Tay Do, 60 Kingsland Road London E2 8DP

We used to go to Viet Grill all the time, which is right next door to Tay Do. Then, one day, our friends took us to Tay Do, the place with lots of tables, lots of chairs, and not enough space – and we absolutely loved the food there. Not that we don’t like the food at Viet Grill, but they are good at different things, so where we go depends on what we want to eat.

Viet Grill is great for its grilled meat – the Feudal Beef and Beef Vinh is so very absolutely tender and lip-smackingly delicious. Even talking about it is making me want to eat it. However, Viet Grill is more about one-dish meals, ie dishes on rice or noodles (aside from the grilled meats).

Tay Do, on the another hand, according to me anyway, is more about mixing dishes, for sharing, almost like a big meal where everyone eats a little bit of everything. This may not be true, especially for those really large groups that seem to come here all the time, as I usually find them ordering one-dish meals. Thing is, whenever we go there, we order dishes to share, so that’s how I tend to perceive this place.

The menu here is a multi-page, laminated affair. Page after page of Vietnamese goodies, maybe a few too many dishes for my liking as I find myself sitting there for a good half an hour contemplating what I want to whittle down the list to. Thing is, when we go with said friends, they make it easy for us by ordering what they know is good.

Every single time we’ve been here, this long table has been filled with a large group. I’m not really sure how they get that many large groups dining here all the time, and in fact, the whole restaurant is usually filled to the point that walking through the tables becomes a sort of art-form – tray balancing, it could be called.

So our favourite here is the King Prawn Fresh Summer Rolls (£4). More generous in portions than their Viet Grill neighbour, these little parcels of translucent, fresh-tasting delights are my absolute favourites. There’s something about eating something which tastes almost of nothing, and the strength of the dish lies only in the freshness of the ingredients, and the mixture of textures coming from the fresh green vegetables, the stringy noodles, and the crunchy fresh king prawn.

Each bite is a pleasure, made even more so by the peanut, sweet, soy-based dipping sauce.

Another one of our favourite starters is the Beef Salad (£7.50). Not exactly sure how they cook the beef, but from the taste, it is first marinated in the usual Vietnamese marinade (usual, I say, because I reckon it includes some form of fish sauce), and then possible seared ever so quickly before it is sliced finely and mixed in with the salad. The whole dish then becomes a lovely (small-ish) explosion of sweet, sour, fresh, tangy, oniony, meaty mixture. 

This is a must-try. The Beef Wrapped In Betel Leaf with Rice Paper and Salad (£8.50) is listed on the starter section, but I would happily have this all to myself as a main meal. In fact, I would happily have it all to myself as a starter. Little pieces of beef which cannot possibly be more flavourful than it is (really, it can’t be any more flavourful, just no way). Each one is so perfectly charred, salty, sweet, very meaty, and the betel leaf is amazing (not had betel leaf anywhere else so it might be unfair to compare, but this is the best). The vermicelli is then added in with the little beefy mouth-watering parcels of joy, all wrapped in round, translucent, chewy, rice paper. I am forever-more intrigued by Vietnamese rice paper. Some of you might know that I have this thing about chewy food, anything that is chewy is most probably something that I will like. Which is why sometimes, in dim sum, I eat the Har Gau wrapper first before the prawn.

Then, we get to the main meal dishes. This is the Chargrilled Pork with Rice Vermicelli (£7). Remember those flavourful beef pieces above? Uh huh, these pieces of pork could not be more flavourful than they are. Imagine all that flavour and meaty texture accompanied by fresh, bouncy, chewy, strings of vermicelli, acting like a tasteless palate for all that meaty goodness.

Here’s something we’ve not ordered before, but as I felt like having some seafood that day, I thought, why not. The Chilli and Lemongrass with Mixed Seafood on Steamed Rice (£8.50). Though we could have had a bit more seafood in the dish, the dish was certainly full of wok-hei (meaning, wok fire – which is used to describe a dish which has been cooked well, in a wok which has plenty of heat so that the food is cooked just right). Each piece of seafood (and even the onions) tasted so good – slightly nutty, sweet, salty, almost like it had black bean in it. Absolutely loved the dish.

And how can we have Vietnamese without the pho. My friends ordered the Chicken, Shredded Egg and Vietnamese Pork Salami in Rice Vermicelli Soup (£7) which looked like pho, and from what they said, tasted really good too.

Would I recommend this place? We’ve been here countless times and will hopefully continue to keep discovering more dishes here, so most definitely I would recommend this.

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Viet Grill (forth review), 58 Kingsland Road, E2 8DP

This is the most reviewed restaurant on the blog. I don’t know why I bother writing about the same place again and again, especially since we order the same thing everytime. Anyway, if you’ve not read it before, well done. If you have, enjoy it again?

