"There are whispers in the mist..." a grinning toothless oracle once said to us in a raspy voice, "WHEN IN SAPA, ONE MUST DINE AT CHUSU KITCHEN" she chuckled maniacally as the thick fog of Fansipan mystically envelopes her. We hear nothing but the echoes of her laughter in the mountains. I glanced at my wife, visibly stunned. "Woookay, now that's weird. Anyways what's for dinner?" I said. "Chusu Kitchen I suppose..." her voice breaking, still staring into the foggy distance, glassy eyed.

This is a paid review.

Nope it isn't :)

Honest to God, we were not prepared as to how fabulous the food is here. We were skeptical and our expectations were low, believe me. I mean like really low. In the end we walked out wanting to come back again.

Michelin standard food at this prices. I mean what are the owners thinking?! Food at this standard, quality and presentation can only be found in gourmet restaurants at triple, quadruple, quintuple, heck, 10 times the price.

Chusu is named after the father, founder and chef Chu, and his little daughter Su, his wife explained, and most of the ingredients are sourced locally including caviar from the locally farmed surgeons. Some produce are seasonal, and so they'll adapt and retrofit them creatively to existing dishes.

We had mountain corn with chicken soup and fresh spring rolls as starters and Braised local duck thigh with red wine and mountain spices and mountain pork with special rice for mains. We finished off with their delightful home made passion fruit cheesecake and a cup of coffee.

I won't go in depth discussing each dish because we're no food critic nor are we educated in the culinary arts. My wife and I are just like the thousands on a holiday in Sapa and only chancing upon this brilliant family run eatery on a cold, wet, foggy evening.

So none of that snooty note taking and analysis on how a particular dish is constructed; analysing smells, flavours, textures and presentation. None of those shenanigans. None of that bullcr*p.

Just come and give this place a shot whenever you're in Sapa.

We will return. Most likely the next day. Again, we're not paid for this review, nor are we some egoistical influencers. We're a couple of boring, uninteresting boomers.

EDIT: It's incredibly rare that we return to the same restaurant not twice but thrice! I won't wax lyrical about this gem of a family run eatery as I did in my previous review above. You just have to pay this place a visit and judge it on your own. Thank you once again to the Chusu team for such an amazing culinary experience and service!

Round 2:

• Grilled beef steak with pepper sauce and salad on the side • Beetroot soup • Beef rolls with noodles • Cheesecake

Round 3:

• Grilled beef steak with pepper sauce and fries on the side • Homemade noodles with charsiu in creamy sauce • Baked Sapa salmon served with noodles • Spicy Sapa mushroom soup with prawns