Not having to rub shoulders with the diners at the next table is a plus for this roomy Vietnamese eatery.
The first dish to arrive was the red bean curd sauce fried chicken ($110). Wait. Didn't we order the Golden Bull platter ($150) as an appetiser? We did, but that didn't mean it had to be served first.
We dug into the chicken, which was a crispy golden brown on the outside and tender and moist on the inside. The red bean curd sauce is made from a preserved bean curd, or the Chinese equivalent of smelly cheese, so use sparingly.
When our appetiser platter finally arrived it included fried spring rolls on a leaf of lettuce. The satay beef was a disappointment because the meat was leathery, but the satay sauce was rich and flavourful. The deep-fried fish balls, however, were so tough and chewy that no sauce would have helped.
One of the restaurant's specialities is grilled Vietnamese jumbo prawn in garlic butter ($85) and it's easy to understand why. The prawn was a meal in itself, grilled to the right texture with just enough garlic to enhance its freshness without being overpowering.
It takes practice to eat fish with bones, however, and you had to be an expert to appreciate the deep-fried Cambodian fish with soya sauce ($185). One of my dinner companions, an Austrian, gave up after a struggle.