Anan Saigon was the first and only restaurant in Vietnam to be bestowed with a Michelin Star last year ( has been joined by a handful more this year ) .

Chef Peter Cuong Franklin has a varied CV which includes Caprice in HK, Nahm in Bangkok and Alinea (Chicago ) . His tasting menu seeks to reinterpret classic Vietnamese dishes in a fine dining context which is a tall task . I find these type of concept menus are very difficult to pull off and they pigeon hole chefs into a corner rather than really allowing their creativity to shine and just cook !
However this was a fun interpretation with a mix of traditional and molecular techniques , which resulted in a largely successful meal even if the soul of these dishes were sometimes missing .

Best courses were the Caviar Banh Nhung - street waffle filled with smoked salmon mousse , salmon roe , caviar and crème fraiche . Haven’t had salmon dip for years and honestly this was just delicious .

Canh Chua river prawn had delicious sweet and sour soup alongside well grilled prawn , clam, prawn mousse and okra . Fresh and lively this dish really sang .

The Bun Cha Bourdain was an homage to both Bourdain and Obama who had the OG dish in Hanoi , this was a terrific one bite dish but would have preferred a larger format version .

Grilled Saigon pigeon was served with betel leaf , sticky turmeric rice and excellent sticky pigeon jus . This was a great French Vietnamese riff of a dish .