Banh Mi Bay, 4-6 Theobald Road, WC1X 8PN

Boy oh boy have I been away from this little blog for some while.

First, I was busy with work – didn’t stop me eating though.

Then, I had (and still have) what is popularly referred to as The Dodgy Tummy – that stopped me eating (but only for a bit). This has been going on for three weeks now, and before you say ‘What is wrong with you, why are you not going to the doctor’, I have. It just takes ages to get the results back.

So, between going to work, and the toilet (sorry), I’ve hardly found the time to blog. However, since it’s bank holiday weekend and all that, I decided to eat, take the pictures, and blog about it. It was kinda weird taking pictures of food again, felt like the weirdo in the corner snapping away at a sandwich, but you gotta do what you gotta do for the blog.

A few weeks ago, D&A took us to Banh Mi Bay near Greys Inn Road, but when we got there, the lady in the restaurant said that their lower ground floor was flooded and so the restaurant was shut for the day. Disappointment ensued, but we quickly got over it by stuffing our faces at Bea’s of Bloomsbury where they have the most delicious, decadent, cheesy lemon drizzle cake in London. And then we went to eat some Italian food also, which made up for the lack of Vietnamese sandwiches.

This weekend, because the bf was feeling eurghh also, we decided to have something clear and clean tasting, so we decided to try this place out again. First impressions, it’s so chic, so clean, so trendy, it’s what I want my lounge to look like (if I had a restaurant in my lounge, I know I’ve made it).

The tables and chairs look like they’d feel right at home in Soho, and the bright, duck egg green/blue space looks really inviting. Despite it being quite late in the day on a Saturday, there were quite a few tables filled up and everyone looked like they were enjoying what they were having. Good start.

What I’d like my lounge to look like.

The menu is a cute little (just like the restaurant) booklet with just enough to give you a good variety to choose from, but without boggling me before I even begin. Did I ever tell you how I hate big menus? No? Thought I’d mention it.

Since we came here especially for the sandwiches, we HAD to order one of those things, didn’t we. And so we did. The bay-friend (geddit?) ordered the 12e Bay Special. It’s one of those things, where, usually, the item named either after the restaurant, or something something Special, is usually okay.

I took one look at the menu and decided that I’d have a little starter just because, and jump straight on to dessert. Not having tried this glutinous rice thingee before, it seemed like a good choice because the summer roll wasn’t gonna fill me up, and glutinous rice is usually annoyingly filing.

The 12e Banh Mi Bay Special £3.50 was described on the menu as ‘Homemade pate, spiced pork and pork roll.’

While Googling for the address of this restaurant, I came across another blog which said that a banh mi was supposed to be made out of a certain kind of bread, made from rice flour. Good thing we had no idea what the bread was meant to be made of, as we thoroughly enjoyed this.

It’s not that much different from any other sandwich, but what makes it more enjoyable than a boring, mayo-filled, square sandwich is the fact that this tasted like a bowl of Vietnamese noodles. It was a very interesting mixture of tastes and textures.

- Chewy and soft bread 
- Crunchy julienned carrot and cucumber
- Spicy parsley
- Salty, tasty pate with the tiniest hint of alcohol
- Thinly sliced sausage which brought about a comfort factor to the sandwich

Mmm-ish.

All this talk is making me thirsty. Welcome to the three layer Vietnamese coffee, which was really enjoyable.

This was my starter-dessert combo, starting with the Bi Cuon (caramel pork summer roll) £3.50.

I love chewy summer roll skin, and boy oh boy, was this one chewy. Couldn’t really taste the caramel pork, and neither felt its texture, which kinda makes me think that it’s almost wasted in a summer roll, but that could be entirely due to the fact that I drenched the roll in the sweet, tangy fish sauce served up with it.

I could have had ten of those.

The Che Dau Trang dessert of glutinous rice and black eyed peas with a generous blobbing of creamy coconut milk. Despite telling myself that I’d not be greedy, and not eat everything like I always do, guess what, I finished it all. The glutinous rice was just too shimmery and wobbly for me to resist. It just sat there like a shiny little quivering rice mountain, and the black eyed peas provided a crunchy dimension to the dish.

Would I recommend this place? Uh huh, sure would.

On a sidenote, I’m watching Ultimate Big Brother as I type this, and I must conclude that Nikky is the most interesting contestant on the show.

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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 (Part 2), 58 Kingsland Road, London, E2 8DP

Though there are many Vietnamese restaurants in London (of which more than half are found in the Old Street part of town), Viet Grill is at the top of my favourite list. The second place position belongs to Cafe East, although both places specialise in very different types of Vietnamese food.

The last time we went there, we went with the aim of trying out Tay Do (which is next door to Viet Grill, and which we have previously tried, but haven’t had the chance to explore much of its menu). With a bit of a queue at the door (2 people), we used the feeble excuse of not wanting to wait, and scooted next door, back to the comforting dim-litted interior of Viet Grill.

Note: This place is NOT great for food photography, it’s kinda like eating in the dark, but the food is great so you’ll have to make do.

