This is my first full restaurant review outside of Thailand and Le Beaulieu Restaurant located in the Sofitel Metropole hotel, which has been operating since 1901, has ended up being the best restaurant I have wrote a review for.
It was Valentines day, so wanting to have a great time with my girlfriend, I went into the restaurant with the aim of eating lot’s of great food, drink some great full bodied red wine, and to have a lot of fun! Will did all three very easily.
The Le Beaulieu Restaurant was renovated in 2003 and I have to say, the ambiance of the place is very french with a modern touch. The marble floors, wood and french paintings on the walls, red roses everywhere and waiters in bow ties, meant the restaurant was perfect for a romantic meal for two.
The only let down was that the service was a bit slow, I’m not sure if this was because the Le Beaulieu Restaurant was very busy or this is the norm, however the food more than made up for it. Let’s get into the food shall we?
Here I am trying to chose a nice bottle of red out of the extensive wine menu. I ended up asking the waiter for his opinion on which we should go for and after telling him I wanted a wine that was intense and complex, he suggested we go for a 2001 chateau beau-site, which I did and was just what I asked for. It’s worth noting that there are very few bottles of wine under the $100 bracket, with most wines running from $200 to $600
This was compliments from the chef: a salmon spring roll and a shot of vegetable soup. The salmon spring roll was very interesting and melted in the mouth: after the bite I was left wanting more! Lot’s more. I hate how they tease you with just one bite. The vegetable soup was so warm, friendly and satisfying: it was easily the best soup I have ever tasted and would have been great to have a huge bowl of it with some fresh crusty baked bread while I snuggled up on a sofa watching a movie 
We both opted for fresh Australian imported oysters for our appetizers. These little fellas were packed with flavor and very moreish. Hey, it was Valentines… got to pack in some aphrodisiacs
Firstly, sorry for the poor picture quality on this image: my camera has been playing up latley. Anyway, my missus opted for the roasted lobster with garlic butter and fresh pumpkin mouse. The lobster just melted in our mouths and the sauce complimented the fresh lobster perfectly.
I opted for the slowly roasted lamb shank with white beans and honey roasted carrots. As a result of this hearty dish and the intense wine, I was transported in another world for 10 or so minutes. Heaven!
By this stage I was a little drunk so can’t remember what this was called We were both stuffed after eating the above and the freshly baked bread that just kept on arriving at our table, so we opted to share a desert. Here we have a ginger crisp biscuit with an apple sort of mouse topped onto another biscuit, a bar of chocolate with strawberries and an intense strawberry sauce. This was simply divine!
All in all I highly recommend checking out the Le Beaulieu Restaurant if you a foodie and find yourself in Hanoi. The menu layout is one of the best I’ve seen: not to many options (as it should be) and they had “tradition” on one side and “Innovation” on the other, meaning you could order traditional franch classics but at the same time order dishes that had amazing twists to them – excellent idea!
The bill come in at $180 without wine, including tips and VAT.
you must filthy rich for traveling and eating in expensive places like this!
Lucky you!