Highlands Coffee

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Highlands Coffee is less ubiquitous in Hanoi as opposed to Ho Chi Minh, strangely. In this particular outlet, it was overlooking Hoan Kiem as well...but the weather being so terrible at 32 degrees at night, any form of night view was marred by the humid weather.

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Chicken Pho (49,000 VND)

As much as they should get Pho right, this was possibly the worst rendition. MSG broth with ordinary noodles and chicken.

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Highlands Nasi Goreng (79,000 VND)

The Dad obviously had to stay true to his Asian rice roots for this, going with a choice of Istimewa - a bland and underfried version of the spicy and fiery. Apart from the sunny side up, the rest were subpar replicas of the real thing. Achar was sliced too thick and hardly preserved and chicken satays were too tough.

I wonder why the Dad has to pick something so Asian in a foreign country!

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Croque Monsieur (70,000 VND)

One sorry interpretation with hard toasts and barely enough cheese, alas the tastiest part belonged to the honey baked ham. One french classic gone wrong. Bread was too hard. Fries were too limp too.

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Pumpkin Cheesecake

Moist and a nice balance of pumpkin and chocolate. Score!

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Fresh Coconut

Pleasantly surprised that the coconuts in Hanoi are really food - sweet flesh and refreshing juice!

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Iced Coffee

Any meal is not complete without their famous coffee, only grouse...this was too small a portion.

Apart from the coffee and dessert, the rest fell short of expectations quite badly. Unlike Coffeebean and Starbucks that do food quite well, Highlands has heaps to catch up. If anything, the view of the night life was interesting.

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