After our early morning trip to the fringes of Ho Chi Minh City, our guide whisked us back to city center where we had our buffet lunch. It was almost 2PM, if not for the cassava we ate earlier we could’ve have fainted from hunger.

The restaurant we ate in is called Lemon Grass, after the aromatic ingredient used in Pho or Vietnamese soup. It is located on the third floor of a building near the Ho Chi Minh City Hall. The restaurant has a nice, somewhat formal, ambiance. The restaurant has a capacity of almost 80 persons, with the middle area as the buffet area. Since it was almost 2PM, we arrived at the restaurant with empty chafing dishes and thought that we would be eating leftovers for lunch! Gladly, the kitchen crew obliged and refilled all the dishes with fresh and hot food even if there were only 7 of us in the restaurant.

The food at Lemon Grass is the usual Vietnamese fare, though some dishes maybe described as “Pan-asian.” There’s the fresh spring roll with shrimps, beef salad and tofu and a lot other dishes that I can’t identify though. Of course at the end of the meal, we were served with the standard Pho noodle soup.

Overall the food is nice and the staff are friendly and attentive.