Trong Dong

Once upon a time there were four Asian girls wandering in Malmö looking for the perfect lunch as food is usually the highlight of a trip in our culture.
We came to this place based on good ratings in Unilocal but we should’ve trusted our Asian guts when we saw the restaurant had a nice décor and empty seats but our hunger drove us.
We ordered some fish with lemongrass, phở and some thai beef stew. When the fish came out, we were disappointed because it didn’t live up to the expectation. The picture on the menu shows the fish with head and tail attached, but we were served mutilated fillet aka fish stripped out of its flavour.
Needless to say, serving a fish fillet in an Asian restaurant is not only blasphemous but disgraceful. The fillet had a hint of lemongrass and the flavour was weak and the portion was too small to divide among four ravenous hungry Asians. With the phở also lacking strength, the day was eventually saved by the Thai beef stew (it was so odd since it was a Vietnamese restaurant but the menu has a last page where it serves anything Thai — I begin to suspect that Swedes are confused whether Thailand and Vietnam are actually two different countries).
The stew had nice consistency, spicy and full of flavour. I don’t know what this review makes me, the kind of people who recommend Thai dishes in a Vietnamese restaurant, I hope I won’t get shot for that, but there you go.
Unless this place shapes up and serves «proper» fish and proper meal, it is very unlikely that we will come back.

i should have stuck to my rule of never eating in an empty restaurant, but the four of us were very hungry after a morning of shopping. we were missing two forks and asked for spoons as well, which seemed to confuse the pretty waitress. i think the language barrier was to blame for her shortness with us but i never expect much in the way of service from asian restaurants (aside from japanese).
lemongrass and chili fish: in the menu there’s a picture of a whole fried fish. what we got was two sad filets. we also asked her to make it extra spicy for us and it barely registered. the lemongrass came through and the mango was nice but we were definitely expecting a whole fish with heat!
the beef stir fried with vegetables was very flavourful and tender, probably the best dish out of the three.
the phở bo was ok, and the meat was cut a little too thick for phở. i am a little gross so sometimes i like my meat a bit chewy with some gristle, but i am well aware that few others are a fan of that. the meatballs were a little boring, but we got plenty of herbs and sprouts to zest up the soup. it could have used some chopped fresh chilies as well, instead of the little bowl of sriracha.
the food wasn’t that great, but it was quite affordable when sharing dishes and we were full. it wasn’t awful either but i read good reviews about this place and was expecting a little more.

Beer Saigon here is 10 time better than in Vietnam. PHO here is really good (for this area)

Really nice place. The food is good, typically asian — however the place is branded as a Vietnamese restaurant but in reality its more asian fusion.
The staff is the real asset here. They are very friendly, smiling and talkative. At least one star alone is earned by the staff !