Dì Mai Thảo Điền
Vietnamese Flavours in a Garden Setting

Dì Mai opens a new chapter in Thảo Điền with a Garden Kitchen & Bar that brings Vietnamese flavours into a lighter, more contemporary setting. Framed by greenery, familiar dishes and cocktails inspired by folklore, the new address offers an intimate expression of hospitality shaped by memory, generosity and everyday ritual.

Thảo Điền has always had a particular ease to it. Behind its busy avenues are shaded lanes, garden homes and a dining culture shaped as much by neighbourhood intimacy as by the area’s international pulse. It is a fitting setting for Dì Mai’s latest chapter.

Opened on 26 September, Dì Mai Thảo Điền introduces the brand’s first Garden Kitchen & Bar, moving away from the more enclosed character of its earlier locations in favour of openness, greenery and natural light. The result feels less like a formal restaurant than a contemporary Vietnamese home prepared for guests.

That sense of welcome is central to Dì Mai’s identity. Its guiding phrase, “Taste Vietnam. Feel at Home”, places emotional familiarity at the heart of the experience, and the new restaurant carries that idea with greater softness and restraint.

The kitchen remains grounded in the vocabulary of the Vietnamese table. Clay pots, clear broths, shared platters and hand-wrapped bites draw on dishes that feel instantly recognisable, yet the emphasis is not on nostalgia alone. What gives them presence is the attention paid to preparation, balance and the rituals surrounding the meal.

Here, generosity is expressed quietly. It appears in a pot placed at the centre of the table, in dishes designed to be shared, and in the rhythm of a meal that encourages conversation rather than ceremony. The experience feels considered without becoming precious.

The bar extends that narrative in a more playful direction. Signature cocktails borrow their names and ideas from familiar Vietnamese folk tales such as Ăn Khế Trả Vàng, Mai An Tiêm and Cây Tre Trăm Đốt. Native fruits and herbs bring those stories into the present, allowing folklore to surface through aroma, texture and flavour rather than through literal interpretation.

Even the opening night reflected this balance between heritage and modernity. In place of a conventional ribbon cutting, Dì Mai marked the occasion with a “Khai Niêu” ritual, lifting the lid of a clay pot to begin the evening. Guests gathered beneath warm light as Bossa Nova and Jazz softened the garden atmosphere, while welcome drinks and Vietnamese bites circulated through the room.

For Dì Mai, Thảo Điền feels less like an expansion than an evolution. The new address preserves the warmth that has long defined the brand, but gives it a fresher, more open expression, one shaped by garden living, contemporary mixology and the enduring comfort of gathering around a Vietnamese table.