If you head out to Vietnam, you must try this special dish called Cha Ca. It is fish dish cooked in oil and dill brought out to you cooking in a pot. It is served with a sauce, dry vermicelli noodles and peanuts. My friend and I were told go to this place knowing that they served fish. We ended up meeting some friends during our trip who did not eat fish so we scratched the idea of trying this place out. My friend and I had sometime before our planned late dinner with the rest of the group and walked around the streets only to see Cha Ca La Vong in front of our faces. As hungry as my friend and I were, we decided to pop in just for an appetizer not knowing they just serve one dish. We ended up ordering one to share and were so glad we did. It was SO good!

So before I went to Vietnam, Grace mentioned that there was a restaurant I HAD to try, and to go look it up on GeckoGo. Funny enough, before I had a chance to look up which restaurant she meant, I got a separate recommendation to check out the same place. I was pretty amused upon sitting down to be shown a small laminated card "We serve only 1 dish." Cha Ca La Long serves a traditional grilled fish but they do it well. Service was brisk, food came out less than a minute after we sat down but it was oh-so-good. And I don't even like fish! I really liked the vegetables that came with the grilled fish, and mixing the green onion and dipping sauce with all of it.

We went to Cha Ca La Vong last night having lived and worked in Hanoi for 3 months. While the food is fine and a bit of an adventure (cooking on the flames) - the service is quite rude - Although this can be blamed on language, there are many other small family restaurants who still manage to be polite and friendly. For our 300,000 dong ($15) we received 6 small pieces of fish. This is truly not good value. There are so many better value places like Bun Cha on Hang Manh where the food is delicious and the staff are wonderful and friendly or 18 Phan Boi Chau where the choice is delightful and the event fun.

Good food but unhonest pricing. The restaurant did not give me the menu or price list. They charged me 800,000.00 VND for 5 portions (total less than one pound of fried fish) just verbal no bill was given. I found out later in internet a portion was advertised for 74,000.00 VND. It is not nice since they knew we came from US. Tip: If you like "Cha Ca". Make sure to ask for price before ordering. Ask for a written bill. They should be more honest upfront with all clients.