Everything at Vietnam's Best Buffet! Lobster, Seafood, Foie Gras at Nikko Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)

[Music] thank you [Music] hey everyone this is Tim and I am still in Vietnam and the excursions continue in the best possible way I have a friend who was supposed to join me on this trip but unfortunately due to the Vietnamese Independence Day and the unification day their visa just didn't come in on time so I got a chance to do some exploring and excursions on my own I got a chance to visit Ha Long Bay from Hanoi absolutely beautiful I got a chance to explore the Majesty of the Limestone Mountain on sea on a cruise meeting lots of great folks some new friends and of course some exploring lots of activities and of course lots of good food from the plated dinners to the buffet dinners it was pretty amazing and if you happen to be in Ha Long Bay and you're visiting I would highly recommend a day there and if I look a little bit red I am because I spent an extra day there I got a chance to visit Sun World Park absolutely amazing got to see how long they not only from the water but from the sky as well up the cable cars on top of the mountain and on top of that giant Ferris wheel but make sure to bring sunblock because the sun is intense and at night enjoying all the great street food and after all that great street food it was time to come to Ho Chi Minh City hop on a flight and after a little while we have arrived and uh I'm pretty excited because at the hotel I was chatting with fan about uh where to go eat and fan there was saying that there happens to be a really good Buffet here and in fact it's a seafood buffet this is the Nico Saigon hotel and uh according to Fan they have a superb Seafood spread and I can't wait to check that out thank you so much for keeping me company and for joining me I hope you're hungry it's getting laid out so uh come on uh let's go in and just as spectacular as it is on the outside it is the same inside and I think we go up these stairs so it's only around six o'clock but it gets dark pretty quick and I can already hear the cladders of the cleats at the buffet ah here we go and I can see the buffet going all the way down there hey Juan how are you oh this looks beautiful uh can I get a table thank you all right and this is pretty cool I see the drinks right over there and the lobster over there thank you everyone this looks absolutely amazing great table from Yuan and the dining room is certainly busy and I don't blame them because coming in I can see all the great food and it's quite interesting here because uh the lobsters and the seafood are made to order and uh you get a little card here and you pick what you want they make it fresh and they bring it to your table so it's a little bit of table service a little bit of buffet The Best of Both Worlds and oh here comes the wine thank you so much and it's really nice because the wine and alcohol and soft drinks and tea and coffee are all included cheers oh and I got a cocktail and here it comes oh thank you and the drinks are certainly coming Fast and Furious very nice oh very good a refreshing cocktail a little cantaloupe some melon and a cherry what a nice start and uh I actually ordered some seafood the lobster for the table side and while we wait for those I think we can check out the buffet uh come on let's go and we have some interruption oh thank you wow thank you so this is the first although I've looked at the buffet and believe me it looked gorgeous I haven't even had a chance to get any food from there because the service is so quick my table is already full oh and here comes some more thank you so much I feel so much pressure but pressure in the best possible way a little bit of Lobster in the Singapore sauce and more Lobster in the cheese sauce these are oysters grilled and baked and a cheese sauce as well and over there is a fiery Red Crab so many things to choose from it's hard to figure out where to start but let's start with something right in front of us these are the cheesy baked oysters and let's give this a try all nice and warm and saucy oh absolutely superb probably because they were made to order and the nice cheesy goodness is warm and bubbly and can't wait to give this a try again I can order a dozen of those but I won't because we have the lobster next and I think we just need to change the plates and here is a lobster this is a little bit of a knife and fork so these are spiny lobsters I think they're in warm Waters and again it just cuts so perfectly very succulent I can already tell um very nice Grill to Perfection a little bit of butter and garlic very nice um and I think we need to switch and try the Singapore Lobster not sure what a Singapore sauce is let's give that a try all right nice and saucy a little bit of sauce it tastes like Singapore again Lobster is cooked well and that sauce is a little bit spicy lots of depth of flavor a little bit of sweetness sourness and a little bit of spice mmm really nice I think a little bit of wine and uh to a wonderful start of the buffet even without starting with all this good seafood cheers [Music] so what a nice start to the buffet with a little bit of cocktails coming from right over there and the seafood coming from I guess right over here and this Buffet stretches quite long from here all the way down there and I think we'll get a plate first all right and I see a bed of ice and I bet you that must be where the oysters are and then the lobsters which we've already had and yes here are the oysters okay freshly shopped with a bit of Capers and minionette and since I already had the