Vietnamese Buffet Ganh blooming

Buffet Ganh differs from western style buffets where the food is displayed on tables and people gather around to serve themselves. In this unique buffet, the food is carried around the restaurant to the customers on shoulder-poles in bamboo baskets.

Buffet Ganh differs from western style buffets where the food is displayed on tables and people gather around to serve themselves. In this unique buffet, the food is carried around the restaurant to the customers on shoulder-poles in bamboo baskets.

  • The Original Buffet Ganh

In 1998, Bong Sen (Lotus) Hotel in HCMC decided to try a new approach to their food service for their Mangostine Restaurant. They took the dishes served throughout the city from street stalls and put them onto the restaurant menu under the name Buffet Ganh, and exhibited the shoulder-pole carrying technique as is common on the street. As foreign tourists are often apprehensive to try food from street vendors, this gave many visitors an extraordinary chance to try foods they otherwise might not have.

People enjoy Vietnamese Buffet Ganh

People enjoy Vietnamese Buffet Ganh

For more than 8 years now Buffet Ganh at the Mangostine has attracted crowds of  tourists and locals who love the Vietnamese dishes they offer, such as, rice pancakes, sticky rice, fresh and fried spring rolls, soft noodles, steamed snails with ginger, grilled pork, salads, soups, hot pots, and much more. On a typical night there are around 70 dishes available at Buffet Ganh.

On December 15th, Buffet Ganh at the Mangostine will be holding an 8th anniversary party to celebrate the success of their unique buffet. For this festive night there will be a special buffet, which will include over a hundred different dishes from northern, central, and southern Viet Nam.

Buffet lovers will have an opportunity to enjoy the special buffet along with birthday cakes while enjoying traditional Vietnamese folk music and taking part in a raffle to win great prizes. Tickets to the event are free, however, if you plan to attend you should call ahead to make a reservation. The Palace Club will be offering a 20 percent discount on drinks for the event.

  • Other Buffets

As a result of the success of the original Buffet Ganh at the Mangostine Restaurant, this style of buffet has been adopted by many other international hotels in Viet Nam.

One such Buffet Ganh appeared in Hoi An in the mid 1990’s when Hoi An organized a study to restore and improve the culinary culture of the region. Hoi An Buffet Ganh differentiated itself by designing numerous lanterns which they decorated around the bamboo baskets. 

Vietnamese Buffet Ganh blooming ảnh 2

“Buffet on shoulder - poles”

Chinese Buffets have also sprouted up throughout the country, which were first introduced at the Dong Khanh Hotel in Cho Lon, the Chinese area of HCMC. There are now as many as ten hotels just in Cho Lon that have weekend buffets.

Besides the Ganh and Chinese buffets, vegetarian buffets have also begun to surface around HCMC, as chefs have taken notice of this international health-conscious trend. The Rex Hotel’s Van Canh Restaurant has organized a monthly Vegetarian Buffet with more than 70 Vietnamese and international dishes.

The buffet style restaurant is growing in popularity in Viet Nam. There are Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, vegetarian, western, pizza, Ganh-style, as well as other types of buffets available just in HCMC. So, if you want to try a variety of dishes at one sitting, or simply want to be able to go back for second or third helpings of your favorite dish, there is a growing list of buffet options to choose from.

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