EXCERPT. Of course there are. Plenty too. A rhetoric question no less. But now that we’ve started, let’s eat out. Pun intended. Hah.

Yes it’s a rhetoric question. 🙂

When I looked back at our Essen trips, I realized our meals in Essen were … simple. Lunches were usually done quickly in the Messe Halls, and dinners were quick sit-downs.

The past few years – for us in particular – the sit-down dinners have changed into takeaways as it’s terribly hard to dine-in for dinner when you have a young toddler accompanying you who have just spent all her mana in the morning/afternoon at the Messe Hall!

Our common base while in Essen is the Holiday Inn City Centre in Berlinerplatz area and we do know there are good restaurants nearby. There’s also the Limbecker Mall. Just didn’t get the time nor inclination to explore.

Instead we were happy to pack some quick takeaways from one of the Vietnamese eateries which was located along the walk from the subway station to our hotel.

Convenient. Fast. And boleh makan la.

Imagine our surprise last year, when we walked past and saw the Vietnamese Takeaway had a change of management (or maybe same owners just facelift, we didn’t ask), and it’s called “Hoi An Vietnamese Street Food” with a renovated deco that’s very inviting to dine-in.

I think those lanterns did the trick as on Day 3, Rachel told us she’s good for dine-in when we walked past the restaurant on our way back from the Messe Hall.

When your little gal – whose sole goal for the past few days was to play/play/play the entire day and then back to hotel to sleep – said she would like to have dine-in, you DO DINE-IN, okay? haha.

I suspected half the patrons were here for Essen Spiel. Those folks from GAMELAND certainly were here for Spiel. 😛

Their menu were inviting and tempting. waiyan had a hard time deciding what she wanted to have… just too many choices, all tantalizingly tempting.

Or maybe it’s our “hungry stomachs” speaking.

Menus are in German and English btw.

Rachel: Look, Mommy, I’m not tired!

As we waited for our meals….

Ha ha ha…. Not tired wor. hahaha

Took awhile for our meals to arrive. I guessed we came at peak hours. No complains though when the meals were served!

Me not an expert food reviewer – and I’ve actually not tasted proper authentic meals from Vietnam – but the taste and flavor were distinctively Asian. Yums.

Their deco makes you want to pull out Lanterns: The Harvest Festival for a quick game!

Overall we paid less than EU20 for our meals so I’d say price-wise, it’s very affordable place to dine. For the quality of the food you get.

We wouldn’t mind coming back again for dinner but I realized it was already Day Three and I’ve a Day Four dinner appointment with Daryl, Leonard and gang at our customary Yellow River Restaurant.

We certainly would be looking forward to revisit this restaurant when we return to Essen for the next Spiel.

If you are near the Berlinerplatz / Holiday Inn Essen area and looking for Asian food, do check them out
https://www.facebook.com/HoianEssen/

p/s Rachel was still in her dreams when we finished our dinner so I’d to carry her back to the hotel. Good thing Holiday Inn was less than 50m from this restaurant. 😛

For more Essen Spiel reports:
https://boardgamecafe.net/category/essen-spiel-2/

For more photos of our Essen Spiel 2019 trip,
visit our Flickr Spiel19 Collection.