Note: This restaurant is very dimly-lit, which explains the ‘got dressed in the dark’ look of the pictures.

Reflection of the economic times?

There were four of us at dinner, and we were all very hungry. Cue, menu, ordering, and lots of food (what did you expect). We went there on a Monday, and we were expecting it to be a quiet dinner at the restaurant, but it was surprisingly busy, almost completely full and this was a weekday evening. We were there with 2 friends who’d not had much Vietnamese food before, so lots of showing off was to be done.

By now, I know the menu so well that when I read it, I’m only looking at what font it is, what colour the paper is, and if they’ve put the price up. Good to know that it looks mostly Arial, the paper is cream coloured, and the prices have remained the same. Well done.

Goi cuon (Fresh soft summer rolls filled with king prawn, herbs and salad wrapped in rice paper) £3.50

First starter to come, the summer roll. Lovely prawns right by the wrapper (so you know it’s there), with vermicelli and fresh vegetables acting as the backing singers, all singing one beautiful melody of fresh bursts of flavour in the mouth. Despite it not tasting of much (which is how it’s supposed to be, and not a criticism in any way), I keep ordering this dish because it gives just the right texture and freshness to start off the meal with.

Các món rang muoi (Chilli salt and pepper squid) £7

Next to come was the deep fried squid, one of our favourites. What makes this dish stand out from the other versions from other restaurants is the thickness of the squid. If sliced too thinly, the squid shrinks to almost nothing when fried, so the batter falls off it. If sliced too thick, it just becomes difficult to eat, and the batter doesn’t do too well on it either. Viet Grill has the Goldilocks factor, and each piece of squid retains just the right amount of chewiness.

Bò tùng xeo - Feudal Roasted Beef £9

Then, we just had to show off the feudal beef. Looking at the piece of beef, you’d have assumed it’d be overcooked and chewy, but how wrong you’d be on that. The beef is marinated with a fantastic, sweet and salty, slightly tangy sauce which must do something to the beef when it’s being cooked, as we’ve had this dish many times before and each time, it is cooked to perfection; rare and so tender. You really should try this if you’re here.

Bún Sa (Lemongrass sautéed beef served with rice vermicelli and viet herb salad) £7

While the grilled meat dishes are famous, and rightly so in Viet Grill, the same can’t be said for their noodle dishes. While the noodles might be better here than at alot of the other restaurants, it’s just not up to scratch when compared with the grilled meat dishes. I know it’s not really fair comparing grilled meat to noodles, but surely if the noodles were good enough, you’d get the same feeling of satisfaction when you had both dishes, correct? Not so though, because when the noodle dish was brought to the table, and we’d all had a try of it, the bowl of noodles then got sneakily pushed to the side of the table, only to be looked at again when the other dishes had been eaten.

Com suon (Pan seared pork fillet mignon with house pickle over steamed rice) £7

The pork on rice here is also very nice. Slightly tougher than char siew, but tasty nevertheless. The salad that comes on top of the meat and rice is so very tasty also, I’ve been wanting to learn how to make this salad, but no matter how I try to get the recipe for the sauce online, the salad just doesn’t taste the same. I can’t get the texture right, don’t know how to retain the crunchiness of the vegetables the way they do it in Viet Grill.

Bún Nem (‘Spring Bowl’ of imperial and prawn spring rolls, grilled meat parcel on rice vermicelli and viet herbs salad) £7

This one’s a new one, not tried it before. The reason for not trying it previously was because I didn’t know that Vietnamese spring roll was so different to the Chinese spring roll. What I don’t like about the Chinese spring roll is the stereotypical tasteless rolls of vegetables deep fried to resemble a starter. The Vietnamese version however, has none of that, but instead has a crispy almost bubbly skin, tasty pork filling, and is served in generous portions on top of noodles. While I maintain what I said about the noodles (ie not so impressive), the topping was very surprising, and very nice.

Like all other posts, would I recommend this restaurant? Many times I would, so do check it out if you’re nearby, or if you want to try a new Vietnamese restaurant.

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Tay Do (third review), 60 Kingsland Road, London, E2 8DP

Choosing a Vietnamese restaurant from the Old Street / Kingsland Road area is pretty much like trying to find something cheap in Harrods. Impossible (though not technically true, as the Krispy Kremes in Harrods are still within affordable limits).

Which is why there has to be a certain technique applied in choosing the location for dinner (always something that inspires hours of pondering and contemplating time). My method is this; when I’m with my friends who’re in the know (CV and JC), we go to Tay Do. When it’s me and the bf, we go to Viet Grill.

Why, you must be wondering (or not). This is because Tay Do’s menu is what I’d consider to be a proper local Vietnamese person’s menu, ie authentic. Which also means that I don’t have much clue about what is what, what is not what, and will most probably end up ordering 10 of the same noodles in different serving sizes.

