Huong Viet

I was in two minds about going here - i'd heard really good things about it and read mixed reviews mostly on this website.

In the end we decided to try it. What are people talking about?! It was really good! I'm over all those Vietnamese places on Kingsland Road (Song Que Cafe etc) - they're just not that great, but this one was seriously good.

The chargrilled squid was delicious! As was chicken satay. And spring rolls were nice and tender.

All our main courses were fantastic (BBQ aubergine, veggies in black bean sauce) - only slight negative was the tuna in banana leaf which didn't come in banana leaf and consequently was a bit dry. Still good though.

The deserts were OK but really they are so cheap and probably not really worth bothering with - esp the tofu thing which was really watery.

So all things considered - I would thorougly recommend this place. It's good value and the food is the best Vietnamese I've ever had. And didn't feel at all try-hard trust-fund-y.
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Douglas Hauser
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Thursday, December 03, 2009

Seriously, Londoners are some of the worst 'nostalgia' afflicted muppets ever. Actually no scrap that 'real' Londoners arent, im talking about the other 80% that live in and around the shoreditch/hoxton, now dalston/Hackney area. I can imagine that, 5 years ago when you moved from your comfortable parents house in Gloustershire (or some other exually nauseus all white middle class gated comunity nightmare) that stumbling on this once quirky establishment must have felt like your own little discovery you so hoped for. I'm sure you all revelled in showing off your (inept) london 'knowledge' about finding this amazing little Vietnamese place with your other dough eyed friends still wet behind the ears.....

Now, judging by the 'recent' reviews it appears that people are FINALLY realising that Huong Viet is in fact.... RUBBISH. Seriously people, Vietnamese food is NOT like the lacklustre, greasy, burnt, often WRONG plates being intermittently walked out of this Kitchen, dont get me wrong, I'm all for rubbish food when drunk wandering out of the Talbot but seriously, GET A TAKE AWAY KIDS. This place is pants.

Sadly, like your parents trust fund, it appears that your devotion and belief that this place you found 5 years ago is never ending, so much so you even BRING your poor parents to this place, whatever they must think the private education they bought you has instilled in your 'taste' is beyond me, I in fact sat next to a lovely couple whom i think the boyfriend had his folks down and were all there, the look on thier faces and thier dimwitted son tried to explain it wasnt normally as bad as this (service included!) was priceless.... (no pun intended)

Whats even funnier, is when you get all fussy about paying the £3 service they put on the bill. C'mon kids if they didnt do this wouold you pay for THAT service? just accept youve been royally shirked and its your own stupid fault for either a) beliving the hype of other hoxtonshoridchtypesyoudrinkwith or b) you are unable to read in which case i offer my condolences.

There are MILLION just as bad Vietnamese places down the road near your beloved Shoreditch, they ALL are basically the same.

ok so we'll see if they put this up, but to close, as this appears to have been more a review of the resterunts clientel let me close by saying Houng Viet is very basic, the food is slightly below average, the service is bad and you WILL have to pay a service charge, so if after reading this your are stupid enough to still go in, JUST PAY IT AND DONT GO BACK.
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Austin
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Monday, August 10, 2009

13 years I've been coming here. Great great food and good prices. Service, however, has gone from flakey to unbearable pitful.

Took my folks last night. The restaurant now tries to pack so many people in that they push all the tables together (so abandon any hope of a visit to the loos).

They only managed to get 3 of our 6 starters right. A 4th arrived after our last main was brought to the table, and it was wrong anyway.

On delivering all the mains we discovered that they'd run out of rice!! Yes, you heard right...no rice in a Vietnamese restaurant. Miraculously, however, 15 minutes later - once most of the food was finished - they brought us 3 times the rice we ordered "to compensate".

They also brought us 2 desserts as an apology for the ongoing service issues - a kind offer. However, on paying the bill we calmly explained why we didn't feel that we shoudl pay a service charge. At this point the manageress became hysterical, started screaming at us and called over all the waiters. She then informed that that she'd just told them never to allow any of us back there again!!

Whilst I'm not sure whether she'll be upholding my ban or whether I just need a period of paroled absence, there is a part of me that wonders whether Huong Viet's greedy desire to take on too many covers will be the nail in the coffin for this iconic restaurant.

I hope not.
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LBOB
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 7
Sunday, June 07, 2009

I ate here last night with two friends and our main dishes were really awful. Two of us had fried rice noodles with seafood, and all we could taste was stale oil. Dreadful.