baked oysters I think I'm gonna go for oh some of the appetizers oh okay so this is pretty interesting I don't know what this is but it might be fun to find out mini hamburgers and a martini glass of pasta and then let's see we have some veggies and a Caprese salad let's see what else some potato salad and then a cheese and chicory area oh and look at this lots of good items here and over there I think that is the Iberico pork so really love the charcuterie of the Spanish and the French and the Vietnamese because we're starting off with a fatty piece of our Iberico ham and another fatty piece and some more nice fat and speaking of nice fat we have the duck liver pate all right let's give this a try and I think this has duck meat and duck liver together next to the ham oh and going a little bit backwards we have the Vietnamese chicory a little bit of Vietnamese ham next to the Iberico ham and this I've never tried but I think I need to go for one of these with some peppercorns in there and the plate is mounding up but that's okay we can mount it up some more with a nice spring roll right over here and moving on the salad station beautiful greens and oh I remember this I had that before in Hanoi and that was really good but I think I'm gonna skip the salad because there's just so much more but oh maybe not because the salads come with a deep fry station so we've got the healthy spring rolls and I think these are some tempura let's give this a try oh and then some sauce and a little bit of chili oh thank you so much oh okay that's an old salad no salad okay so I think we're just gonna stick with our fried items thank you so much really really kind folks here and I see up there is a grill station and I think we're gonna come back for that near the end so that we have everything nice and hot with beautiful prime rib and fish and Seafoods and then let's see what we have here I think down there is the dessert and we're gonna do a left turn to go into another area with Buffet dim sum all day really nice and here we see an endless array of ploshes and a little bit of fried rice just a little bit because this will serve as something to soak up all the sauce speaking of sauces I think oh wonderful chicken but I think I'll skip that one and let's see what's in here this is Ratatouille like the cartoon okay some potatoes so this is the grilled beef but it is empty and it's just as well because there's a fantastic grilled beef station there and this is sea bass oh wonderful let's grab a little bit on the bed of rice and let's see okay so this is food beef shank with a lot of sauce let's go here okay nice and Luscious and steam clams in a wonderful Curry type sauce with curry leaves Jade I'm sorry these are not black bean sauce but I'm sure they're just as good right over here and there's so much more here but I think we're gonna visit the grill station let's see what they have and this is a wonderful Grill station and I see some more food I think this is foie gras and all the chefs working so hard hi chef hi can I get a piece okay thank you [Music] Chef thank you so much oh look at this absolutely gorgeous so I had to cut the uh visit short because we had the fog rocks and I saw all those grilled Meats there and we'll take it back for that but I just don't want this to get cold let's give that a try a little bit of bread I think this is a plum or something sweet and we'll try oh that just cuts like air that is so soft a little bit crispy right here let's give this a try um that just melts in the mouth that is absolutely rich and decadent fattiness in the best possible way a little bit of crispiness and a sweet tart Plum at the bottom just to cut everything nicely and balance it out the buffets in Vietnam just keeps getting better and better than going from strength to strength and I think we need to try a little bit of the traditional rice roll a little bit of sauce very good nice and fresh and the wrapper is nice and thin and really herbaceous really strong kick from the herbs and that little bit of pork or beef really good just a little bit of more sauce um really good oh and some things come in I just want to sure so I did not order the lobster with cheese yet but an ill Dalton Lobster is a good lobster let's give it a try okay so this looks pretty good and uh just a heads up the lobsters are unlimited so uh it's not really a mistake but uh just a mistake of inclusion which is the best possible mistake ever really cooked nicely oh that is piping hot I'm not sure if you can see all the Steam and this is one of the rare times where I get a really really nice piping hot Lobster a lot of the times when I'm in buffets I'm filming and getting everything on the plate so this is a nice treat oh gotta dig into the head because there's more cheesy goodness oh not so good a little bit more but now that we've got the hot items out of the way let's try the appetizers and there's still so much food and I think we need to strategize I think we need to combine everything together have a little bit of crackers a little bit of the duck Pate topped with a fatty piece of ibirical ham that I think this one I'm going to give it a try just as is oh so delicate fatty and so much aroma in the most delicate sense even the app is are top-notch because that is a perfect combination a foundation of crispy crackers with a luscious moussey liver pate and the aromatic iberical ham hmm so good and finally you gotta try those fried items okay now these are cold but that is worth it nice and crispy and inside I'm not sure what it is I think it's some veggies and I think there might be some seafood in there