Ănăn: Saigon Street Food-Themed Restaurant with Fish Sauce Ice Cream

Ănăn – street food-themed restaurant in Saigon with fish sauce ice cream

When it comes to Vietnamese food, many people may think of phở. In fact, Vietnamese cuisine is far more diverse than that.

At Ănăn Saigon, Chef Peter Cuong Franklin has taken it even further to make unconventional combinations of Vietnamese street food – such as fish sauce chocolate and fish sauce ice cream.

The menu is full of innovative Vietnamese dishes

Bánh mì at Ănăn is stuffed with Wagyu beef and truffle mushrooms.
Image credit: Ănăn Saigon

Ănăn (literally “eat eat” in Vietnamese) is a restaurant dedicated to innovating Vietnamese traditional dishes. You can explore the chef’s creative takes on Vietnamese cuisine through the menu.

For instance, bánh mì, a very common street food, is served with Wagyu beef here. Bánh bột lọc, traditional Huế dumplings, come with foie gras, and Vietnamese spring rolls are stuffed with truffle mushrooms.

Bone marrow phở – traditional phở with an upgraded recipe featuring Wagyu beef.
Image credit: Ănăn Saigon

However, what stands out from Ănăn Saigon’s menu is new versions of phở. With one-bite phở, the chef turns the traditional noodle soup into jelly balls. Plus, the chef combines crispy phở noodles, broth, and raw beef with ice cream to create phở ice cream.

With one-bitephở, you can enjoy the flavours of broth, truffle, and basil at once.
Image credit: Ănăn Saigon

Compared to the mentioned dishes, Ănăn’s desserts featuring Vietnamese fish sauce, or nước mắm, aren’t less groundbreaking. For chocolate lovers, try fish sauce bon bon, a box of six chocolate balls made from cacao in Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu, Bến Tre, and Tiền Giang gently mixed with the unmistakable umami flavour of fish sauce.

Ice cream comes with fish sauce at Ănăn. Be careful – that’s fish sauce, not your cologne.
Image credit: Ănăn Saigon

Also, the new signature fish sauce ice cream‘s worth a try. For this dessert, a scoop of vanilla is decorated with some caramel and Phú Quốc red peppers. Before enjoying this dish, you should spray fish sauce all over it to mix the umami flavour with those of other ingredients.

The chef is passionate about Vietnamese cuisine

The unique dishes at Ănăn Saigon are the brainchild of the Vietnamese-American chef Peter Cuong Franklin. He studied at the prestigious cooking school Le Cordon Bleu and trained at many reputed restaurants in Hong Kong, Chicago, and Bangkok.

Chef Peter Cuong Franklin and the staff of Ănăn Saigon
Image credit: Ănăn Saigon

In 2021, he was listed by Tatler Asia as one of the most influential tastemakers. Moreover, Ănăn Saigon was ranked 39 in the list of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants and also the best one in Vietnam.

A place for new possibilities of Vietnamese cuisine

Ănăn Saigon brings you new eating experiences. With new combinations of Vietnamese food and luxurious western ingredients cleverly made by a world-standard chef, Ănăn is a must-try if you want to discover new aspects of Vietnamese food.

Ănăn Saigon

Address: 89 Tôn Thất Đạm Street, District 1, Hồ Chí Minh City
Opening hours: Tue–Sun 5PM – Late (Closed on Mondays)
Telephone: 0904 792920
Website

Ănăn Saigon will be closed for the Tet holidays from 31st January to 7th February 2022.

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Cover image adapted from Ănăn Saigon and Harper’s Bazaar Vietnam

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