Saigon Mama

For a city of its size and regional importance, Beijing’s streets should be teeming with the bright, halcyon flavours of Southeast Asia. Yet we are locked in a constant search for good Thai, Vietnamese and Singaporean. A recent arrival from San Francisco via Shanghai, Saigon Mama looks set to fill the void. The Vietnamese fast-casual joint has swooped in with a line-up of greatest hits, hip digs and an everyday price point.

From its Taikoo Li South perch, midday sun floods the lofty space populated with well-dressed office types. A retro-style graffiti sign telling us to 'Get your pho on' and references to the street scenes of Saigon set the vibe here. The walls are packed full of Vietnamese foodstuffs: sacks of coffee beans, cans of sweetened condensed milk and bottles of hot sauce paint a picture of the offerings, as wafts of anise and beef stock whet our appetite.

The menu is as polished and well put together as the rest of the place. Stunning matte photography of staple fare tempt ever more cruelly with each page until we cave and order one of each. Service is cheery, attentive and eager to please, guiding us through the finer points of the menu as if in an attempt to curb our zeal. We compromise and settle for only half the menu as the Vietnamese-style coffee arrives.

The starters are served just in time to save us from over-caffeinating. The portions are generous and despite the lightness of nearly all the dishes, the ingredients have a way of filling you up quick. The fried egg rolls arrive first and vanish with a flourish of sweetened chilli and fish sauce; the crisp rice wrapping adding a pleasing crunch to juicy minced pork, savoury mushrooms and tender veggies. Fried cuttlefish cakes are a more mild choice, with the spongy interior offering not much by way of seafood flavour but a pleasing chomp nonetheless, and any vessel for the house-made hoisin and chilli sauces is welcomed.