just a little bit more sauce makes all the difference hmm and finally we have the surf and turf which is the beef shank and the sea bass on a bed of rice and I think we should give the sea bass a try okay and that cuts nicely give that a try so tender I'm gonna try the beef next this is beef shank and I can already tell don't even need to cut it it's so soft and tender and it is luscious silky sauce and just as tender and silky as the beef is with striations of tendons that are just melting so I'm gonna finish all this up and then I will take you back for some more oh this is absolutely out of this world round one I guess this is round two technically is complete and that was a lot of food and this is the last remaining bit oh very good and those clams were absolutely delicious that sauce was a Thai curry sauce and Jade would be proud and remember that skewer that I didn't know what exactly what it was well I think it's a smoked fish of some sort and of course the Vietnamese ham lots of textures so flavorful and I think with that let's go for a lot of the Hot Wheels station and more hot food cheers but let's go pass the lobster again and we can see the grill station part two over there but I am walking past this because experience has taught me to go for some of the other foods and save that one for last and let's see oh look at this so a station of steaming goodness and that looks wonderfully soothing I think this is hot pot and I think what you can do is select a few items here and then they'll cook it up for you but I think I'm gonna skip that because we have this bright array of seafood goodness and we have starting off we have some mussels some octopus now I'm going to give this a try this isn't my favorite but it's always nice to try new things and it does actually look pretty good so more oysters let's give this one a try oh absolutely succulent and we'll keep this as a pair and I know these are fresh because I saw Chef hard at work grilling up all this wonderful seafood and more shrimp we have one of the Crusty crustaceans right over here and moving on let's see hi there so normally I stay away from the pastas but they look so good and small portions foreign thank you Jimmy great pasta here from Jimmy and I think a little bit of Parmesan cheese and just a touch of chili flakes not too much and keeping to the Italian theme we have the pizza under the bright lights and oh this is interesting that does not look like Italian but that is lotus cake with shrimp taking a bit of a suntan it is bright and I see some seafood spring rolls with the shells attached and finally we are back at the grill station with wonderful sauces and some nice roasts and normally I'm not a big fan of tomatoes but these veggies look so good because they are drenched in bread crumbs and butter and some potato and let's see what else they have so they have a seafood Dish as well mellow mellow fun to say and some scallops oh my goodness and it gets better some more plated dishes Ife everything looks so good can I try a little bit of the beef and maybe some fish thank you sir oh way too much oh okay scared me for a little bit but that looks more like it nice and succulent and thin so we have some wonderful sauces here so I'm not sure if you can see under the bright lights but this is pepper sauce the traditional then mushroom and wasabi sauce and a blue cheese sauce I think I'm gonna be a little bit adventurous let's try the blue cheese okay look at that drizzled on the beef and maybe a potato I'm here a little bit of mushroom sauce maybe for the salmon oh and what the heck will go for tomato right next to the potatoes and we got the best of both worlds a tomato a potato here we go so this time I'm in a little bit of trouble this is the first time there's too many plates on the table and I didn't expect the lobster to appear but it's nice that it does I think I'm just gonna swish this around here we go and that's much better let me show you all this food here so the lobster I did not expect but it was nice of them to bring a little bit of Italian style and we've got the grilled foods that will have to have immediately but right after we try the beef and the salmon from fate we have to dig into this post taste let's give this a try wonderful fat there cut this up and this is the blue cheese sauce all right let's give this a try um wonderfully tender with some nice fatty goodness and that Luchi sauce makes all the difference meat is kind of nice and light and the sauce gives it an extra kick very nice and a little bit of salmon with the mushroom sauce thank you very nice I was afraid by the look of it that the salmon might be dry but it is sliced so thinly and crispy on the outside but still very moist on the inside hmm very good let's try the grill plate I'm really curious as to what that Lotus root and shrimp cake is let's give it a try nice and crispy and I think at the bottom is a disc of lotus root with some shrimp mousse on top all fried very good just gonna dig into the pasta so a little bit surprised that there is no Puff but this is just as good or very different um very garlicky and wonderfully oily and I think at this time we have to do some strategizing I think we need to combine a couple of dishes together so maybe a little bit of the scallops in the pasta with more sauce all together making it a perfect big bite hmm a little bit of angel hair pasta with a little bit of spiciness from the chili and that succulent Saucy scallop with the mushrooms and I think this might be Abalone as well very nice hmm so I think I'm gonna work hard and finish up all these plates and and again