This time last year I was in Vietnam, in the city that used to be called Saigon. It was renamed after the war with America ended and now takes the name of the North Vietnamese general, Ho Chi Min. I loved a lot of things about Vietnam and the Vietnamese people, but what struck me most was their obsession with food, cooking and eating. I was reminded over and over again of Italy, where the same obsession obtains. Conversation with strangers doesn't revolve around discussions of the weather, but just like Italy revolves around food - what I ate today, what I'm going to eat tonight, what I'm planning to eat tomorrow. The Vietnamese are a bunch of Asian foodies.

It's a universally accepted truth that wherever you find a passion for food you'll find good food. People who care deeply about their food invariably make it well and Vietnam is no exception to this rule. Just about anywhere you go you'll find good food, from snacks bought from hawkers at the side of the road to the fancy restaurants that are filled only with dollar-rich tourists. Some of those restaurants in Ho Chi Min City have food of extraordinary sophistication, served in beautiful surroundings. Add to the Vietnamese obsession with food the layer of French colonial influence and you get a gastronomic mix of great subtlety and complexity. I'll admit I didn't always eat what I was offered - I balked at the fried scorpions, huge black decapods all shiny on my plate - I just couldn't get past my sense of disgust and taste them. Apparently they taste like a cross between crabmeat and pork crackling, but I guess I'll never know for sure.

Vietnam is a long flight away, but Dubliners can enjoy a genuine taste of Vietnamese cooking in Temple Bar, in Ho Sen. It's right behind the Central Bank building, so it's easy enough to find. I got there on Tuesday night with Alexis Mitchel and even though it was only about 7.30 the downstairs was already filled to capacity, probably because of their great value early-bird menu. As a result, we were shown upstairs to a pleasingly decorated room that makes a virtue of its minimalist décor. Simple plain black tables and simple chairs ensure that your focus will be on the food, not on your surroundings.

What I like about Vietnamese food is the clarity of the flavourings. The combinations of spices and herbs that you find always come to you with a pleasing balance, each flavour carefully selected as a pairing for the others. The food itself makes much use of wok frying and steaming, and emphasises the freshness of the ingredients. It's all very easy on the digestion, never leaving you with a sense of bloat. Now as it happens I'd arrived with very little appetite, as a result of a good lunch in the Castle Bistro after the hard work of a morning's wine tasting. This meant I had to choose with care, selecting only dishes that would make no demands on my non-existent appetite.

I discussed this with Alexis, who made the pertinent point that possibly arriving in a restaurant for a review meal when very hungry was perhaps not such a good idea - after all, hunger makes everything on a plate appealing and consequently takes the edge off the critical faculties. So the ordering went like this: the Goi Cuon, which is rice paper rolls of shrimp, pork, chicken, shallots, cucumber, lettuce, peanuts, noodles, mint and peanuts for Alexis and the Sup Tom, a prawn, mushroom and ginger soup with egg white and Ho Sen sauce.

For main courses Alexis chose Tom Hap Toi, which are prawns steamed with garlic and coriander, and I had the Muc Xao Xa Or, which is wok-fried squid with lemongrass, chilli and green peppers. You'll notice two things about all these names: firstly they're all single syllable and secondly they're written in the European alphabet. Vietnamese is a mono-syllabic language (each word is a syllable) and they use the European alphabet as a legacy of their long years of occupation by the French.

After a morning's wine-tasting I didn't even look at the wine list, but instead went for Tiger Beer, which is what I drank with all my meals in Vietnam, adding a touch of nostalgia to the evening. We also asked for plain iced water, which was constantly refreshed throughout the meal - just a small part of the attentive and friendly service in Ho Sen.

The starters were good: the paper rolls were an extraordinary mixture of flavours and the little ramekin of dip that came with them was quite delicious. My soup had that gelatinous quality that so many Vietnamese soups have, rather like the consistency of bird's nest soup. It was delicate and tasty, the mushrooms combining nicely with the prawns.

As is traditional in Vietnam, the dishes are placed in the middle of the table, so that everyone can share from each dish. Two very large dishes arrived for the main courses and I began to wonder about the wisdom of having ordered rice side dishes. Still, little by little, we worked our way through both, picking away at the little rolls of scored squid and steamed prawns. As a result of our dainty eating, there was a lot of food left on the table by the time we called a halt, which they kindly packed up for us into a doggy bag.

We finished this very tasty meal with a dessert for Alexis, and a good espresso for me. I liked this restaurant, I liked the food and I liked the friendly, informative service which makes choosing unfamiliar dishes easy. It was good value as well, the bill for the night was €62.50, which by Dublin's standards verges on the cheap.