The best meal we had in Hue was at Ong Tao, the entrance is a garage and the upstairs looks like a communist dining hall that hasn't seen much cleaning lately. We could tell the height of the last person who attempted to clean the walls because there was an uneven line of light grey and darker more sootier grey at about 6 feet, two thirds up the wall. The third world florescent lighting showed it all clearly. Still the waiters smiled a lot and coaxed us in and said, yes yes they are open and yes they are Ong Tao despite the two other names with arrows pointing towards the room and the next floor. Well, we thought, we would either run after the first dish or just chuckle how odd it is.They told us to sit anywhere, and since there was one banquet table in the main room filled with middle aged male locals (a rotary meeting?) we had the rest of the place to decide, aside from the back corner with a TV and a lone teenager watching a soccer match. Sitting by the window looked like a good idea, until we noticed the inch of dust, so we sat in the smaller dining room in the middle of it.
The menu was in five languages (Vietnamese, English, French, Chinese, Japanese) and the dishes were interesting: Beef wrapped in mint leaves, Hue style spring rolls, fish in clay pot with special mushrooms. What came from the kitchen did make us chuckle......and swoon. It was so delicious! Beautifully prepared, refined, delicate. Me and my companion, Lieve (a wonderful Belgian woman that I met on the overnight train from Hanoi to Hue) kept smiling and shaking our heads. I suggested we were like the dour Danes in 'Babette's Feast' doubting the 'crazy Frenchwoman' cooking her heart out in the kitchen. We did go visit the kitchen, which was immaculate (if you didn't look at the walls or in dark corners) and there were 4 woman all busy working away. They appreciated the visit and thanks. We appreciated the meal. Vietnamese food rocks!
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