Though Ốc Đào is nominally a snail restaurant, it's so much more than that - scallops, shrimp, clams, and all manner of curious cephalopoda (octopus teeth, anyone?) are here to be picked over and washed down with copious cold beers and bawdy, boisterous conversation.
This represents Vietnamese nhậu (drinking and eating culture) at its most visceral, where playing with your food becomes part of the pleasure.
The vibe: Two floors of metal tables and plastic chairs cascade into the building's forecourt, where shell debris crunches underfoot like gravel. Rather than be confined indoors, the open air is where you want to be - legs stretched out, head thrown back, fully committed to the messy ritual.
There's a miasma of aromas - garlic, butter, oceanic spray, fish sauce, charcoal and cigarettes. For the uninitiated, it can leave you reeling.
Back inside, ceiling murals of flying seagulls (real ones would have an absolute field day here!) and painted palm tree scenes give 'Mykonos in Manchester' energy. The stark, clinical lighting proves useful when picking at shells, though.
The food: Fresh shellfish arrive daily from Phan Thiết. Big fish tanks display massive live lobster and crab plotting their escape, while fridges stock a dizzying range of snail species.
The kitchen treats everything four ways: grilled, stir-fried, roasted, and steamed. Palm-sized ốc hương (babylon snails) remain the most popular order, a signature satay-adjacent sauce pooled in their spirals.
Other standout dishes include sò huyết (blood cockles) - small blood cockles that arrive tightly shut, requiring strength to prise open and challenging conventional wisdom that closed clams should be discarded. Grilled oysters with spring onion arrive still bubbling and are heavenly. Oysters grilled with a slice of American plastic cheese as garnish are not.
While butter garlic sauce dominates the menu, alternatives include a salt, chilli and calamansi lime dip, and a sticky tamarind sauce with crispy pork fat pieces swimming in it. Essential to the experience is the bottomless bread for sauce-sopping.
The drinks: No cocktails or wine - the owner believes they mask inherent shellfish flavours. Cans of international beers only (Tiger, Heineken) and softs. We’ve been gently chastised for ordering water in the past.
Time Out tip: Though official hours are 11am-10:15pm, it's known to stay open much later for locals seeking after-dinner bar snacks.