Once the home of Tea House of the August Moon, the venue has been fancifully upgraded with an adjoining bar and al fresco deck seating. The menu plays safe with modern Vietnamese food that borrows liberally from French, Chinese and Thai cooking styles. So, the beef is flambéed, curries are served with breads and flat noodles are dressed with lime leaves.

We begin our meal with a summery offering of Raw Mango Salad (Rs 300), and Shrimp and Chives Rolls (Rs 400) that come with a sweet chilli dip to add a spicy angle to the otherwise mildly flavored rolls. The meal gets the much-needed uplift in Crispy Taro Prawns (Rs 800). The prawns are liberally coated in a mash of our humble arbi and deep-fried — and come out amazingly crispy. Stir Fried Angus (a popular American breed of beef) in Pepper Sauce is pricy at Rs 2,400, but comes with some culinary ceremonies. It is served in a bamboo stem and flambéed on the table before being scooped out on the plates — typically fragrant and flavored with black pepper.