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

For those of you who don’t know, I like chewy food. The chewier the food, the better it is to me – unless it’s meat or something like fruit juice (high standards). This means that I like things like har gau wrappers, the skin on custard and jellies, and of course, the chewy transparent goodness that is the summer roll skin. In Viet Grill, the summer rolls are not only fresh and chewy, but full of fresh herbs (you can actually taste the green zingy taste of the herbs), fresh prawns balanced by the fruity, sweet and sour dip provided.

Beef vinh £7 (rolled chunk of five-spiced beef fillet, charcoal grilled, served with fermented soy dipping sauce)

One of the must have items in this restaurant is this beef dish. Obviously, my first thought when the dish was placed in front of me was:

‘Is that all the meat I get?’ and then
‘This looks like a shish kebab’

When I bit into one piece of the beef, all reservations flew out the window. Despite the small (to me anyway) portion of beef served, all the flavour and goodness of a fat, juicy, meaty cow was filled into these 2 little rolls of perfectly grilled, fantastically marinated, excellent tasting beef.

I didn’t even know it was possible to make beef this tasty. The dip was made from some ginger mixed with fermented bean (or so it says, though I couldn’t quite tell) which went very well with the salty beef.

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

Oooooo now this was lovely, each piece of pork was tender and so well marinated, with flavours blending on the tastebuds. Each bite was soft, salty, and slightly sweet; balanced by the fresh plain rice, and then tangy again with some sweet and sour pickles. I like those pickles, they were crunchy and so fresh, I wanted more.

If we didn’t like the other dishes so much, this would have easily been the winner, but then again, they all were.

Pho, My Xao £8 (Egg noodles wokked over a high flame and laden with fresh vegetables, Chef’s special)

With most restaurants, we order a noodle dish as a filler of sorts, so that we can have the freedom of trying out various little dishes, but still be full after the meal. This was what we set out to do here, assuming that the noodle would just be there as a source of carbohydrate.

Thing is, this noodle was so so good. Although you got a choice of getting either egg noodles or pho with the dish, we just let the waiter decide for us, as I couldn’t make a choice and I’m sure he knew which was better. He chose the egg noodle option.

The noodles are cooked in some rice-win mixture, I’m convinced of this as when I bit into a mushroom, the taste of rice-wine was very fragrant, thus although I couldn’t taste it specifically in the dish, it must have been used in the sauce mixture. The egg noodles complemented the dish very well, as they retained some element of chewiness and crispness instead of getting all soggy (although the pho might have done equally as well), but unlike with pho, the egg noodle has the ability to absorb its sauce, which probably was the reason why it was so tasty.

With probably half a farm’s worth of vegetables on the plate, I really enjoyed this dish, every bite of it.

Would I recommend this place? So much so that I count it as one of my favourite Vietnamese restaurants in London.

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Cafe East (version 2.0), Surrey Quays Leisure Park

If you’re interested in reading the review of Cafe East prior to the upgrade to version 2.0, click here.

To give a brief summary of Cafe East version 1.0 and 2.0:

Version 1.0 – Approximately 8 tables, 3 staff, large portions of food, and a toilet that gave you an authentic experience of a Vietnamese side-alleyway
Version 2.0 – Located in an ex-pub, approximately 20 or more tables, many waiting staff, and beautifully presented food (with a small price increase)

The previous Cafe East opened for lunch from 12 to 2pm, so there was often a rush to get there, with many visits consisting of us looking in from outside a closed restaurant, hungry. The new Cafe East seems to have extended to normal opening hours, presumably because it is located on a leisure park, alongside chain restaurants and a cinema.

The menu is pretty much unchanged, although looking slightly brighter than in the previous place. Prices have gone up by 30p or so, depending on the dish, but hey, if this keeps the toilet looking that clean, it’s worth it.

I ordered this as it looked like grass jelly from the picture on the menu, but it resembled another dessert that I like, so it was all OK.

Goi cuon £4.50 (Summer rolls)

The portion sizes here are still generous, and if you’re not looking to spend much here, a main dish alone should be sufficiently filling. This is one of our favourite dishes though, so we just had to order one to share. The prawns were fresh, and the rolls were filled with pork, noodles and prawn, bril for dipping in the sauce accompanying the dish.

Fresh beansprouts for the noodles, still don’t like the green stuff though (basil?)

Bun bo hue £6.50 (Vermicelli rice noodle, spicy soup, beef brisket, lemon grass, chicken and prawn)

Most of the time when I order this here, the waiter or waitress will repeat ‘Spicy?’ after I’ve placed my order. Maybe they’ve been asked to ensure we know it’s spicy, maybe people order this and then express surprise that it’s spicy?

The soup is spicy, and full of beefy-flavour. I asked for the toppings to be a mixture of prawn and chicken, and they were certainly generous when giving out the four large, very fresh prawns with the noodle. Tasty soup, huge portions, I like this.

Bun bo xao £7 (Vermicelli rice noodle with stir-fried beef)

We really liked this dish at the previous Cafe East, so it was a must-try at the new place. Glad to say that the standard has remained, perhaps even slightly improved due to the better presentation they have here. The portion size for this dish has increased, or maybe it’s the size of the plate but whatever the case, it’s enough for one hungry person. Filling, tasty, and reasonably priced.

I didn’t draw that arrow, but we took this pic as it seems to be the last souvenir from the pub that was not removed when Cafe East moved in.

Would I return to this place? Most certainly so, really like it.

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