HCMC noodle soup shop serves one-of-a-kind red sauce

The sentinel crab noodle restaurant Muoi Ot Do (Red Chili Salt) serves hu tieu ghe (sentinel crab noodle soup) with a variety of seafood toppings to choose from.

A portion of crab noodle soup at Muoi Ot Do restaurant. Photo by Han Tin

Trinh Manh Tin, owner of the restaurant, said he traveled all of Vietnam's coastal provinces to select the best seafood.

The main ingredients of Tin’s noodle soup include sentinel crabs, mantis shrimp, squid, abalone, and Japanese scallops. But he added that the restaurant's success is also due to the broth.

An array of vegetables, including white radish, pickled radish, onion, cassava, corn, and seafood are used to make the soup. The ingredients are cooked together for several long hours to create a sweet-flavored pot of broth.

The pot of broth at Muoi Ot Do crab noodle soup restaurant in HCMC. Photo by Han Tin

Tin said all items must be purchased fresh daily to prepare the broth.

In addition to the broth, he created a popular red chili-salt sauce recipe. "The dipping sauce flavor is a balance of sweet, sour, spicy, and salty," he said.

The noodle restaurant also serves its unique red chile salt-infused noodles, abalone noodles, and Australian beef noodles.

A bowl of red chili salt sauce is served with a portion of crab noodle at Muoi Ot Do restaurant. Photo by Han Tin

The restaurant has two locations at 261 Nguyen Tri Phuong Street, Ward 5, District 10 and 65 Bau Cat in Ward 13, Tan Binh District. Both locations do not charge parking fees.

Muoi Ot Do is open every day from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Guests have a choice of sitting either downstairs, or upstairs in the air-conditioned dining area. They can also order the soup through food delivery applications.