Cha Ca La Vong, Hanoi

Do not go there, it was a joke for us,we went there in May 2011 and it cost us $28 for a few pieces of fish and noodles. owner was rude, food was bad,I nearly punch the guys there after they toll us our bill was $28.

Favorite Dish: Nothing good about the dish or the Restaurant

Avoid this place. It has been featured in Lonely Planet, maybe at one time it was value for money but the guide we looked at said it was $6 per person; it was $10 per person and we needed to ask for more food because the portion was so sparse. Please note, we are not obese greedy people- we just needed more food because the portion served was not at all sufficient for one person never mind for two people. The restuarant is a dump, grubby dirty and lacks any soul. This place will give Hanoi a bad reputation if people continue to be ripped off like this. There's got to be better value for money in Hanoi, I shall pursue that tomorrow night. Save your money, do not eat here.

Favorite Dish: There is one dish on offer here- an insufficient amount of fish dripping in oil and dressed up with some rice noodles to make it look better than it is.

A total rip off, one of the most extreme I have experienced, even here in Hanoi.
The date: March 10th,09.
Starting from the rude madam at he door who snapped at us as we entered the main downstairs part of the restaurant, and subsequently forced us up a narrow wooden staircase to an upper level where there were a few tables left in this grubby run down area obviously not designed for dining and possibly a storeroom, but used as a back up area for the GREEDY owners to stuff in even more dumb ass tourists...
Maybe we though with great expectations it will STILL BE great.
I got suss when an unspeaking male person threw onto the table a plastic coated notice stating the cost is Vnd 10,000 and its just that, and nothing else is available.
Well my Lonely Planet copy says VND 8,000 but that no surprise once Lonely Planet puts these places in their book prices always soar.
Still we waited with great expectation to try these reccommended Fish feast at this hyped up so called 200 yr old establishment.
What we got was a maybe 500 VND [50 cents] worth of food, being 7 pieces of so called fish per person , no bigger than my small finger nail, [I do not jest] and not much thicker than a postage stamp, with a few greens, heaps of Oil and tossed in a hot dish with a fire under it by the young guy servicing the table.
We felt totally ripped off, and looked around at all the other wanker tourists being politically correct.
My gripe is not about the dump itself, or the rude Greedy owners, thats character, but the outragious exorbitant price asked for a few very boring scraps of food and the way they keep filling the place with these stupid tourists is my gripe..
I know when Im getting screwed, Ive been in the restaurant buss long enough to know costs, so we left to do battle with the madam at the reception who we told them it was crap for the almost A$10 per person asked.
After a lot of yelling back and forth,and the head madam getting more backup support at the reception to try to intimidate us, we eventually got bored with arguing and threw half the amount asked on the desk ,and walked out. Even at VND5,000 each we left, that was 5 time more than it was worth.
The place is also a FIRETRAP there being NO way we could exit down the narrow steep attic stairway if one of the blazing fire cookers on each table fell over.
How do these crooks get away with these rip offs.
You know how these rip off artists keep getting away with it, dumb first time tourists, being too politically correct, and not complaining!

Favorite Dish: You mjust be Kidding!!

Lonely planet recommended but it is totally OVER-RATED in my opinion. 100,000VND per pax for few pieces of fish in oil. Avoid at all means.

When i enter, they brought me this card "we only sell one dish - grilled fish, 100,000VND for one". Looks like they really know that they are popular with tourists. Check out the review of other VTs who went there earlier, you can compared who much have they increased in price.

If you really want to try this local dish, go to Ladybird Restaurant @ 57 Hang Buom, the menu calls it “Hanoi grilled fish”, but it is Cha Ca. You can enjoy it at half the price, twice the portion and in a much better ambience.

Favorite Dish: None.

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It's located in the old quarter..Need to be careful as there are similar restaurants offering similar dish. Picture of the original restaurant is attached.
It's a two floor restaurant. Don't bother to ask the staff in front of the restaurant to get a table for you, either wait on 1st floor or just go upstairs. You need to queue in the alley, when there is an empty table just take it.

