Pasta lovers in Saigon have happily seen the number of places to get mì Ý (pasta) grow over the years.
But as is the case for most dishes, not all are created equally.
The spectrum is broad ranging from the struggle-priced, like the cheap stuff available on food delivery apps to high end stuff served in manicured dining spaces that, let’s be honest, often photographs in the menu perhaps slightly better than it tastes. And other times, it’s second priority at a pizza restaurant.
It’s a pleasant surprise, then, to see that there’s no pizza at Dakao Ward’s pastaiolo and café 15 Grams. Simply pasta, fermented drinks, and Vietnamese coffee. No extensive wine selection — try a glass of the Fermented Mulberry instead. It’s a kombucha-like drink that pairs nicely with the Butter Garlic Tiger Shrimp pasta, a white sauce dish served over fettuccine made by hand.
Grab yourself a seat upstairs in this homey environment. Watch out for the cats. Dinner will be ready shortly.
As is sometimes the case with food, less is more.
Fresh, simple pasta made by hand at 15 Grams
The star attraction at 15 Grams is undoubtedly the hand-made pasta.
If your only experience with pasta is with the store-bought, dried-then-boiled version, you’re not too far from the experience of having the real, homemade thing.
Where the usual grocery store-bought pasta tends to be soft, flavorless, and little more than a vessel for the sauce, 15 Grams’ handmade pasta is expressive and full of life.
It’s flavorful in the way of homemade bread — an experience that’s more sensed and felt, rather than tasted. Imagine a bread-ey taste, an acceptable starting point to describe the flavor of the bread, but add a bit of salt and yeastiness to accentuate that. Sometimes, it could be the egginess that stands out.
Lương Triệu Vĩ turns raw ingredients into a fresh pasta dish with local seafood at 15 Grams.
On close study, 15 Gram’sfettuccine expressed all of its ingredients — flour, egg, salt, olive oil, as well as time and care.
Just like great bread makes a noticeably better sandwich, good pasta makes a dish that puts a simple dish like pasta carbonara head and shoulders above anything you’d find elsewhere. Creamy sauce, bacon pairs, black pepper, and fresh eggs make an exceptional meal with dried pasta, but with the homemade stuff, it’s out of this world.
Try the burrata salad, a deceivingly simple salad of Đà Lạt tomatoes halved and fanned around a cheese globe at the center. It’s topped with basil leaves and a tangy, creamy balsamic dressing that’s sweetness compliments the crunchy sour of the tomatoes, which are ripened to plum-like firmness.
A pandemic pet project-turned-principal post for Gourmet Pair
15 Grams began as a passion project of owners Lương Triệu Vĩ and partner Lao Thị Thanh An.
Both had food experiences that got put away for their quote-unquote “real jobs” just like the rest of us. In Lương’s case, it was time working at a coffee shop and, in the case of Lao, it was waitressing at Trung Nguyên.
Lương was busy pursuing a career in IT when COVID-19 hit. The pandemic and job stress were wearing on him and he suddenly found himself at a crossroads — advance to a senior level position, or explore a budding interest in restauranter-ing. He chose the path of personal passion.
“I am a person who really likes spaghetti,” he said, in an interview conducted in Vietnamese.
“[We] Vietnamese people have many dishes made into noodles from rice, flour, and corn,” Lương explained.
In building the 15 Grams concept and menu, Lương said his two guiding stars have been creativity and sustainability. Ingredients in the restaurant are principally from local sources, be that the tôm sú (tiger shrimp) from resort town Mũi Né or the muối hầm salt from Phú Yên province garnishing the pasta dishes.
Central Coast’s dried spices, time, and a little elbow grease are combined in a novel way to make everything here.
15 Gram’s artfully done dining space with a hippie DIY aesthetic
It would be easy to forget you’re in a restaurant at 15 Grams.
Seating selection includes a wooden, picnic-style table under orbs of tungsten lights or a table with mismatched chairs that catch the evening light nicely. A cat may visit, but also may not. You know how cats are.
While waiting for food and drink, you may catch sight of a drawing of John Lennon, the top half of a mannequin, a typewriter, and all manner of misfit objects that otherwise wouldn’t find each other out in the wild are all at home here.
How, you might ask? Lao is the answer.
“I wanted to make it like an old house,” she explained in Vietnamese. An interior designer by training, she took over crafting the dining space.
Thus, the space deserves a little study before the food shows up. For instance, if you’re staring at a mirror while standing looking through the interior window linking two of her dining rooms, you’ll notice it’s tilted only just so as to reflect a bouquet of flowers sitting underneath.
Like many things at 15 Grams, it’s thoughtful and rewards attention but never demands it and is also just casually lovely and comfortable on first impression.
A family restaurant more than anything else
A small, four-person staff including Lương and Lao are all the staff at 15 Grams. A single page advertises all the pasta, desserts, and fermented drinks served there. The restaurant is best experienced in parties of two to four because honestly, it’s just not that big.
Smallness, intimacy, personal attention, and personality radiate from within 15 Grams.
The restaurant may strike some visitors as perhaps even overly pedantic or precious. For example, you’ll hear the music of records (yes, I mean actual, vinyl records) played through speakers singing songs that would have been fresh when records were.
The visit is like one to an older, wiser relative or a slightly purist but cool hipster friend.
There are going to be some people who come and are looking for something else, Lương suggests, adding this is a restaurant for those who seek simple, good food.
We’re a family restaurant, he added.
Oh, and where does the name come from? No, it’s not the size of the small puppy you’ll also see running around there. 15g is the amount of coffee required for the first coffee brew of the day. Before pasta, 15 Grams was a part-time, hobby coffee shop living solely on the first floor of its current building. 15 grams started the day, and for Lương the number has always represented its first step.
“Everyone needs a starting point. For me right now, this is a space to build bigger ideas,” Lương said.
15 Grams Pasta & Coffee
- Address: 214/19/24 Nguyễn Văn Nguyễn, Tân Định Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City (Get directions)
- Opening hours: 10 AM–5 PM, 6–10 PM, closed on Mondays
- Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/15Gramspasta/
SAUCEFISH is committed to honest gourmet and lifestyle content creation but is not responsible for unexpected closures and changes to the operating hours of featured establishments. Visitors are advised to contact the establishments in advance if possible if a visit is of great importance.
