The Palace Hotel in down-town Ho Chi Minh City has just opened Fusions Restaurant & Saigon Pearl Grill Bar on the top floors to offer diners a new choice to taste the flavours of Western and Asian foods and drinks while watching the city from the height.
Fusions Restaurant offers a combination of the West and the East that reflects in the food and the decoration and the uniform of the servers at the eatery on level 14.
Evanne Kerr, executive chef of the restaurant and bar, says that he will take the most of his 20-year cooking experience in Western and Asian countries to create dishes for the different tastes of Vietnamese and expatriates. He uses most of the ingredients in Vietnam to make the fusion of new tasting specialties, which are favoured by an increasing number of diners around the world in recent years.
Guests have various options when having lunch and dinner at the 100-seat restaurant. They can sit at tables by the glass windows to watch Nguyen Hue and Le Loi boulevards and nearby streets lit at night or get bustling during the day.
It is ideal for guests to sit at the tables in the middle of the restaurant to enjoy warmth from lit yellow neon lights on the ceiling and intimacy or in the separate room Fusions 1 and 2 for private talks in group. Each of the rooms can accommodate a dozen of diners.
Bar trolley also adds more attraction to the Fusions Restaurant. The bartender will push the trolley to the tables where diners order wines, cocktails or the non-alcoholic drinks, and the bartender will show them how to shake and make their favourites. A variety of wines, cocktails, and other drinks is also available at the Saigon Pearl Grill Bar on the 15th floor. A winding staircase leads to the 45-seat bar on the top of the Palace Hotel.
Actually, the open bar has much more to offer. In addition to a superior place to watch the well-lit City Hall and the heart of Ho Chi Minh City, guests can have steak and other dishes charcoal-fried or fried to their order every night.
The charcoal grill is also good for guests to warm themselves when they sit at the Saigon Pearl Grill Bar at night when it turns cold in Saigon around this time.
On weekends, an unplugged band of four persons go from table to table to play guitar and accordion as well as perform top hits to entertain guests. Of course, they are willing to accompany those wanting to perform their favourite songs in front of their friends and beloved persons.
The Saigon Pearl Grill Bar will host an outdoor barbecue buffet of grilled seafood, lamb, sausages, and fried beefsteak and pork on the evenings of December 24 and 25, and New Year’s Eve and Day. The cost starts at US $35, including free flow of wines and live music.
