Lunchtime can be a fuss of freneticism where the last thing anyone thinks about is flavour. Sustenance is the keyword, with a quick stop off at a fast food joint or snatched sandwich at the desk often the only nod toward a vital meal.

But food can be swift and delicious too, as a lunch at Karma attests. Take the Pho served at this pan-Asian restaurant as an example; the Vietnamese noodle soup is as subtle as you would like it, with a delicate broth filled with rare beef, basil, coriander and shitake mushrooms. But as is the case with Pho, it is the seasonings that make the difference, and the bowl comes with a platter of three vital sauces. Hoi sin provides the sweetness; sambai olek the chilli heat and the slice of fresh lime the zing and freshness. In this way the seasonings can be adjusted to your taste, which is as much fun as it sounds, and quite frankly I’m sorry to finish the bowl.

Meanwhile, my lunch partner is happily chomping her way through a beautiful avocado and tuna salad, with local greens, fresh vegetables and a sweet-kick wasabi balsamic vinaigrette. She declares it delicious and we sip green tea in celebration.

Contemporary look

The restaurant has an extremely contemporary look and feel, with pinks, purples and electric blues abounding. We’re sitting in the bar area on tall chairs; it’s a funky, LA-kinda vibe with an achingly-up to the minute fountain/projection near an exclusive-looking lounge area. That’s testament to the vision and experience of Morris Wilkes, famous on-island for his work at Bamboo and previously from Los Angeles.

In truth, a salad or a soup would satisfy the lunch appetite but the main dishes are also excellent. My partner opts for the Pad Thai - always a favourite and a classic stir-fried Thai dish that’s rightly becoming more and more part of people’s culinary vocabulary. It’s a good choice; the chicken, prawn, chilli, lemongrass and coriander noodle dish smells and looks wonderful and almost makes me wish I’d ordered it.

Almost, but not quite. If there’s a chance to order kobe beef, it’s really got to be taken. Karma’s take on the utilisation of this ultra-tender, high-end Japanese beef is to use it in a trio of sliders, which come with various toppings. It comes with a lattice of french-fried potatoes which appear to have been tempuraised - so good I have to make up words to describe them (you could have a local green salad instead). It somehow sums up the restaurant; an Asian ingredient brought to the Western palate with some aplomb.

So, not content with having a name that’s a gift for a headline writer, Karma scores on all counts as a lunch venue, too. The ambience is relaxed and yet classy, the decor bold but concurrently relaxed, and the food is served swiftly but not at the expense of its quality, which is very high under the watchful gaze of executive chef Aaron Molloy. Best of all, the options are a mixture of the familiar and the exotic, the worldwide and the local. It’s up to each one of us to choose how spicy we want to live our life, after all.

For more information or to make a booking, call 946-5276, or e-mail info@karma.ky