Favorite Dish: Only cha ca (fish and veggies fried) offered here. You should put all the veggies in the pan. After all get cooked, put it on your rice noodles and add several condiments for additional taste. I personally prefer the fish sauce added with fresh red chillies instead the one with shrimp paste..
Btw, I overcooked my dish as shown in the attached photo.. ;)

Fried fish and vegetables simmering before you over a charcoal stove and eaten with the chewy noodles. Taste ok with beer. A little too oily for my taste and honestly, I think the price is a little of a rip off.

Try if you must for the "famous" fish dish in Hanoi but you could get nicer food elsewhere.

Give this place a miss unless you have extra cash and don't know what to spend on. The place is small and cramp, it will be hard to run for your life if a fire were to break out.

A rip-off for a few miserable pieces of fish swimming in oil - not for the health conscious. Paid 200 000 dong for a meal for 2 including 2 bottles of mineral water. Taste is not bad but for the meagre portion and location with zero ambience, 80 000 dong will be more like it. Even a random coffee shop in my homeland fill my stomach better for less than half the price.

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In Hanoi, there are some eating places you go to because of the decor and others that you go to despite the decor. Cha Ca La Vong is one of the latter kind.

The place is any decorator’s nightmare with its neon lights, green walls and wobbly tables and chairs.

But – oh – the food! The food is absolutely scrumptious!

And the best thing is that they only serve one dish. So you won’t be spending hours studying the menu, trying to decide what to get.

At Cha Ca La Vong, there’s only “Cha Ca” – the signature fish dish. It’s so popular that it’s even lent its name to the street that the restaurant is on.

Cha Ca La Vong has been run by the same family for generations. It’s located in a rickety old house in Hanoi’s Old Quarter. There’s no flashy sign, no line of people, no attractive exterior that’ll draw you to this traditional restaurant.

If you aren’t aware of what’s inside this shabby house, you’ll never notice it or think of going in.

Luckily, a friend had told me about it, so we stepped inside, climbed up the narrow wooden stairs to the left of the entrance, and made our way to the first floor.

Upstairs, one of the waiters showed us to our seats and placed a little laminated card in front of us. It told us that the only dish at this restaurant – Cha Ca – would cost us 90 000 Vietnamese Dong each – roughly € 3,50 or about $ 5,00.

After we’d managed to communicate that that price was just within our financial limits, we were on.

The waiter brought a clay oven filled with red hot charcoal to our table. He put a pan with sizzling hot oil and some pieces of fish on top of the oven.

In addition, we got some cold rice noodles in a bowl, some peanuts, a small plate with dill and Vietnamese herbs and a bowl with spring onions.

Next, the waiter threw some of the spring onions and herbs into the pan. The combination of frying fish, Asian spices, herbs and spring onions smelled great.

Unfortunately, we were clueless as to what should happen next: Should we take the frying pan off the grill at some point? Or should we also put the noodles and peanuts into the pan?

No, no, our waiter signalled, and demonstrated how it’s done: you put some of the cold rice noodles in your bowl, add some pieces of fried fish from the pan, sprinkle with some peanuts and add the fresh herbs.

The resulting combination was unbelievably delicious!

“This is the best dinner we’ve had in Vietnam”, my friend said.

I think it didn’t take us longer than fifteen minutes to clear that pan.

But as soon we were no longer busy chowing down, we suddenly became aware of the fact that there was this extremely hot grill sitting right in front of us on our table. A grill with burning charcoal and a pan full of hot oil. A grill on a wooden table, in a wooden house, in the middle of the maze that is Hanoi’s Old Quarter.

How far to the next fire extinguisher in case the oil caught fire? How long would it take fire fighters to get here in case of an emergency? Kind of unpleasant thoughts.Ha Noi Beer to extinguish the fire

We felt pretty relieved when the waiter finally took away that charcoal grill and just left us with our beers. And the bill…

http://tocologne.wordpress.com/2008/06/06/hot-dinner-in-hanoi/