The Restaurant
On the ninth floor of Le Méridien Hotel, with District 1’s rooftops spreading below and the Saigon River catching the last light of an evening, AKUNA makes an argument for what contemporary fine dining can achieve when its ingredients come from one place and its chef comes from another. Sam Aisbett — Australian, rigorously trained in kitchens that earned their stars with discipline — arrived in Vietnam with an open notebook and spent months eating his way through the country’s markets, street stalls, and regional specialties before cooking a single dish for service.
The resulting tasting menu is a study in respectful transformation. Vietnamese ingredients — mountain herbs, river fish, fermented pastes, tropical spices — are treated with the precision of a fine dining kitchen operating at the highest level, but never stripped of their identity in the process. The food at AKUNA does not pretend to be Vietnamese. It takes Vietnam seriously enough to learn from it, which is a different and more interesting thing.
AKUNA has held a Michelin star since 2024. The dining room is quieter and more focused than Anan Saigon — no market sounds, no five-story tube house energy. This is hotel fine dining at the level where it justifies the concept entirely: immaculate service, a thoughtfully curated wine list, and pacing that allows for genuine conversation. The tasting menu evolves continuously as Aisbett researches new corners of Vietnam’s culinary geography.
The restaurant operates Tuesday through Saturday and seats an intimate number. Last seating is 8:30pm. This is not a place to arrive without a reservation or in a hurry. It rewards the opposite of both.
Best For: Close a Deal
AKUNA’s position in the Le Méridien — one of Saigon’s established business hotels — and its Michelin star combine to make it the natural choice for high-stakes client entertainment. The room is professional without being sterile, the food is genuinely interesting without being alienating, and the service operates at the level required when the dinner matters beyond the food. The tasting menu format provides useful structure: both parties are here for the evening, the pace is set by the kitchen, and the meal becomes its own occasion.
For solo dining with serious intent — the kind of meal you eat alone and remember for a week — the counter seats at the kitchen pass provide a direct window into the most interesting cooking in District 1. A visit to Ănăn Saigon the same trip provides a useful counterpoint: one that begins from within Vietnamese tradition, and one that arrives from outside it.