7-10-2008 Halong Bay
We went to a new Vietnamese restaurant in St. Petersburg this past weekend. Here's a review.
Halong Bay: For Me to Eat On!
5944 34th St N Saint Petersburg FL
727.522.9988
View Map with Street View (under construction when photo was taken)
Unlike all other Vietnamese restaurants in this area, Halong Bay actually has a stylish atmosphere with green shaded halogen track lighting highlighting large images of Halong Bay. The place was very busy, almost cafeteria-like, apparently frequented mostly by the local Vietnamese population. Being open for only a week at this point, the staff, albeit friendly and eager to help, were mostly useless. Speaking Vietnamese would likely have helped my cause when ordering. We came for the dim sum menu, but the menu is otherwise Vietnamese.
The dim sum was not very diverse. Generally, there were fried items filled with shrimp or pork, and steamed items filled with shrimp or pork. The steamed items were very good, the fried items were boring. There was one vegetable dish on the dim sum menu: chinese broccoli, which was very large and hard to eat without a cutting instrument and just some chopsticks. The manager jokingly encouraged me to try the chicken feet, but since this review is voluntary, I fell back upon my "no feet nor tripe" personal policy. Yes, I am an antipodigastrotarian.
We also ordered a Vietnamese basil chicken dish, which was excellent and massive in proportions, so most of it went into a to-go box. Jalapeno peppers and lots of garlic made it interesting.
Prices were reasonable, and on the cheap side for dim sum. I'll go back. Hopefully next time there will be fish in the aquarium.
