Located at 321 Vo Van Tan Street, District 3, Miss Lieng has been a destination for locals and tourists alike since it opened in 1995.
Owner Tran Thi Kim Lieng, now 71, chose to specialize in bo la lot - grilled beef wrapped in betel leaf - instead of continuing her family's pho business, using her mother-in-law's recipe.
A serving of bo la lot costs VND80,000 ($3.15), nearly twice the average price in HCMC. Lieng explains that the higher cost is due to the use of fresh beef, prepared and served on the same day.
Other popular items, like vermicelli with grilled pork sausage or grilled meat, are priced at VND60,000 ($2.40) per serving. The restaurant opens at 7 a.m. daily, with staff preparing meat, wrapping the beef in betel leaves, and making pork sausage in advance.
Around 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., the restaurant continues preparations for the evening service.
During busy days, they go through about 5 kilograms of minced beef for the betel leaf rolls, 5 kilograms of grilled pork sausage, and 2-3 kilograms of grilled meat. To maintain freshness, the meat and sausage are pre-grilled and then fully grilled only when once orders are placed.
The restaurant's peak hours are from 11 a.m. to noon and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., with its 15 tables often fully occupied.
Miss Lieng's reputation has also spread to foreign visitors. During the high season from September to April, the restaurant regularly serves international guests, many of whom discover it through food tours.
In December 2024, Australian tourists Kryssy and Cindy visited the eatery as part of a street food tour. Accompanying the duo was a local guide who introduced the dishes, and explained how to eat them.
As soon as the dish was served, Kryssy (R) tasted the dipping sauce with her hands and was impressed by its aroma and the sweet and salty flavors.
"I’ve never tried a dipping sauce with pineapple before. Vietnamese cuisine is so diverse. This dish is hard to find at Vietnamese restaurants in Australia," Kryssy remarked.
Trying bo la lot for the first time, the Australian duo struggled a bit to wrap the beef with herbs and rice paper. They commented that the variety of herbs enhanced the flavors of the dish and balanced the richness.
Kryssy shared that she loves exploring street food to experience the local lifestyle. According to her, the food and the hospitality of the Vietnamese people are why many foreign visitors, including herself, return to Vietnam repeatedly.
The Australian group, visiting HCMC for the first time, stopped by the restaurant as part of a street food tour.
John (L) remarked that the food was affordable and the restaurant's cleanliness was better than some of the other street food spots they had tried before.
"It was our first time trying betel leaf. The dish was delicious, and the dipping sauce wasn’t hard to eat at all, despite what many people say," John commented.
The restaurant’s interior is simple, with photo frames displaying memories with foreign guests collected over the past 30 years.
Lieng shared that the inclusion in the Michelin list led to overcrowding for about 1-2 months, but the number of customers stabilized by 2024.
"The restaurant's peak was before 2019, and the current number of customers has yet to return to that level," Lieng said.
