Co Do

Hue- Vietnam's former imperial capital is this eatery's main culinary influence, and the royal purple walls and embossed menus certainly look the part. But try to appear regal while dunking tiny, slippery rice pancakes (banh beo, a speciality of the region) into salty-sour sauce, scattering chewy shreds of dried prawn willy-nilly; or slurping thick vermicelli from soup pungent with preserved fish. Grabbing curls of meltingly tender, crisp-fried calamari with both hands and levering broccoli slick with oyster sauce into your mouth is not elegant, but it sure is tasty. Meat lovers may rejoice at Co Do's emphasis on blood, offal and tripe- those emperors of old weren't squeamish.