Wo Long Zhai Restaurant

Wo Long Zhai restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City with its menus and  architectural style designed on the background of  the  historical film entitled “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” attracts a large number of local guests .

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Covering an area of 1,700m2 with fences and sentry boxes, Wo Long Zhai seems to be a military complex in the Three Kingdoms period, which started in 169 AD and ended with the reunification of the land in 280AD.

Instead of dining rooms made of bricks, the restaurant was formed by many canvas that depict a garrison in the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” novel, or “San Quo Yanyi” in Chinese.


The 1,700m2 restaurant, based in Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Thanh district, decorated as a military complex
from the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” novel, or “San Quo Yanyi” in Chinese.


Most of tables and chairs are made from bamboo.

The restaurant has three parts like the three kingdoms, including Shu kingdom, Wei kingdom and Wu kingdom.

Wo Long Zhai restaurant is fenced like a garrison.

A sentry box at Wo Long Zhai.

A smaller tent is decorated in an ancient style.

A tiger dried skin.

A fighting tactic was written on a canvas.

The dining areas copy the real tents from the period and are divided into general tent, infantry tent, cavalry tent and wounded soldier’s tent.

In addition, restaurant attendants dressed in soldier uniforms hand out bamboo menus, similar to the ancient paper at the period. They also use ancient Chinese words to call guests such as “mandarin” or “great brother”.

The names of the food are also referred to in the old way such as “Cao cao”, “Xia Houdun” and “Chi Ma”.

When night falls, Wo Long Zhai restaurant becomes more brilliant with fires everywhere and the food trolley looks like a fire truck. The restaurant also provides guests with medieval armor while eating, with some “guards” standing around.

According to literature and history research, “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” is acclaimed as one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. It has a total of 800,000 words and nearly a thousand dramatic characters (mostly historical) in 120 chapters.


Menus are made from bamboo.

Despite being named in Chinese, most of the dishes are pure Vietnamese food.


Table attendants dress in Chinese ancient style.

Armor for guests.

Guest wearing armor.

Drinking style of “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”.


Tents are labeled with different names to meet the specific demand of guests.


The food of Wo Long Zhai restaurant.

The novel is among the most beloved works of literature in East Asia, and its literary influence in the region has been compared to that of the works of Shakespeare on English literature. It is arguably the most widely read historical novel in late imperial and modern China.

Story: Nguyen Vu Thanh Dat – Photos: Thong Hai