Vietnam, a restaurant with a three-course meal like the above priced at around 400,000 VND or less would be considered for Bib Gourmand, according to Michelin Guide.

Banh xeo at Banh Xeo 46A costs from 110,000 to 180,000 VND each. The cake is big, enough for two people to eat - Photo: NHA XUAN

Similarly, this price in Thailand is 1,000 baht (about 693,000 VND).

However, the Michelin Guide insists its inspectors hold themselves to the same quality standards, no matter where in the world .

“What Bib Gourmand restaurants have in common is a simpler style of cooking that is easily recognizable and easy to eat. A Bib Gourmand restaurant will also give you the satisfaction of eating very good food at a reasonable price,” the Michelin Guide writes.

Why is there fish in beef noodle soup, Michelin Guide?

The Michelin Guide does not reveal how it scores dining establishments, nor who the inspectors are, when they visit and make their assessments…

This somewhat raises questions for the public, because people do not know why that restaurant was chosen, and whether the inspector fully understands the local culinary culture in order to evaluate it.

When the Bib Gourmand list in Ho Chi Minh City this year was announced, many people "cried out" when there were too few broken rice and noodle shops chosen, or even banh mi, one of the city's most famous dishes, was nowhere to be seen.

What's even funnier is that in the description of Bun Bo Hue 14B - a new face in this year's Bib Gourmand, the Michelin Guide website writes, "This take-out only stall specializes in noodle soup topped with sliced ​​beef, beef tendon and fish fillet."

Description of Bun Bo Hue 14B restaurant on Michelin Guide website - Screenshot

This sentence roughly translates to “This take-out-only stall specializes in noodles with sliced ​​beef, beef tendon, and fish fillet.” Fish fillet? Needless to say, beef noodle lovers were shocked.

Based on the photo of the beef noodle bowl, we can guess that the so-called "fish fillet" could be a piece of grilled pork served with it.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/quan-ngon-gia-re-kieu-michelin-guide-400-000-dong-mot-bua-an-phi-le-ca-co-trong-bun-bo-2024062414331087.htm