Popular with locals and foreigners alike, Ốc Vi Sài Gòn serves a wide array of seafood cooked in a southern style. For the best experience, diners are suggested to dig in with their hands and get messy. Minh Thu rolls up her sleeves.

When you order a plate of snails in kumquat sauce and enjoy it with all of your fingers, you realise that the more messy it is, the more delicious and enjoyable the dish. And don’t forget to lick the sauce left on your fingers. That’s the way to eat snails like a local.

Most of the dishes at Ốc Vi Sài Gòn require the use of your hands. Firstly, you take a snail, use a stick to pry it out of the shell, dip it into the sauce, and try.

Located in Hà Nội’s Old Quarter, the restaurant is not large enough to accommodate its many customers, so it’s always crowded. It’s also a popular place among foreign visitors.

Phạm Vi, owner of the restaurant, is from HCM City. So she brings the full experience of Sài Gòn-style snail dishes to Hà Nội.

“People in Hà Nội and HCM City have different ways to enjoy snails as a kind of street food,” she said.

“While Hanoians often eat boiled snails, served still hot with nước chấm (a sauce made from fish sauce, sugar, lemon grass and ginger), people in HCM City have many ways to cook the snails, including grilled and boiled with many spices and sauces.”

“Excellent fresh seafood is sent by air from HCM City every day. Freshness is the most important part of making a good dish.”

People may be surprised with the extensive menu, because of the many varieties of snails, shells and crabs. They are all really good, in different ways.

For oysters, those grilled with cheese offer a different experience to those grilled with spring onion and peanuts.

Some highlights are the scallops grilled with spring onion, snails stir-fried in salt and chilli, razor clams fried with morning glory and garlic, clams in a Thai style broth with lemongrass, snails in kumquat sauce and blood cockles fried with garlic.

The snails served with garlic butter sauce are very tasty and have a charming scent. After finishing the snails, diners are recommended to mop up the sauce with bread.