Located at 26B Street 10, Thao Dien Ward, Du Yen stands out as the only Michelin-selected vegetarian restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City, having opened in mid-2023.
It is selected among 164 eateries across Hanoi, Da Nang, and HCMC for the 2024 Michelin Guide.
The restaurant's design embraces Vietnamese architecture, described as "rustic yet elegant" by the Michelin Guide.
The restaurant's menu offers a diverse range of flavors to meet the varied preferences of its patrons. Du Yen’s dishes draw inspiration from Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, as well as some Western cuisines.
One of the standout dishes is Tat Bat, a vegetarian reinterpretation of the traditional Thai dish miang kham - a Thai appetizer consisting of betel leaves filled with a mix of ingredients. The original features ingredients like dried shrimp, grated coconut, and tamarind sauce.
At Du Yen, the vegetarian version includes bell peppers, grapefruit, roasted peanuts, cashews, and dried coconut. This dish tantalizes the taste buds with a balance of sweet, sour, spicy, and salty notes. It is priced at VND135,000 ($5.40) for a set of four rolls.
"There's no sauce, but the filling remains soft and moist, while the shell stays crispy, which is impressive," said Cheru (2nd, L), who is from India.
This is her second visit with friends, and she mentioned that she loves the Vietnamese decor of the restaurant and appreciates the menu, which caters well to vegetarian diets.
The restaurant's team expressed their excitement and surprise at being featured in the Michelin Selected 2024 list. At that time, the restaurant had been open for exactly one year, just enough time to meet Michelin's minimum operating requirements for review.
"Winning over such food experts is both a stroke of luck and a motivation for us to improve every day," a representative said.
The restaurant uses organic ingredients for its dishes, ensuring freshness because, as they believe, if the vegetables aren't fresh, it becomes apparent to the eye, and no seasoning can hide that.
The restaurant also offers dishes inspired by regional Vietnamese cuisine. Pictured is the vegetarian square spring roll, a twist on the crab spring rolls from Hai Phong City.
In this vegetarian version, the filling is replaced with glass noodles and sautéed mushrooms, while the rice paper wrapper remains the same as in the original dish. This dish is served with herbs and vermicelli, accompanied by a dipping sauce made with garlic and chili. A serving of these spring rolls is priced at VND175,000 ($7).
Stuffed bell peppers with cheese is a Western-style dish that is popular among Western diners. A representative from the restaurant noted that Asian patrons often order this dish less frequently because not everyone is accustomed to whole bell peppers prepared with minimal seasoning.
This dish features a top layer of melted cheese, with a filling of tofu in mushroom sauce, baked in the oven for about 3-4 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbly. A serving of this dish is priced at VND185,000 ($7.40).
