DanVy Vu

The Path

The through-line in DanVy Vu’s cooking is not a single room but a sustained search for flavor. Since 2019, the executive chef and owner of Top Hatters Kitchen and Bar has been shaping a menu from memory and pursuit: the kind of cooking that reaches for tastes sensed before they were fully named. That gives the work a clear point of view without turning it into autobiography.

The Work Today

“The food at Top Hatters is inspired by that constant flavor chasing from my childhood.” At Top Hatters Kitchen and Bar, that search becomes something disciplined and current. The food carries the trace of longing, but it is not built as nostalgia; it is built to land at the table with structure and clarity. That balance matters in the room. The standard is polish without stiffness, confidence without distance. Through Vu’s approach, Top Hatters Kitchen and Bar is set up as a place where careful cooking and comfort are meant to sit in the same seat.

Signature

DanVy Vu's signature dishes include Shiso Non La and madras vegetarian curry. Taken together, they show a kitchen that works across registers: one dish leaning into brightness and herbal lift, the other into flexible, grounding comfort. The madras vegetarian curry, especially, reflects the room Vu wants to build—one where a dish can carry memory, adapt to the menu, and keep bringing people back.

In Their Words “If it’s not going to be in the main dishes, it’s gonna be in some other dish that’s really flexible—like our madras vegetarian curry.”