La Fenetre Soleil – Indonesian Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City

I thought I won’t find any good Indonesian Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City, until I heard about this place, La Fenetre Soleil. It is located at 44 Ly Tu Trong, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. Next to M2C cafe.

The entrance is not very convincing, but trust me you have to try and take those stairs to 2nd floor. There are 2 fashion and accessories shops before the restaurant. I should check it out next time. They seems to have interesting stuff inside.

La Fenetre Soleil is a cafe and bar, with live music stage. They often have event there. I heard that they are very popular with their ambiance. It has vintage touch with some old furniture, many different style of tables and chairs. There are sofas, but there are also bar stools and classic chairs. It doesn’t look like a restaurant, more like a bar.

When I went there, there were 3 groups of people. A Japanese group and 2 western couples. I don’t like that customer can smoke in the room, because of no air conditioner only fans. I can smell the cigarette smoke from everywhere while trying to find somewhere to sit. Then I decided to sit on the table near window. I must endured the smell until those Japanese guys left.

The waitress gave me menu, but it was only drink menu. The drink menu is in English and Japanese. Must be a lot of Japanese people coming there. I looked around and saw all the guests were drinking only. None was eating. Made me wonder if I came to the right place…

I called the waitress again and asked for lunch menu. Apparently you have to ask for food menu because normally people go there to enjoy the drink and live music.

The main dish in that restaurant is Indonesian food. I can say that it’s a traditional Indonesian food, not those fusion type. There are also western food but not so many. Their special is “nasi rames”, it is a typical Indonesian food where you can have everything in one plate; meat, vegetables and soup (separate bowl). You need to ask what is the specialty of the day, because for “nasi rames” they cooked based on what fresh ingredient they found on market that day. It also come with ice tea and traditional Indonesian dessert. All that for the price of 180.000 vnd.

I decided to order “Ayam Goreng Lengkuas” (Typical Indonesian Fried Chicken with Galangal flavor) and Fresh Passion Fruit Juice for the drink.

The juice came first and it was too sweet for me. I should order it without sugar next time.

The fried chicken was delicious, it came with 2 pieces of chicken. I haven’t eaten this kind of chicken for a long time. One thing to be improved is the chicken texture, they fried it too long. The meat is a bit dry, but still can taste the spices on every bites though. It doesn’t taste plain even for the deepest part of the meat. They are using woven bamboo plate to serve the food, covered with banana leaf, which is a traditional way of eating Indonesian food and it’s a good thing, but I found it hard to cut the chicken because it isn’t steady enough.

When I was eating, vaguely Sundanese music in the room! I used to hear this music a lot when I ate in Sundanese Restaurant in Indonesia. So nostalgic! xD

I didn’t order dessert because I was full already. Their dessert is very tantalize. For lunch menu, they have “pisang bakar”, “es campur” and “jajanan pasar”. It is a very traditional dessert from Indonesia. I should try this next time! I asked them for my bill and the total was 175.000 vnd. Tax already included in the price.

This restaurant has a website and there you can check for the event and food menu. For Dinner they also have Indonesian food but very few, mostly are western food or Japanese food. Next visit I will try one of these : Rendang, Tumis Cumi Hitam, Sop Buntut, Nasi Rames, or Special Rijstafel Dinner.

Every Monday to Friday from 17.30 to 19.30 they have happy hour where you can get 50% off for all cocktail, beers, wines and mixed drinks. Shouldn’t miss this !