Bo Tung Xeo, Ho Chi Minh City

This is an awesome restaurant if you want to go somewhere in Vietnam where a lot of locals eat as well as tourists. It is famous for the dish the restaurant is named for Bo Tung Xeo which is a bbq beef dish that you get to cook yourself after the waiters bring a little stovetop contraption to your table. It reminds me a lot of bulgolgi (the Korean bbq beef dish). One order is definitely enough for 2 to share. Very tasty beef that is marinated in a soy and garlic sauce prior to being bbq.

If you are a little more adventuresome, since this is a restaurant that caters to a lot of the locals as well as tourists, there are many outrageous dishes that you can order from too. I finally know where they came up with some of the eating options on the show Fear Factor. I so wished I had my camera while I was in the restaurant so that I could take a picture of a sign that hangs on the wall with a menu for scorpions, cow and goat johnsons, field rat (I guess as opposed to city rat), and worm. My husband and I imagined if we had too of the dishes listed which would we be willing to try first.

Favorite Dish: The Bo Tung Xeo is very tasty and one order has a lot of beef. Definitely enough for a couple to share. I also loved the garlic rice. The rice was fried rice really done Vietnamese style. Be careful though, it isn't like the typical fried rice that you get in a Chinese Restaurant and if you don't like garlic don't order it. Their fried spring rolls were good too.

The Bo Tung Xeo is a HUGE open air place and totally packed, predominantly with locals, which is not surprising since the food here is terrific and inexpensive.

Favorite Dish: Try salmon sashimis (3 $), trout baked in a claypot (4 $), grilled squid (2 $) or the huge king prawns (8 $).

03/2000

This is an authentic Vietnamese restaurant with great food. In the picture you can see the recommended dish, which is called Bo Tung Xeo! It is deliciously marinated tender beef steak pieces (plenty of garlic), which you barbecue yourself at your table. The waiter seemed worried about my cooking skills and intervened, but it was all part of the fun. The service is good here and the staff speak English. The locals tend to fill this place up, which is a good sign. You can park your motorbike in the restaurant!!

Favorite Dish: The restaurant is named after its most famed dish - BBQ beef. It's delicious and fun.

Big hall in two floors, hundreds of seats, noisy, living, crowded and amazing amount of service stuff!
The food is extremely good, service is fast and polite and the prices are dirt cheap compared to quality of food and size of the dishes. Extremely good value, also mentioned in Lonely Planet book.

Favorite Dish: Well, you really have to try almost anything. Scorpions tastes like pop-corn, really! You can eat the whole scorpion, cause the poisonous parts has been removed. The body of the scorpion isnt as good as the other parts, so eat the the legs and siccors first...