Saigon Attractions: Ốc Đào, Sài Gòn - Saigon’s Excellent foods from snail

Snail may be a type of food that sounds kinda weird in your countries, but in Vietnam, it’s known as one of the favourite dishes that people love to eat in rainny day. Among so many ways of cooking snail all over my country, Saigonan’s style always stands out with the special flavor that I can’t find out in anywhere else.

The restaurant

I went to Ốc Đào in the day when the wet season had begun. Here is the most well known restaurant for Snail in Saigon, the place that everyone, even the grabbike’s driver knows. I was really impressed because Ốc Đào is totally different with what I had expected. With me, this kind of restaurant is supposed to be small and located somewhere on the street. But this one is extremely big and professional with even the parking lot beside. With tons of people were eating Snail inside the restaurant, I gradually understood why there is a large parking lot like that.

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The menu

I think I cant find any Snail restaurant like this in Hanoi. There are so many dishes made from Snail, shellfish, seafood, etc that you can choose. It’s full of choices, enough to make you confused about what you should eat. Fortunately, there were some saigonans going with me, then I let them order their favorite ones here.

The menu is so rich of choices. We order tons of food. I even have no idea about some of them since I have ever tried it before.

The food

I dont know where and which dish I should review first. Lol. There are so many. And all of it is awesome.

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This dish made from a special part of squid, I dont know how to name it in english. It is cooked with butter, chili, garlic, scallion and lard. The best one ever. I have ever tried it before and I was amazed because of its sause. Incredible. Dip a piece of bread in, and taste the combination of sweet, salty and spicy busrting in your mouth.

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Those three are kind of snail, and cooked in different ways. Each of it brought an excellent taste.

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Kind of shellfish. It is grilled with scallion. Smell so attractive and the taste too.

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The stirred seafood noodles. Not bad. We finished it all

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Each dish is cooked in different way, bring different taste. But all of those dishes has a common thing that is so tasty. I can realize the style of Saigon’s cuisine just by tasting those dishes. It is always a rich flavor mixed from sweet, sour, spicy. I dont know how to describe exactly but it just so special. The taste that I can’t find anywhere else.

It’s easy to understand why people always recommend Ốc Đào as the best place for snail in Saigon.

The price

There is one thing I dont like. That is the price. Quite expensive. I dont remember the specific price. But it is always around 3-4$ per dish.

The service

This restaurant is always crowded so the restaurant is a bit messy. There are too many people all the time but staffs are still attentive. We didn’t need to wait to long for food.

Rate: 8,5/10

When I go back Hanoi, I will miss Ốc Đào for sure. Will go back again even though it’s quite expensive. Haha.