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THE LARGE DOUBLE DOORS, a depressing army green, are open wide to the parking lot, bold raised letters brandished across them in an arch like an epitaph. From left door to right the message reads, "Very Much Again On" and "Thank You See You So."

Inside, things get even more puzzling. Yes, all signs of life point to Marietta's Grape Leaf Grill as a restaurant, but an abundance of dried flower arrangements, a piano centered under an elaborately decorated pagoda in the middle of the room, a chenille throw and gilded bas relief-like paintings on one wall might cause newcomers to wonder if they've stumbled into a Chinese flea market.

Elissa Eubanks/Staff (ENLARGE)
The seafood salad comes topped with salmon (foreground), and the duck grape leaf dish (back) piles char-grilled meat over heaps of veggies.
Elissa Eubanks/Staff (ENLARGE)
A standout dish at Grape Leaf Grill is the rice noodles served with shrimp and beef. And be sure to try the pho (noodle soup) and the spiced meats wrapped in grape leaves.
Elissa Eubanks/Staff (ENLARGE)
If you peek through the transluscent wrap of the spring rolls, you can see what fresh fillings await inside. In this case, the shrimp shines through.
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The space and amount of tables are far too large for the dining room to ever feel busy, but it is. The occupied tables are covered in dishes such as banh hoi and deep bowls of pho (Vietnamese noodle soup), as well as tiny towers of strong Vietnamese coffee quietly dripping its way into a pool of sweetened condensed milk.

Ky Nguyen was the chef at much-celebrated C'om when it opened on Buford Highway last year. He opened Grape Leaf Grill almost eight months ago, after leaving C'om's kitchen. If you are a C'ommy, as I am, you'll recognize his dishes, especially the spiced meats wrapped in grape leaves.

These Vietnamese wraps usually employ the use of la lot, a pepper leaf related to wild betel. In the United States, shiso or grape leaves are more commonly used. The leaves are used as a wrap for spiced pork, lamb or even salmon, then the bundles are char-grilled and served over heaps of julienned vegetables and dipped in nuac nam, the classic Vietnamese fish sauce that tastes as if hot peppers and shrimp got mixed up with a jar of sweet pickles.

Plump shrimp wrapped with thick slices of bacon and delicately wound with a hodgepodge of freshly chopped papaya, green pepper, ginger and scallion, then blanketed with chopped peanuts and tiny bits of caramelized onion is one of the best and most distinctive of Nguyen's offerings.

But it is the delicate way in which this chef, originally from Saigon, handles goi (salad) and banh hoi, the intricately woven rice noodles served with shrimp and meats, that makes me pine for this food at 3 o'clock in the morning, glaring into an empty refrigerator save for the leftovers.

My favorite of the banh hoi is with shrimp, served with pork wrapped in grape leaves. A beautifully fresh mound of lettuce, cilantro, mint and perfectly julienned Vietnamese papaya, apple and radish are served to wrap the rice cakes and meats up in a lettuce bundle and dip into nuac nam.

Lemongrass tofu lacks the charm — and crunch — it needs, though the tofu is tenderly flavored with lemongrass and tossed with generous portions of sautéed green pepper and onion with a heavy dose of black pepper. Its outer softness begged comparison to the dish at Midtown's Nam, where it is crunchy on the outside and fluffy like a scrambled egg on the inside. At Grape Leaf Grill, it's just fluffy all over, which gets a little boring after three bites.

The timbale of rice on a plate with grilled pork and chung hap, a type of fish cake, is so tiny-grained it is almost like white couscous. The dish, called com dia dac biet, is crowned with a sunny-side-up egg that, when mixed into the rice and eaten with the meat, conjures Proustian memories of the simple summer dinners of my childhood when we ate fried eggs and pork chops with fresh tomatoes from the garden.

The building has been many other restaurants — Japanese, Chinese, Korean. Why someone designed the double doors out front as to ever allow the mishap deconstruction of "Thank You Very Much See You Again Soon" is as much a mystery as the piano in the middle of Grape Leaf Grill's dining room. But "Very Much Again On" has become my mantra. I chant it when I am happily full.

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