So, when I have a person in the know with me, we immediately let them do the ordering, and sit back to enjoy the rewards.

The menu here is a shiny, hard-papered type book with dishes in local names as well as English descriptions (not that it’s any good when you don’t know what roasted rice powder is, anyone?).

Lotus roorlet salad with prawns (Goi Ngo Sen Tom Thit) £5.50

(I might have spelled roorlet incorrectly, as I don’t know what a roorlet is, don’t know what the alternative spelling of it could be, and this is what the menu said so here it is.)

Taste-wise, wonderful. Slightly sweet, slightly sour, and so refreshing; perfect as a starter to the meal to jazz those tastebuds up for what wonders are to come. Each bite of the vegetable was crunchy, slightly chewy, and the prawns were fresh and crunchy.

Beef salad (Bo Tai Chanh) £7

Another wonderful, refreshing little zing of a dish, with rare beef slices marinated in a combination of fish sauce, lime and something else (don’t know what but it was delicious). With each bite of beef balanced by a zesty bite of minty coriander, and then quickly washed down with a bite of the roorlets (refer above), pure enjoyment of the buds (taste).

Vegetable sour soup with seafood (Canh Chua Do Bien) £7.50

The better version of a tom yum soup, I’d say. Where tom yum soup is pretty much just sour and spicy (of course more than that, but you know how I am), the Vietnamese version has a combination of sweet, spicy, fishy and sour. With lots and lots of seafood, ladies fingers, and some other unidentified vegetable in the soup, this could be a dish in itself, eaten with steaming hot rice.

Chargrilled pork chop (Heo Cot Let Nuong Than) £5

Of all the dishes ordered, this was my least favourite, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as all the dishes we ordered were delicious. The reason I didn’t like this very much is because the meat was quite chewy and hard, perhaps it was the cut of meat? The marinade was tasty enough, it was the texture which ruined it for me.

Chicken with chilli and lemongrass (Ga Xao X a ot) £5.40

The ingredients used in this dish made it really tasty, really fragrant, and the best bits in the dish were the things left at the bottom, ie the crunchy, chewy bits which were slightly burnt. The chicken itself was only OK, though tender enough for chicken breast, but not surprisingly tasty or anything.

Aubergine with pork (Ca Tim Xao Voi Heo) £5.40

Comparing the Chinese (fish-fragrant style) version to this Vietnamese one, I prefer the Chinese version, simply because the Chinese version has more depth and flavour to the taste. This one tasted quite bland, like a plain stir fry with not much more to it, though the ingredients were fresh, well cooked and tender. Just slightly bland unfortunately.

Would I recommend this place? We usually come here when we have someone who knows what to order, as there is just too much to choose from. Saying that, yes, I would recommend you to come here, the atmosphere is good, the service is efficient, and most of the food is very tasty.

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Viet Grill, 58 Kingsland Road, Shoreditch

Why review a new restaurant, when you can always review the same restaurant again? As all successful food bloggers say, ‘Why try something new when you know what you like.’

(That is a joke that will get me no where.)

We like Viet Grill. Alot. So much so that every Friday when we’re debating where to go for dinner, the default choice is always Viet Grill (salt and pepper squid is a good reason if you need one).

Without meaning to sound like some sort of unpaid ambassador for Toptable, there is a reservation service for Viet Grill from Toptable, and every time you make a reservation, and then write a review, you get 200 points. When you’ve accumulated 1,400 points, you get a free meal from one of their selected restaurants.

So you might have to write the same review over and over again, eat ze peas ee, lemon squeezy.

I won’t elaborate on these dishes in terms of prices and that as you can check it out in the previous post of this place. The summer rolls here are so fresh, and so chewy (that is a good thing as I like chewy food). When I say something is chewy, that is a compliment.

For example, your new dress is so chewy.

Now, if chewy was a compliment, the feudal beef is CHEWMAGNIMOUS. This is the best, the most tender, the most flavoursome, the most well-grilled and the most every complimentary adjective piece of steak you could ever find.

(Unless of course if you’re comparing it to something ridiculous like Wagyu beef.)

But in the correct comparison league, this is top of the class. Wanna have affordable, really recommended beef? This is it.

The salt and pepper squid is the reason we come here so frequently. That, and the feudal beef and summer roll.

Each piece is crispy, crunchy, chewy and nicely salty.

Bun sa (lemongrass sauteed chicken with rice vermicelli) £6.50

The noodle dish that just wasn’t up to scratch. We’ve had the other noodle dishes from here which I’ll recommend to anyone, but this one was not one of them. The chicken was flavourful, but the noodles were just so watery, not with gravy but from the vegetables on top of the dish. This made the noodles soggy, and just not very nice.

Discounting the one dish which wasn’t up to standard, I’d still come back to Viet Grill, and recommend that you do too as it’s really one of the better Vietnamese restaurants in London.

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