that was unexpected but that's okay always nice to be greeted by the lobster and we'll take you back so really getting full here and that last round was fantastic that scallop dish beneath there was a pork musi Pate really delicious and that's spring roll nice and crispy with a shrimp paste inside and they were nice enough to give me some gloves to attack the crab with gusto and that was a bit of work those shells are thick and apologies to the table next to me with shells flying every which way and those shrimp were absolutely delicious kind of like the Crawfish start with the head and finish with the tail and now I think it's time for dessert and unfortunately I think I missed the Sushi Station but uh that's okay let's go for some dessert all right so grab a plate all right and they certainly have a nice variety here really nice to see the hard-working folks here keeping everything well stocked and I think these are the special cake of the day and I think they have two let's give this a try here and it's other specialty oh and they have more I'm gonna skip the cupcakes and as tempting as those cakes on top look I think I will skip those since I do have the special cake of the day but I don't think I'm gonna skip this always love a red velvet cake oh and I think I'm in trouble because the chocolate cake and the Japanese matcha cake all looks so good this is such a dilemma and one of the best problems to have but look at this as Paul Hollywood would say a nice sponge and as Peru would say very boozy let's give this a try all right how about right next to the red velvet and there's more more cakes here and I think this one I know there's way too much but look at that moussey take with the foundation of sponge at the bottom I think that might be a Japanese cheesecake at the top one remaining spot left that's not gonna stop us because there's more and bypassing the fruit I see we have little pots of goodness so this looks pretty interesting try for I think this is a matcha moose and this might be blueberry something healthy right here stay and we have some more colorful ones here let's see oh look at this this looks like a Japanese fish cake in custard form all right I'm trying to restrain myself because I do want to try each and every one of these but maybe just one more and that last one will be something that looks like an espresso shot in Moose form and that is the dessert wish me luck back to the table that was a harrowing walk back from the dessert station to the table but we've got everything we need here I did go for the Japanese matcha cake and this was the one that was a bit worrying some and the desserts and this is not dessert this is porch Sushi and I couldn't resist so we'll wait for the dessert and let's go for the sushi with the ikara on top beautifully torched and then a little bit of soy sauce so dunk it in here oh that is so good still worth the detour the salmon is wonderfully soft slightly charred and a little bit of pop with the ikara very good um so I guess it's time for dessert which one to try first I think we need to go for the dessert of the day the special dessert of the day oh that just cuts so nicely um so light yet creamy and that is blueberry with layers of cake okay the special dessert number two oh and that again cuts wonderfully so many layers even lighter than the first wonderfully moist cake and a little bit of Mango Tropical music goodness and finally the Japanese Swiss roll or do you call this the Swiss Japanese roll and I like it because there is more filling than cake oh and it's so soft with a little I think that's red bean or some plum in the middle oh all right if you're here at Nico Saigon and you're here at the buffet you have to get that dessert this is just absolutely light and Luscious not sure what all these flavors are but they just marry so well together Perfect Harmony very good oh so that I can go for 12 of those and you know what I think I will so this is laboratory at Nico Saigon here in Ho Chi Minh City fantastic folks like Jimmy and Faye and and all the good servers that just keep passing you on Seafood after Seafood with oysters and lobster fill your heart's content and then even then they still give you more really enjoyable here and I do notice uh the buffets here and the food here just keeps getting better and better and going from strength to strength can't wait to see what's next and with all the rich food this is absolutely necessary cheers to you come on very good so thank you so much for joining again really grateful that you can keep me company and also grateful to get to visit and share these experiences together uh virtually and hopefully in person as well and I really cherish this community so a special shout out to John and bethan uh congratulations to the happy couple and also a special shout out to Marissa and Ashley and uh Ashley hope you're keeping well and staying strong all the best to you and again really appreciate all this interaction here so again uh this is a really good time here in Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City so uh I hope you're keeping well I hope you're traveling well uh take care of each other and God bless bye bye for now and I think I'm gonna go for that dessert that's been giving me so much trouble coming back let's see oh hopefully it's worth it when it is

Channel: Tim Lee

Views: 214,588

Keywords: Best Seafood Buffet in Vietnam, Best Seafood in Vietnam, Vietnam Seafood, Vietnam Restaurant, Lobster in Vietnam, French Food in Vietnam, Foie Gras

Id: qEqswxM_dco

Length: 32min 13sec (1933 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 04 2023