Le flavourful food

Foreigners to Vietnamese cuisine ought to give the buffet at Le Viet Cafe & Restaurant a shot.  For an affordable $12.90 during lunch time, you get to sample 10 native dishes, including favourites like rice paper rolls, prawn salad, and beef stew. 

What's best: this place proves that healthy buffets (an oxymoron in most cases) do exist! 

Affable Vietnamese waiters decked casually in red T-shirts bearing communist stars and a simple yet modern decor make this restaurant exude a lightness that well reflects the cuisine it serves. Vietnamese cuisine is after all renowned for not relying heavily on gravies and sauces to make their food tasty, but rather utilising them to draw out the natural flavours of the ingredients. 

The rice paper rolls are the perfect example - there are no gravies at all in this simple dish. Just rice-noodles, lettuce and boiled prawns wrapped in rice paper. No frills at all and yet a bite into one dippped in a traditional chilli sauce will convince any that a paper roll is anything but tasteless. The freshness of the lettuce and prawns and the slight zap of sour from the sauce immediately tickles the senses.

I also won't be eating chee kueh for some time after trying the Vietnamese version. Steamed in little saucers together with carrots and spring onions for added crunch and taste, Vietnamese rice cakes are not only wholesome, but very delicious as well. 

The beef stew was a delightful break from all the 'light and healthy' items, which can make a rather bland meal if taken too far. The beef was soft and tender, and the stewed carrots add a natural sweetness to the dish that makes a fine balance of sweet and salty.  

That said, I was disappointed by the traces of MSG in a few of the dishes, including the clear chicken soup that really didn't have that much chicken. It was boring, and tasted like any other chicken soup I've tried. Same goes for the fried rice. 

Thanks to French colonialists, the Vietnamese have their own brand of drip-coffee that features on the menu. As well as the Viet interpretation of plum and lime sodas - slightly more gassy than the average soda, the fruity flavour is only slightly more than a whiff. 

Despite the delectable spread, there was something definitely missing on the buffet menu - desserts. I've heard plenty about the colourful crushed ice and coconut milk concoctions the Viets whip up for after a good meal, and was slightly disappointed to note their absence.  

For me personally, the main benefit of indulging in a buffet here is that majority of the dishes are so healthy that you don't get that sinful tug in your stomach at the end even though you're stuffed. And that makes up for the failings of the unspectacular items.