Good Morning Vietnam, Plaza Mahkota
Good Morning Vietnam is the latest outlet among the hundreds or possibly thousands of restaurants in Malacca. Located at the less well known Plaza Mahkota (The area where Nadeje Patisserie is.), it is aimed to serve authentic Vietnamese food to the locals at an affordable price.
However, it is not the first of its kind as previously, there was too a Vietnamese restaurant in Melaka Raya two years back but eventually went “missing”. I still remember my previous boss told me that the owner asked us to do a food review on them in order to give them some publicity and save their business. Well, I did try their food but figured it wasn’t worth mentioning. You can still read the post dated May 2006.
No air condition, much to my disappointment. Some wooden tables and stools, some pictures on the green coloured wall and that’s pretty about it, the interior design. Tight on budget, perhaps.
Pelf Yeen ordered the lemonade while I ordered Red Dragon, ice blended dragon fruit. Pretty nice and smooth, as there were more fruits (real fruits, not the artificial flavouring kind) than ice / water. Probably a little bit of milk might give the drink an even smoother texture and aftertaste.
I ordered beef stew with white rice, which came with three slices of cucumbers and tomatoes each, a piece of lettuce, fried egg and a bowl of beef stew. The decoration items used is pretty much the Chinese style. Chinese restaurants love to decorate their dishes with cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuces, usually a few slices here and there. While I am fine with the fried egg, wouldn’t a sunny side up be nicer?
I didn’t dig out those beef chunks and place them nicely on the plate for photos. The beef was tender enough and full of juice and tomato sauced based soup / gravy. I am not sure how stew supposed to taste like, but I am on the fence for this one as I didn’t like the way too tomato-ish sauce and soup.
Mei Mei ordered the lemongrass chicken with rice set. From the looks of it, I reckoned the chicken was going to be really dry, which turned out to be true.
I ordered their three-in-one dish, consisted of deep fried and wet spring roll each and a few pieces of lemongrass chicken. I like the deep fried one, as the wet one tasted like grass because of the “greens” used in side, as you can see in the cross sectional picture. The chickens, as said in the previous paragraph, were very dry. Two kinds of sauce were served together to go along with the spring rolls. One tasted like plum sauce mixed with tomato while the other one, I couldn’t really guess it.
I have lowered down my expectations when I visited this restaurant. It wasn’t that impressive or that disappointing, but the question of whether am I going to revisit the restaurant, its a little difficult to decide for now. I might not go there for the food, but a couple of drinks should be okay. Oh, and they should really increase the items on their menu by a few folds, very limited choices, I would say.
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Tags: Eating..., Eating... In Malacca, Food, Good Morning Vietnam, Plaza Mahkota, Vietnam, Vietnamese, Vietnamese Food
May 28th, 2008 02:12
Makes me hungry :)
May 28th, 2008 07:35
When I read the first three words of the title, I thought you went to Vietname :p Until I read, Plaza Mahkota. Ah, Mahkota is quite a famous word now, with the Cheras Mahkota free access road issue just made front page again.
May 28th, 2008 09:53
Urrgghhh.. The beef stew doesn’t looked like a stew at all.. It looks rather watery. Is that a layer of oil on top of the gravy/soup??
May 28th, 2008 11:12
No beef stew isnt supposed to be tomato-ish !!
May 28th, 2008 11:55
lol from here I learned that what looks delicious might not really tastes the nice in real. =)
May 28th, 2008 17:54
No air condition?… that will be sweaty.
May 29th, 2008 00:28
Ah_Mike : No supper?
Simon : Haha. It will be sometime before I save enough to go Vietnam. :P
Chong : Yes, something like soup already.
Robin : Haha. I figured out too.
Wannabe Economist : Haha. Yes, but I shall give them the benefits of doubts.
Neo : Yes, very disappointing considering today’s restaurants are all fully air conditioned.
May 30th, 2008 16:05
Hi Jason,
Thanks for dropping by at our place. Kinda figured out that you and your friend are journalist of some sort considering the cameras you brought. Anyway, thanks for your feedback and your thoughts and we will look into it.
BTW, just to let you know that it was unfortunate that you did not order our bestsellers in order to give us a fair review - the first 3 items on the menu, the beef noodles, the chicken noodles and the chicken vermicelli. And also, coffee is a must in any visit to a viet rest. We have some regulars that are fix on the beef noodle and the ice coffee each time they come and never look beyond the menu. So maybe you are due for another visit?
p/s: We would love to have air-conditioning in our place but notice that many shops that starts off with air-cond seem to scare many locals away? But no worries, this is in the pipeline so no sweat :P
May 30th, 2008 17:38
GMV : Hehe. Everyone is using the similar category cameras these days. :P
I am not a noodle fan and given the choice, I would prefer rice over noodles for lunch / dinner while noodles for supper or breakfast is fine. Moreover, I am not a coffee lover although I do drink once in a blue moon. :P
However, I will drop by for another visit, but not so soon. Probably when I feel like having noodles.
Hehe. Thanks for dropping by.
June 1st, 2008 12:50
Visited Good Morning Vietnam 2 times which recommended by my colleague, who know the owner. So just give it a try. My first visit, i tried their lemongrass chicken rice, of which, i agreed with you, the chicken is too dry. Second visit, i ordered the deep fried springrolls, which i quite like to the taste. And both visit i ordered the vietnam ice coffee. Jason, you must give it a try!! The vietnam ice coffee is really good!In my opinion, they really suppose to have more varieties…the menu is too limited especially for those who don’t take beef like me. After all, i still prefer Vietnam Kitchen in 1-Utama. Hehehe…
Btw, there is another Vietnam Restaurant opened in Melaka Raya. Jason, have you try? :-P
June 1st, 2008 21:11
Yan Er : Oh, is it that good? I am not a coffee lover, you know. Perhaps will drop by someday. The one in 1U set the bar really high, haha! Probably the owner should go there and try, then try to remake those dishes.
Is it? Where is it this time?
June 1st, 2008 23:08
Jason, Vietnam Restaurant i mentioned is located in Melaka Raya. Hmm… do you know teochew bakuteh? Just right the opposite row of the teochew bakuteh (before you enter the lorong there). Very big signboard with green color. Perhaps, write your comment in your blog after you try. :-P
June 1st, 2008 23:43
Yan Er : Hmm, will drive around to check it out one of these days. Thanks for the head ups.
June 25th, 2008 12:38
Hey I found their website. http://gmv.oto.zoomcities.ws
Not very informative yet. Must be still under construction.
June 25th, 2008 13:04
Sim : Ah, thanks.