Mediterraneo Review

Mediterraneo is a traditional Italian restaurant located near the Saint Joseph Cathedral in Hoan Kiem in the city of Hanoi.

No need to say that the restaurant is extremely well located in an area where tons of people and especially tourists converge but is this place serving good Italian food and is it a good deal for the area ?

The location

In Hoan Kiem the Saint Joseph Cathedral area is probably my favorite. The square is big, the place is busy but less noisy than in the old quarter.

You have tons of options for dinning or simply for coffee. The view is quite amazing and seeing the crowd moving while enjoying some food is always a reminder of french brasseries.

The restaurant is fairly small restaurant in ground square surface but it benefits from having a second floor.

Both floors have a great view on the streets and on the church. I have to say it’s quite refreshing to enjoy a meal, some fresh beer and san pelligrino with some fresh air.

My wife and I came in to eat lunch very late around 4-5 pm. We had to take our visa 1 km away from this location.

The interior of the restaurant have a traditional vibes to it with brick walls and tons of dark red tones and dark wood. Not so different from Il Grillo but a tad better in my opinion.

There’s even a pork leg or jambon drying inside the restaurant. The tables and chair are very confortable, big and heavy. No issue with you children fooling around in these and enough spaces to put many dishes and bottles on the table.

The menu

The menu is pretty much what you would find in a real traditional restaurant in Italy. The names of the dish are actually in their original langage and translated to both vietnamese and english.

In this menu you’ll find like in most traditional Italian restaurant : Antipasti, primi piatti, secondi piatti, zupe and dessert.

Starters include some cold plates, cheeses and traditional appetizers, main dishes include pasta, pizza and other italian specialities such as lamb cooked in truffle sauce.

Overall the menu is very rich with many traditional recipes not well known from the public but probably known in the home country. It’s fair to say that you would definitely find something new to try in this restaurant if you don’t have an Italian background.

The experience

Since the location is one of my favorite in the city and we had a view over the street, the experience started well. Also my wife and I were having lunch at 4pm so we were starving.

We started with some different types of bread offer by the restaurant. Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt pepper were already on the table for us to make a sauce to dip.

The fagottino didn’t resemble the real thing, instead of a puff pastry it was more like a pizza dough with some ham on top covering up some gorgonzola. The taste was still good, the gorgonzola was very mild compared to let’s say the one you can eat in a 4 cheese pizza.

The second dish the Lamb with truffle sauce and mash potatoes. The first thing that comes to mind is wow did they really use half a potato for this ? Really you could see the plate through the mash potatoe.

The lamb was decent and the sauce good but it was very mild in flavor. I’ve tried some truffle pasta in Big Mama Paris and the taste is 10 times stronger and you get real truffle inside the sauce.

Finally we had the shrimp pasta. This dish was delicious and very strong in taste in comparison. The only thing was that was slightly too salty perhaps 30% too salty. The shrimp were already decorticated so the shell were for decoration.

We decided not to have dessert since there was a nice ice cream restaurant just in front we wanted to try.

Verdict

7.5 out of 10

Mediterraneo is well located and the menu is very traditional when it comes to Italian food. The place is nice and the set up meaning chairs and table are very comfortable.

On paper Mediterraneo should be a place tourist runs towards but unfortunately the quality of the food is not all it could be.

The food was overall good but on three of our dishes there was something a but disapointing. For example replacing puff pastry with pizza dough, giving half a mash potatoe as a side dish or using shimp only as decoration is the kind of technics that really reminds me about a restaurant slightly trying to cut corners.

Even tough the price is not that expensive at the end some competition have a better price quality ratio for their food.

If you are really looking for a nice view and some traditional italian food, this restaurant can still be an option.

Informations

Mediterraneo

Address : 23 P. Nhà Thờ, Hàng Trống, Hoàn Kiếm, Hà Nội

Phone : 024 3826 6288

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/Mediterraneohanoi/