Namii Kitchen & Cocktails

It’s got neon, it’s got pastels, it’s got faux foliage, it’s got innovative cocktails and it’s got Pan Asian cuisine with a definite lean Vietnam-wards. It calls itself “authentically modern”, but faithful to the Vietnamese way of life, it recommends ordering food for the table, tapas style.

Think around two to three dishes per person, and expect them to arrive when they’re ready. There are wok-fried dishes (think lemongrass coconut chicken or katsu chicken with pandan curry, and sweet and sour shaking sirloin or Szechuan pepper beef) and chargrilled meats and chunky vegan numbers (miso-glazed cauliflower steak and aubergine among them), with your choice of sides including sticky coconut rice or vermicelli. There are various noodle-based dishes, including udon, plus different types of hearty pho broth with flat rice noodles and fresh exotic herbs and flavours. Seafood gets its own section and includes the likes of teriyaki salmon and flame-grilled whole squid served with tamarind BBQ notes – and that’s aside from the “kitchen signatures” of secret sauce squid and king prawn and soft shell crab tempura. Finding it too much to decide after one too many Dances With Unicorns or absinthe-based 12 Fairies? There are different set lunchtime menus (sans dessert), otherwise take the taster menu option – you have a choice of standard, phoenix and vegetarian/vegan, each with four “waves” featuring all kinds of goodies from spring rolls and dumplings to double-fried garlic pork and French-trimmed Welsh lamb chops in mirin and shao xing wine.

Afters include mango sticky rice, house mochi, strawberry and red bean daifuku, or the intriguingly named Zen Garden, which features chocolate and vanilla cream.

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