Let me tell you a little something about living in Vietnam, or more specifically in Danang Vietnam: There really isn't that much good food around. I get that food is very subjective but one of the amazing things about Thailand is that there is cheap and very good food available everywhere. In Vietnam, and in particular here in Danang, it is tough to find something that is even just something you want, let alone something you are really looking forward to.
Most of the time I end up doomscrolling the food delivery app because I honestly can't thing of any good reason to order any of it. Most of it is just ranging from bad to meh.
So I figured that would be the case when Nadi and I walked into Beef Station and ordered the extremely inexpensive beef stew.
Nadi's enthusiasm wasn't as high as I would have liked it to be, but then again, she is old and was probably mostly just kind of disappointed that her walk was cut short. It was too hot for her little feet so we had to get her out of the sun. She'll thank me later.
When I saw that the beef stew was just 49k VND, which is less than $2 and it comes with bread, I wasn't expecting it to be good at all. On this particular day though I was pressed for time and being choosy was not something I had the luxury of doing. We needed coffee and sustinence and we needed it quickly.
You might be thinking that for that low of a price you can't be getting very much beef...and you would be correct with that notion. You do, however, get a bunch of carrot and potatoes with a surprisingly good broth. The onions were a bit dangerously sharp, if you know what I mean, but whatever man! We were in a hurry.
Nadi has this disinterested look on her face but it was also bright that day so maybe her eyes were just hurting. She got a bit more excited when I would dip some of the bread in the broth for her though.
The coffee was definitely something instant and probably terrible for you with way too much sugar in it but again, this cost almost nothing and I was pressed for time so I didn't bother.
So the end result and opinion is that this was definitely worth the just over $3 total that I paid for this. I had enough food in me to make it to my next meal and the caffeine rush that I was looking for was also satiated. I was actually kind of buzzing from the instant coffee.
We will definitely go back because I don't know how it is where you live, but getting a meal and a coffee for $3 doesn't normally bring about too man expectations from me even in super-cheap Vietnam.
Apparently Beef Station is a chain that has many locations all throughout Vietnam and is know for having really cheap meals and none of them are actually intended to be wonderful. They are supposed to be fast and cheap and after eating there, I can say that I agree with this notion.
We will be back. Maybe Nadi will be in a better mood the next time.