Da Nang (Vietnamese: Đà Nẵng) was chosen as the opening city for the National Bailliage’s Grand Chapitre 2026. The reason? Patakka made that reason clear from the first bite.

The opening meal brought some 20 members and guests to this vivid, wonderfully spirited little restaurant in the Mỹ Khê beach area for an arrival lunch that set the tone for everything that followed. The choice was deliberate. Da Nang and Hội An are home to over 40 Indian and subcontinental restaurants. A quiet testament to the region’s remarkably cosmopolitan dining culture.

Patakka, with its unapologetically colourful atmosphere and unswerving commitment to Mumbai street food authenticity, was the natural opening act. A surprise, yes. Absolutely the right kind.

The meal was unpretentious, joyful, and entirely itself: street food done with care, bold spices, honest flavours. The kind of energy that turns strangers into tablemates within the first course. By the time the masala chai arrived, the afternoon had long since stopped feeling like an organised event.

That evening, the mood carried the group to Gypsy Rooftop Restaurant & Bar, perched atop the New Orient Hotel with sweeping views over the city. Where Patakka had been intimate and earthy, Gypsy offered an altogether different register - stylish, creative, and quietly romantic.

Chef Olivier Corti, one of Da Nang's most celebrated culinary voices, had composed a five-course menu exclusively for the occasion, threading Vietnamese ingredients through a refined modern sensibility. The langoustine-stuffed “bánh xèo” (Ed. a savoury fried pancake made of rice flour, water, and turmeric powder) with local Đà Lạt caviar was perhaps the evening’s most talked-about dish which captured exactly that spirit: something familiar, reimagined with quiet brilliance.

Well-chosen wines, city glittering below, conversations flowed easily, as they do amongst people who have spent an afternoon discovering they have more in common than expected. For those not yet ready to call it a night, 1920’s Lounge offered one final act: whisky, live jazz, and the particular pleasure of an evening with nowhere it needs to be.

Day One had set the tone for the Grand Chapitre - warm, surprising, entirely at ease with itself. Exactly the right way to begin a special event.

Joey Thinh
Interim Chargé de Presse