Huong Viet

Yes, the food is wonderful here and its reputation is passed to friends and new commers in the neighbourhood, as if it were an enchanted, very special secret.

There is a real authentisity to this place. Its food and the atmosphere, more a collective dining room than a slick london eatery.

As others have said the service is unique. This is certainly not a place to come to if dinner is going to be only part of your evening out, if you have other plans post dinner, it may be worth considering another option. I recently spent a total of 3 hours, with two friends, from seating to receiving the final bill. We enjoyed our starters and mains greatly, and we even enjoyed the experience. Luckily the company was great and we went with the flow. However, we have chosen to 'take out' from now on rather than eat in. Take our orders will be ready for you within a reliable time frame of 20 minutes. non of the flavour is lost.
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Katy Delahay
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 8
Sunday, March 05, 2006

The food is wonderful but the service is so bad that even big fans of the place like me are seriously considering whether it is worth the aggravation and stress. The staff are friendly but there are too few of them so the two waiters have a permanently hunted look on their faces as every person in the restaurant (plus the crowd at the door for takeaways) tries to get their attention to remind them that they have been waiting for 45 minutes for their drinks. Its not quaint, quirky or hilarious - its really infuriating and unfair on people who are paying for the experience. Its a pity because the service never used to be as poor as this and there was a time some years back when the service was as friendly as its food was good. I hope they get their act together.
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Martin Wilson
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 7
Friday, February 17, 2006

Found this little place the other night and depsite the slightly scary exterior decided to try it out. Am so glad we did! True, it's got a slight community centre feel, and is a little tatty around the edges but the food is brilliant and an absolute bargain-a whole sea bass for less than £7 is amazing-and the BYO bottle policy makes things even better. We went late on a Thursday night and it was packed out, and although service wasn't the quickest, the staff were really polite and friendly so it wasn't ever an issue. Highly recommended-can't wait to go back! Talbot a few doors down is a lovely place for a pre/post dinner drink too.
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Monday, February 13, 2006

Food is fantatsic and the BYO alcohol is a lovely touch especially with the very reasonable corkage.

The service is hilariously bad. So much so that we ended up walking to the reception counter, picking up a pad and pen, writing down our full order (starters and mains for 12 people), walking straight to the kitchen and thrusting it directly into the chefs hands. It worked. Our food started arriving 10 minutes later.

Having got our food the absent service was almost completely forgotten about. If you go with just the expectation of delightful, good value food and nothing else, you will be very happy indeed.
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Dylan
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, January 25, 2006