Situated in the bustling heart of Hoi An Old Town, Lantern Town Restaurant is a must visit day or night, but particularly at night when the beautiful lanterns light up the restaurant. My family and I were staying in Hoi An for four days and luckily came across Lantern Town Restaurant on our second night and soon discovered the food here was truly incredible!
We arrived just before 7pm – just in time for Happy Hour where we could get two for one cocktails between 3pm – 7pm. Always love a good happy hour and can’t say no to a delicious cocktail! Serving authentic Vietnamese cuisine as well as more western dishes, I was excited to try out this food!
One of my favourite dishes so far in Vietnam has got to be the amazing spring rolls – I simply can’t get enough of them, so when I see a Spring Roll Platter on the menu I already know I will be having this for entrée!
Lantern Town Restaurant was already bustling when we arrived, and luckily we were seated in the courtyard area on the river side with pretty lanterns lit above our heads. This restaurant has plenty of seating both inside and outside and can cater for couples, families and large groups.
It didn’t take too long for our entrees to arrive and I had a massive smile on my face when my Spring Roll Platter was set in front of me. Featuring two fresh spring rolls, two deep fried spring rolls and two lattice duck spring rolls, I was simply in spring roll heaven!
The fresh spring rolls had a good amount of prawns in and were super fresh and were carefully rolled with plenty of filling. However, my favourite was the duck spring rolls which were super crunchy and packed full of flavour with the beautiful tender duck! Yum!
As I was super hungry I ate all of the spring rolls to myself, but you could share this dish between two (if you could bring yourself to share this dish that is!).
For mains, there were plenty of dishes to choose from including poultry, beef, curry, salads as well as street noodle dishes. I ended up going for a local Vietnamese speciality dish - the Cao Lau noodles which comes with local greens and pork. This dish is only found in Hoi An, in the Qu?ng Nam Province of central Vietnam. What makes this dish special is the use of water from an undisclosed ancient Cham well, found just outside of town so needless to say I had to give this dish a try!
Our mains came out a little while after we finished our entrees and I was loving the look of my dish. The noodles looked truly delicious and tasted amazing, complemented with some crunchy bits with lots of greens on the side!
Overall, our food was authentic, tasty and great portion sizes. The service was friendly, although the English from our waitress was limited. Well situated in Hoi An old town, close to the river, Lantern Town Restaurant is a must-visit restaurant the next time you visit Hoi An on your Vietnam travels! And if you are looking for local specialities, then ensure you try out the Cao Lau noodles at Lantern Town Restaurant!