Wet scrambled eggs from Cre Asion. The Yakuza pancake at Edition Coffee Roasters. The "crazily good" duck rolls and noodles at Glider. Ms Lam remembers them all.

"I never knew that brunch could be that great," Ms Lam said.

Plenty changed in Vietnam during the eight years the former University of Technology Sydney student spent spent in Australia, but she was disappointed to find the brunch scene hadn't made its mark in Ho Chi Minh City.

So after years of joking with her friends about opening a cafe she decided to take the leap. Earlier this year, Ms Lam, together with friends Alex Chan, Duc Nguyen and Thao Huynh, opened The Other Place in the heart of Ho Chi Minh's buzzing District 1.

"It’s inspired by the way you guys do food," Ms Lam said.

"You guys don’t just do good food ... It’s what’s interesting, what’s the newest combination, and that’s just great to me."

Jack New, a Sydney-based restaurant consultant who works as a research and development chef at Icebergs in Bondi, helped with the menu. He described his style as modern all-day dining ("none of that smashed avo bullshit").

New spent a "hectic" week in Vietnam working with the team on building The Other Place from the ground up, developing the menu, finding trusted suppliers, training the chefs and taste testing with locals.

The result is a cafe that wouldn't look out of place in Melbourne or Sydney. Boasting millenial pink walls, a velvet couch and hip hop on the speakers, it's driven by an Australian approach to casual dining with a Vietnamese twist. There's banana bread, but it's served with pho syrup. The suite of cocktails includes an espresso martini, but like Vietnamese coffee, it's made with condensed milk. The whole set-up is extremely Instagram friendly.

It's taken some convincing for locals to get on board, Ms Lam said.

Only one or two groups ventured into the cafe in the first week. Vietnamese audiences are used to expensive fine dining, "usually not good" casual eateries or street food, Ms Lam said - "whereas you guys have a relaxed environment where you can still have good food".

New recalled the first taste test: "Stuff that could go really well here flavour profile-wise would completely miss the mark for them because they’re used to sweeter things, especially with the sweeter dishes, they wanted it to be a lot sweeter."

"I was so stressed the first week we opened," Ms Lam said.

"But the people that came really liked it and gave a lot of word of mouth recommendations and the next week it was starting to get more packed."

People in New York and London have taken to Australian brunches with gusto. Ms Lam is hoping Vietnam's most populous city does the same.

“The obvious targets are expats and people who have lived overseas in multicultural environments," she said.

"At the same time, I do this because I want to educate people about food.

"Eventually I hope to be one of the few people who change the whole eating culture here and make it more international."