Supper At Ba Bar

Some nights we hang out late and need food at 1 am. If I'm eating, that means I'm hungry and it definitely doesn't mean a burger, even if it's from Li'l Woody's. I need something else more comforting. Hehehehe. Went to Ba Bar on the Hill that opens till 4am on Fridays and Saturdays. YAYY. It's mainly a cocktail bar, but many come here for its modern Vietnamese food too.

The man needs his fix of beef noodles somehow. Ba Bar's phở bò tái nạm was pretty all right! Too bad it ran out of oxtail already. Ordered the usual brisket. Good cuts of beef, as expected at USD12 a bowl. Decent soup. The rice noodles itself weren't impressive though. The bowl didn't arrive piping hot, and if they had left cooked noodles to stand at the side then dumped it into the soup to serve, then perhaps that resulted in clumpy strands of noodles. Aiyah, I didn't bring a tiny tub of sambal out. :P It would have been perfect! :P

The 'Broken Rice Rotisserie' was quite hilarious. Maybe it's supposed to be cơm gà, but every cuisine has its own version of chicken rice or with pork. Ba Bar's version offered a more generous portion of chicken thigh and spicy pork belly, with a small portion of steamed white rice. We chose the pork belly because of the chillies found in the fish sauce of sorts. Heh. I could just ignore the meat and eat everything else because at USD13.50, it was a hearty plate full of tasty vinegared vegetables. Was so tempted to order the steamed manila clams with lemongrass, dill and ginger, but that would have been too much food. Manila clams seem to be an easy staple at bars.

What a satisfying supper. This food is so much better than Jade Garden on 7th Avenue, of which the only redeeming point is that it's open till 2.30am. That said, I've never had bad service at this dim sum restaurant. Speak Cantonese and you get even better service. However, Jade Garden would have been just like any one of those shitty late night Chinese joints ubiquitous across US, mainly San Francisco and pretty similar to London's Leicester Square area. UGH. Nope. DUN WAN.