This Joburg bar has private karaoke rooms *drops mic*

That little corner across the road from the Goodman Gallery in Rosebank, Joburg, has fast become an epicentre of cool for people who like cocktails but are too bourgeois to go to Melville.

In the past few years Sin + Taxes, Bar Ber Black Sheep, Bolton Road Collection and Coalition have all opened there to great reviews.

The latest addition to the team, Saigon Suzy, is hoping not to buck that trend.

Styled as a kind of artisanal version of somewhere soldiers in Vietnam would have frequented, Saigon Suzy slots in comfortably with its neighbours.

It's a place where one could easily imagine edgy bankers rubbing shoulders with celebrity chefs.

One's initial impression would be that Saigon Suzy is a restaurant with its hair let down, but as the night rolls on it soon becomes clear that Suzy, as she's affectionately known, is actually a bar with her shoes kicked off, eyeing a sturdy table to dance on.

The private karaoke rooms, replete with props and glass ceilings, are more fun than play-fighting in a jumping castle.

Depending on the night you visit, you'll find a DJ - but if not, their Nagasaki Negroni will do more than enough to loosen your hips and help settle the Southeast Asian street food.

While beautifully styled, some of the decorative touches could perhaps be viewed, at best, as caricature and at worst as culturally insensitive.

Mind you, that judgment would perhaps be better left to someone of Southeast Asian descent.

That said, Saigon Suzy is still a hugely entertaining place to stumble out of in the wee hours and maybe that's all that matters.

• Saigon Suzy is open from Monday to Sunday. For more information call 011-327-6596.

• This article was originally published in The Times.