The restaurant has a Vietnamese theme and even the kitchen staff was brought from Viet Nam to oversee the authenticity of the cuisine. Dao Vien’s food is from the mid region of the country. Food from this area of Danang and Hue is considered royal cuisine and is substantially different from the cuisine of the south.

It is considered more refined & delicate. After numerous visits to Viet Nam, I have discovered there are many good restaurants, along with not such good ones, but you'll find many Vietnamese restaurants in Bangkok that are as good or better than many restaurants in Vietnam. Dao Vien is an example of truly authentic cuisine of Hue. We tried more than a host of dishes. First up, spring rolls wrapped with rice paper with ingredients that were obviously fresh and crispy and the rice paper an ideal consistency and perfectly done.

Hue cuisine is known for its salads. There is a crispy lotus roots salad with a dressing similar to a Thai salad without the spiciness. There is also the banana blossom salad, tossed with fragrant herbs & some cooked meats, dressed with a not spicy but sweet sour and slightly salty dressing made from lime juice, fish sauce and sugar.

Next up, Nam Nuang, Vietnamese grilled pork balls, delicious when eaten with lots of vegetables including star fruit that helps cut the greasiness of the pork. Grilled shrimp paste wrapped around a piece of sugar cane, is wonderfully fresh. It is eaten with rice stick noodles, vegetables and Thai basil (Bai Horapa). The dishes of food we tried so far were all very light. For something more to stick to your bones, I suggest the crab fried with a delicate tamarind sauce. There is also fried fish sauce marinated chicken wings, a nice baked rice in a clay pot with chicken, deep-fried spring rolls-althought the fresh ones taste better and are cheaper. You could add some Vietnamese pancakes, baked lemongrass rice or even a bowl of beef Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup), which unlike the Thai version, has lots of herbs and is very fragrant. There is great variety of dishes to sample and all are reasonably priced.

There is plenty of parking, but if you prefer, you could take the BTS to Silom or the MRT to the Lumpini station.