Annam

This Les Amis-operated Vietnamese restaurant has been around for a while, but I have not really gone to try it until today. Off the menu, the lunch set looked worth it but the items did not seemed very traditionally Vietnamese. Anyways, ordered a la carte and ended up with the wagyu beef noodle soup, the assorted appetiser plate and the simmered pork dish. The crackers were rather expensive and not that tasty; tasted rather plain and stale. The wagyu beef phô was not worth the money although the soup was tasty but it did not taste like the traditional ones, and there weren't any basil leaves! The simmered pork dish looked good on the table next to ours, but sadly, it did not taste as good as it looked. It was not tender enough and the sauce tasted too French/British. Lastly, yes, ironically, the appetiser plate came after everything else was done (although granted we did ask that all food to be served at the same time). At least the appetisers were great. The sugarcane prawns and spring rolls, both fried and rice-rolls, were tasty. The Vietnamese drip coffee was potent and authentic and served with a peanut biscuit. The latter is possibly the yummiest thing of the meal. The service by the two chiefs were friendly and polite, but the underlings were a bit messy and blur. If Annam's goal is to serve upclass, refined Vietnamese fare then I think it has failed in that it did not retained much of the traditional taste; however, if it aims to modernised vietnamese food, then it has achieved that as the dishes undoubtedly carried some European influences.

Verdict: May just come back for the set lunches in the future, but otherwise not worth the money for the quality and taste.