The restaurant space is simple with plastic tables and chairs, old cups and spoons, and paintings with nostalgic colors. However, what has kept diners for the past 50 years lies in the quality of each cup of sweet soup.
Ms. Le Minh Dung (65 years old) - the owner of the establishment said that the sweet soup shop was opened by her mother in 1976 and she took over in 1996. Although many people call it "the most expensive sweet soup shop in Hanoi", this place still has a large number of regular customers of many generations coming because the flavor is almost unchanged over time.
The restaurant's menu currently has 133 dishes, including various types of sweet soups and many dishes such as yogurt, butter... Each cup includes a variety of ingredients such as green beans, red beans, stir-fried young rice flakes, jelly, coconut milk, fresh fruits and many types of homemade pearls with green tea, coconut, chocolate or sesame flavors.
Among them, mixed sweet soup is the most loved dish by diners. The ingredients are carefully selected to maintain a natural sweetness instead of a strong sweetness. The special feature of the sweet soup cup lies in its fullness and variety of ingredients. One cup of sweet soup has enough red beans, many types of pearls, large and small, green tea pearls, jelly, agar, longan, jackfruit, pickled vegetables, along with stir-fried young rice and fatty coconut milk. In particular, the pearls at the restaurant are all handmade, creating a chewy and soft feeling and a unique flavor.
For nearly half a century, the restaurant has also added many new toppings to suit modern tastes. However, what diners love most is still the traditional light, not too sweet flavor and retaining the uniqueness that is hard to find in many sweet soup stalls today.
For Ms. Thuy Lien (53 years old, Hanoi), she loves the sweet soup here not only for the filling of the ingredients but also for the light sweetness that is easy to eat.
Now many places make sweet sweet soup too sweet, so it's fast to eat, but sweet soup here has a moderate, cool taste, so it's very delicious. Looking at it, it seems like anyone can make a cup of sweet soup like this, but to have such a harmonious flavor is not easy at all," Ms. Lien said while enjoying sweet soup with her close friends.
Ms. Lien added that the fruits in the sweet soup are all fresh and naturally sweet, especially I love the custard apple and sticky and fragrant stir-fried young rice flakes. "The fruits are very delicious, the coconut is also delicious, eating any piece clearly feels the freshness of that piece. I like custard apple the most because it is sweet but not harsh. The ingredients when mixed well with coconut milk create a light fatty feeling, very palatable," Ms. Lien said.
Most of the sweet soups at the shop are priced at 70,000 VND/cup, especially the sweet soup with durian costs 100,000 VND/cup. Although the price is much higher than many other sweet soup shops, Ms. Lien believes that the quality is completely worthy.
One cup is very full, you can eat it all, not just a little like many other places. The tea is quality, so sometimes when friends meet, we invite them to come here to eat to remember the old flavor," Ms. Lien shared.
Mr. Minh Nhat, a young diner, said that he was brought to the restaurant by his parents from a young age and still regularly returns to enjoy it every summer.
This shop is mainly customers of the uncle and aunts generation, I was also brought here by my parents to eat since I was a child. The most recommended dish is mixed sweet soup and stir-fried young rice flakes. The sweet soup is not very sweet, there are many toppings and some types are quite strange compared to other shops. One cup costs 70,000 VND but I can eat it all because the portion is very full. After eating here, I find it difficult to eat mixed sweet soup from other places," Mr. Nhat shared.
Every day, the restaurant is especially crowded and often has full tables in the evening on hot sunny days. Many people come here not only to cool down but also to regain the taste of childhood in the heart of Hanoi.
Among countless summer cooling dishes, a cup of mixed sweet soup with stir-fried young rice flakes, handmade pearls and fatty coconut milk is still enough to make many people willing to sit all over the small alley just to enjoy the flavor that has existed for nearly half a century.
In the last days of May, Hanoi enters the peak of hot weather with outdoor temperatures sometimes reaching nearly 40 degrees Celsius. Many streets become stuffy and suffocating, causing people's demand for dishes and cool drinks to increase sharply. Among countless summer dishes, traditional cool sweet soups with a sweet taste, many toppings and childhood flavors are still the choice that many people come to dispel the intense heat of the city.
