Le Lotus d'or - Besançon

This Asian restaurant is a hidden gem. The taste of dishes reminds me of home. Nothing to say about service, impeccable. On the mood, we can't find better. Quiet and beautiful giving a real picture of restaurants in Asia. I'm sure you're on a date.

Came here as we love vietnamese cooking. First they forgot the obligatory rice crackers while we chose our dishes, then the vietnamese beers we wanted to try were not available. Then the dishes took a long time to come, obviously they were were too busy serving the take away service on the other side of the restaurant. And the dim sum we had as starters were not very good (soggy shrimp anyone? and the portions of the mains were mingy. Waste of money.

Cambogean food is nicely served and good value. The place is not posh but clean and service is friendly. Most of the customers, in fact all of the other customers, ordered takeaways. This must mean the food is appreciated as takeaway is not really yet part of French culture. I will be back.

Today was the first time eating in this restaurant. I told my husband to try this restaurant because I really want to find out if I like Cambodian cuisine. I have visited Siem Reap long time ago and my culinary experience was nothing to keep. Nothing I tried in Siem Reap impressed me. Which was unfortunate. Probably I was having meals in the wrong restaurants. Anyways, the ambience is very nice, as you enter the door you find on your left the painting of Angkor Wat in sephia. The decoration in general cuts you out from the reality as if you were in Asia instead of in France. The waitress was very nice, the service was fast too. My husband I decided to take the chef 's suggestion who cost us about €17 something per person. For entrée you have choices: Nem/Potage Pékinois/Salade Crevette. My husband took Nem (sorry no photo, I forgot) but I tasted it. It was nothing like in other restaurant where they buy frozen nem from chinese supermarket. This one tasted fresh different form than the one you buy frozen. I tasted it with fresh mint leaf. I liked it. My entrée was Potage Pékinois (not sure what chinese soup this was about) but I LOVED it! The taste was very firework-like . You find something salty, something sweet and something acid. This was called potage because it was thickened with eggs. You can also find some shredded chicken shredded bamboo shoot too. Another flavour I found inside was coriander leaf. Attention to those who can 't support chilis: there were some small chili pieces inside the potage (the waitress will warn you that this potage is piquante . That was the reason why I choose the potage in the first place. For main course my husband choose Boeuf Lok Lak (Lok Lak Beef), which was beef (I think) sauté in sweet soya sauce. Accompanied with nouille sauté aux pousses de soja (sauté noodles with soy bean sprouts). I tasted this a little bit. As usual, sweet cuisine was not my favourite but the beef was tender. The noodles tasted good. If you don 't want to eat noodles you can choose riz nature (white plain rice) or riz cantonais (fried rice with pieces of egg, pea ham). My main course was Canard aux Basilic sur une planche chauffant (Hot Plate Duck with Basil). This was excellent! I asked the chef to spiced up a little bit and he did as much as I wanted. The duck was tender, the mix of vegetable was not overcook, they were still crunchy. I like this as this is a sign of fresh cooked vegetables. My main course was accompanied with riz cantonais. About dessert.. Do you remember everytime you go to restaurant you push yourself to eat or finish your dessert only because you ordered a set meal? Here you can skip to coffee as replacement of coffee, this was proposed by our waitress. I respected restaurants who do this. Most of the time you obliged yourself to eat dessert, you already hate the idea of having eat something more when you 're no longer hungry (which IMHO the cause of overweight) then when you want a sip of coffee some restos were more than happy to charge again. I say chapeau for the waitress of course the resto. Will come back for more, probably bring my family or in-laws to eat here. If you ever come to Besançon and crave for asian food, Lotus d 'Or will not dissapoint you. Next time I go there again, I 'll try something different (probably some shrimp or chicken) and of course I 'll write another review!

Original cambodian and thailand recepie, strongly recommend if you want to taste indo-china food. warm welcome, fast service and good taste. The food are mostly fresh and acceptable.