{Saigon Snacks} Sunday brunch on the deck

The Deck in An Phu

Being a Queenslander I loved nothing more than spending a lazy Sunday on my back verandah, reading the travel pages of The Sunday Mail and dreaming of visits to faraway places.

A world away from Clayfield in Ho Chi Minh City, today we spent a couple of hours relaxing on a verandah overlooking the Saigon River.

Aptly named, The Deck, this restaurant is in our neighbourhood in An Phu. It's one of those places you'd head to when you have a hankering for decent western food, great cocktails and a desire to be away from the city buzz.

On Sunday's The Deck has a brunch menu from 11am. It's not extensive, just a few items in each category, but the prices are reasonable for a venue of this calibre.

The first thing that caught my attention were the three non-alcoholic mocktails on the menu. A weird mix of ingredients that actually works. I had apple, pineapple, cilantro (that's coriander to us Aussies) and soda. Delicious!

Delicious mocktails!

The Sunday brunch menu is western Asian fusion with choice from a range of breakfast dishes, salads and main meals.

Rob chose stuffed chicken breast and declared it the best chicken he'd had in Vietnam. I ordered only one dish off the children's menu (fish and chips) for the girls to share, and lucky I did as the serving was huge.

I chose the eggs benedict - a stupid decision in hindsight because I am the world's fussiest benedict eater and I've yet to find a decent one in Vietnam.

Don't ge me wrong, the eggs, bacon, spinach and hollandaise sauce were fine, sadly it was let down by the thick, barely toasted sourdough bread which was more like cake. For me a good benedict needs to be served on a crunchy, toasted English muffin or at least well toasted (not too thick) sourdough.

Georgia at The Deck

Mackenzie - ice-cream at The Deck

Regardless, my issues with the benedict certainly won't stop me from returning to The Deck. Under $50 for the four of us to have juices, food, ice-cream, coffee (and my habitual Sunday lunchtime glass of wine!).

Best of all, even though this is one of those funky places where the cool kids hang out (which makes you feel kinda guilty for taking your kids along and interrupting their child-free reverie) the sound of the occasional rice barge farting its way along the river drowned out most of the noise from Georgia and Mackenzie!

No doubt we'll be back for another visit. May'be next time without the girls so we can enjoy a relaxing sunset over the Saigon River, lounging on the comfy chairs with a cocktail or three!

The Deck - 38 Nguyen U Di, An Phu, District 2