Tuoi Moi Eats

A Vietnamese kitchen in one of Humayunpur’s alleys, Tuoi Moi Eats has a small but focused menu that’s never set in stone. Mary, the lady behind the counter, is likely to be actively gauging your reactions, so be prepared for a post-meal debrief that is equal parts technical and sincere. 

The space is intimate, the vinyl selection is effortless (we moved from ABBA to the Beatles and the music didn’t interfere with the ambience), and the food honours the principles of Vietnamese cooking: cleanness, sharp flavours, and the precise smell of good fish sauce.

Order the fresh prawn summer rolls and the banh mi, which has its own cult. The pho is a clean, properly seasoned bowl with fresh ingredients. The yellow chicken curry and the raw mango salad both deliver, and, slightly improbably, so do the bacon-wrapped prawns. Finish with the Vietnamese coffee, which is approximately three espressos in a trench coat made of condensed milk.

The sleeper hit, though, is the homemade ice cream. People keep going back for it on its own, which is the kind of inarticulate compliment a kitchen strives to earn. They also do a delicately balanced flan which uses jaggery. Tuoi Moi means ‘fresh, new’ in Vietnamese – it checks out.