On a Saturday evening, the Red Lantern Restaurant, one of dozens of restaurants selling Chinese food in Vietnam's capital, Hanoi city, was full of guests.

A waitress garbed in Chinese style red silk dress led four people to a cozy carpeted room. The couple and their two sons ordered clay-coated grilled chicken and Sichuan soya-bean curds after pinpointing the only empty table near the window. Meanwhile, a Chinese chef was pouring more sauce into his big wok full of appetizing beef in the hot and crowded kitchen.

"We like Chinese food a lot. We often come here to eat at weekends. The prices are reasonable," the wife named Nguyen Thi Hoa said while waiting to be served. "We have tried many dishes cooked under various cuisine of different Chinese localities. All are very delicious," she added with a smile.

Hoa is among many Vietnamese people who are loyal guests of restaurants selling Chinese food in the city. Some people come to the restaurants to eat their favorite food while others buy and take it out, or even cook Chinese dishes themselves.

Some dishes such as Sichuan hotpot, Sichuan soya-bean curds and Beijing roasted ducks are becoming favorite food, frequently seen in parties and many Vietnamese families, partly because their tastes are suitable to them.

"I often buy the food and bring it home for my husband and children, because we don't have time to go to restaurants together.

Sometimes, I cook some dishes myself. Sichuan hotpot is an example," said Ha Que Huong, an expert at the National Linguistics Institute.

Many local people are very interested in Sichuan hotpot. When they have it, they put various kinds of meat, fish, vegetables, mushrooms, and soya-bean curds into boiling chili sauce.

"Chinese dishes are made from common materials, but the cuisine is unique and interesting," she noted.

As the relationship between Vietnam and China get closer, a bigger number of Vietnamese people take interest in many aspects of Chinese culture, including Chinese gastronomy.

To serve local people's taste, both luxury restaurants in large streets and small shops in open-air markets in Hanoi are competing for selling Chinese food. Many of the establishments have enjoyed business prosperity.

"Some 300-400 people eat here a day, and more than 100 others buy and take the food out," the Red Lantern Restaurant's owner Tran Bich Ngoc said.

The customers of the restaurant range from school children who buy only a bun worth 3,000 Vietnamese dong (VND) (0.2 US dollars) for breakfast to rich businessmen who order dishes valued at several million VND (some hundred dollars) for a meal with their partners.

"Demand for dining out in Vietnam is increasing, because Vietnamese people now are richer than before, and more foreigners visit the country," Ngoc said, adding that a big number of her customers are tourists, or businessmen from China, the United States, India, and South Korea.

Ngoc's words were echoed by her husband, Ou Kui, who initiated opening the restaurant. He said, "Vietnam's tourism and business environment is getting better and better. This helps the country attract more foreign investors and tourists. We feel more comfortable in doing business here."

With the favorable condition, they have opened two more such restaurants in northern cities of Hai Phong and Viet Tri, and intend to set up another in Hanoi. They will intensify advertisement on the restaurants in China, aiming to attract more Chinese guests.

"We will open a restaurant selling Vietnamese food in China's Nanning city. The restaurant will offer not only good dishes, but also information about Vietnam to Chinese businessmen and tourists.

Through it, we can advertise our restaurants here," he noted. "Our restaurants will become a little bridge for the two countries' trade and tourism."

The Red Lantern, like many other restaurants in Vietnam, is focusing on employing high-qualified Chinese chefs, creating new recipes frequently, implementing discount for loyal customers, and cooperating with local travel agents to receive more guests.

"We will introduce dishes cooked under cuisine of various Chinese regions to Vietnamese friends. Of course, it'll be the best food with appetizing taste and attractive color," Ou said.