There are so many Italian restaurants in Da Nang that I tend to ignore all of them. In the past I have tried this one and that one only to kind of feel like they are all the same and therefore I don't go to any of them. It seems as though nobody in this town is interested in doing anything inventive or different and are able to make money but just selling the same stuff that everyone else does.
There is a place near my condo called Section 30 that I have been to for drinks a few times in the past but I have basically completely ignored the place for years. I never even thought about coming here to eat and well, I am finding out that this idea on my part was a mistake.
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This is one of those places that will be absolutely slamming on a day that they have a band playing and there will be nobody in the joint for the rest of the time. They have a ton of craft beers but I am a bit of a simpleton when it comes to beer and don't really appreciate the finer brews and feel they are a waste of money.
But a hand-written sign caught my eye when I was walking Nadi by the front and it said lasagna was available for a short time only. I quite like lasagna but my experience at the plethora of itialian restaurants in town is that they are extremely stingy with the stuff and they also end up being very dry. Perhaps this is just the American in me and I am "wrong" about what good lasagna is even though I disagree. I knew the chef was a foreigner here and section 30 is NOT an Italian restaurant. It was also getting late and I was becoming less and less choosy as time went by. So me and Nadi went in and got a table.
This is not a great picture but I didn't have my glasses with me - a stupid mistake that I must stop doing - so at the time I wasn't even sure if that was the specials sign... thankfully it is or this wouldn't make much sense. I ordered a glass or red wine so I could look the part and be a bit upscale and waited for the main course.
Maybe there are some Italians out there that would tell me I am wrong, but to me this is what lasagna is supposed to look like. It is also supposed to taste this way IMO. Am I correct? I honestly don't care. This is what I like and if the Italians or anyone else want to tell me I am incorrect than so be it.
The loads of grated Parmesan cheese on top of it and the salad was the proverbial icing on the cake. This was extremely good ant at 180k a plate, which is roughly $7, you can't complain about the price either.
Nadi sat patiently next to me and started to get annoyed at the line of people that wanted to come by and say hello to the cute puppy. In Nadi's mind, these well-wishers are simply getting in the way of her getting some of what is on my plate so she can actually be quite rude. I know some dogs that lose their minds wanting attention but Nadi isn't that way. I wouldn't say she really even likes attention from me all that much. But if there is food involved, she will do whatever.
I don't give her a lot of it, but I did let her have some little pieces that I set aside and let them cool down. We have to be careful in restaurants because it is really nice of them to not have an issue with me bringing my dog in so we have to make certain to not make a mess of the furniture.
I almost never order dessert but if you refer to the specials board above I also ended up ordering the dessert special even though I couldn't really even read what it said. I just asked the waiter which would he would order if it was him sitting there and I got something. I was so excited I didn't take a picture of it. I don't have Instagram so I forget to do these sorts of things.
I don't give Nadi sweets. She wants EVERYTHING but we have to draw the line somewhere. After all of that excitement we walked the one block home to our house and she was ready to go to bed right away. I was too even though it wasn't even midnight yet.
We are getting close to needing a haircut again and well she is going to dread that day. I will likely come up mid week this week.
In the next year I am going to have to learn how to clip her hair by myself because it really stresses her out going to the doggy salon. It's not the haircut that I mind so much, it is the cutting of the nails that I am terrified of.
But that's all in the future. We enjoyed this night and if you ever find yourself in Da Nang I think you can do a lot worse than going to Section 30. You'll be able to find it, it's in the tourist part of town and occupies a pretty large plot of land.
That's interesting, because around my neck of the woods it's hard to find an Italian restaurant. Most of them have closed down. I don't count pizza places either. I mean technically that might hold, but not really in my book. Most of the ones that are around are chains like Olive Garden. We do have a private one in the downtown area, but it's kind of fancy and last time we went there they seated us way in the back near the patio in the middle of January. Which is odd because there were hardly any people in the place. We even wore our work clothes, so it wasn't like we were in jeans or anything, but we still felt like they were doing a bit of class discrimination with us.
that's a funny story about the place putting you in the back near the doors. I had forgotten that places sometimes have a dress code. I remember getting rejected from one of those such places. I was pretty embarrassed and was unaware they had a dress code. I didn't return.
Do people still pick on Olive Garden like it isn't a nice place or something? I never really understood that because I always thought it was a pretty nice place to eat.
Dude, Italian restaurants are so prevalent over here that it is tough to differentiate one from the next. We have a running joke here that any time a business shuts down that we bet whether the next place will be a spa/massage place, a coffee shop, an Indian, or an Italian restaurant. We'll put small wagers on it but one of us is always correct. I sometimes wonder if this entire area is just one huge hidden camera show and they are just laughing as they install a 40th Indian restaurant into the 6 block area.
I kind of feel things are the same here with Mexican restaurants, but I really like Mexican food, so I don't mind that there are so many. I think part of the problem with this Italian place is that it is in the downtown area next to a fancy hotel where the Dow Chemical, Dupont, and Dow Corning executives stay when they are in town. Midland near where I grew up just has this haughty attitude in general because of "Dow". My wife and I used to love Olive Garden. We don't go as much as we used to just because it's so bad for you, but occasionally we still go and though the food is likely not really very "Italian", I don't think it is bad. I think most people are just trying to be more sophisticated than they are. Though we did have a domestic dispute where a guy shot his wife in the middle of the OG near where we live, so it might kind of be a little white trash these days....
It is always great when you discover a hidden gem and it looks like you did cock up on this by not testing the food out sooner. When we were in the UK we never really looked at reviews besides one place and it was definitely not living up to the reviews we read and we just took our chances after that and found some great spots.
I have eaten here before in the past but was just an appetizer to go along with my drinks. It was not good. I think the trick here it to order only off the specials board. I think those are the only dishes that the real chef is involved in. The rest is just your usual stuff that every place has like burgers and salads.
It looks like the dessert the waiter recommended was really delicious since there’s nothing left.
Your dog seems well-behaved all the time, Nadi is adorable.
It's good that there are nearby restaurants in your place that are pet-friendly maybe they're fur parents too for those who allow furry creatures inside
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