The fresh summer roll starters were lovely, but just not enough to make me ever go back. Very disappointing given the great reviews - we had really high hopes!
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Bek G
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Thursday, March 12, 2009

This place is great. I would say great food (especially the spring rolls), good prices but terrible service. You ae pretty much eating in what looks like a half way house, but don't let this scare you. Putting up with the service and strange atmosphere is totally worth it!! It sure doesn't stop me and my friends from going at least once a month.
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Robin
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 9
Monday, March 02, 2009

Recent lunch here was excellent - the food was fresh and interesting, and a good deal better than any of its Shoreditch competitors apart from the Viet Hoa. The service was fine, and the bill was unbelievably small. I've had problems in the past here with slightly chaotic service, but this meal reminded me just how good the Huong Viet can be.
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- View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 10
Friday, July 25, 2008

We ate here on a rainy Saturday evening. Although we were expecting delays and haphazard service, in fact all of our foodd arrived promptly and as orrdered. The food of course was delicious; in particular the prawn and green leaf soup, the Vietnamese pancake and the crunchy salad (prawns and pork). We ordered more than we could eat, but with a beer each, the total cost including service was £35.19 for two. Amazing.
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Boston Stearns
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 10
Saturday, March 08, 2008

12 of us went to the HV last night and had a great time. We took advantage of the BYO and ordered a wide variety of dishes, regular and vegetarian. I particularly enjoyed the grilled squid, the steamed sea-bass and the BBQ aubergine. Service is a bit chaotic (having someone wave a plate of anonymous food under your nose and bellowing 'FISH SAUCE' at ever higher volumes isn't really top notch customer care) and the place isn't going to win any awards for its decor. But the food, on the whole, is very good, it's extremely cheap and it's a good place to have a party.
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Boz
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 10
Friday, December 21, 2007

I used to love this restaurant, even the slightly chaotic service seemed bearable as the food was authentic and good value. I recently bought food to take home with me and was shocked by how far the standards have slipped.

My order was taken and after a wait , duly arrived, and sat in its bag behind two front of house staff. they did not notice an order had arrived, they were too busy arguing with two customers who had been unhappy with the timing of their meal and wished to leave a service charge off the bill. After 5 minutes elapsed with my paid for food chilling behind them I signalled and did my order. The staff seen harrassed, bored, unhappy and defensive.

Sadly the food was a problem. Crispy duck was soggy , but the plum sauce was actually off. It contained bubbles and gelatinous patches that I can only presume was mould. Hue noodles soup, a dish that made me fall in love with Vietnamese food many years ago, contained a mush of what appeared to be freeze dried garlic bits and a paste in the bottom of the container. This is about as far from fresh ingredients as one can get.

Having done great work in the past , this place is giving Vietnamese food a bad name. No one seems to care about food or customers.
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Lola23 - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Sunday, December 16, 2007

ma and my girlfriendI went yesterday night, quite worried by some of the review on this page, but also hopeful for the past very-good reviews, as well as the timeout's recent praise"Huong-Viet gets ever better with age"

well, timeout out just misses the point. Huong Viet shows all its years, even more probably.

We booked in the afternoon, specifically asking for a quiet and secluded table. It seemed like they very kept in mind our request, since as soon as we got in a quite offhanded guy escorted us to a the table just opposite the counter, in front of the main door, in the middle of the transit. Had our request being backed strongly, probably they would have served us the dinner directly on the counter.

However, after a quick inspection I managed to convince them letting us move into another table, just on one of the room's corner.

Comforted by the new spot we checked the menu and ordered, trying to overlook the rotten-flowers pot sadly looking at us from a corner of the table.

Starters were,t bad, rice-paper rolls were tasty, just cold, I mean, really cold... Pancake was fair enough

Then we had rice vermicell with seafood, and the problems began, as if the squids were nearly spoiled, the grass was.... Pork cooked in claypot was discreete, amazingly salty though, overall nothing special I should say... Then we have this kingfish in banana leaves, which was served with rice, nearly rotten salad, and without banana leaves... Moved by a legitimate curiosity, I picked the first waiter and politely asked him were the banana leaves were... He answered, as it was the most obvious thing in the world, that banana leaves were underneath the fish.... I replied with a not much convinced ok, trying to figure out whether I should have been stunned by my poorest observation skills, or by the remarkable ability of the waiter to lie blatantly.

Probably it is how it works, they say banana leaves and then it is up to you to fill this word with your own immagination... acctually the waiters had another explanation. After having looked accurately under the fish (given that bana leaves are supposed to be quite big, my act of looking for them with the same care I would have put searching for a needle should have been quite funny for the other customer, as well as the waiters, probably used to this kind of tricks)

I stopped a second waiter and ask him for the banana leaves. I didn't want to be mean, I sincerely want to solve the mistery.

Well, the second waiter stood for a second, asking unanderstandable questions, each of them with the word "banana" at some point of the sentence, then he moved to the offhanded guy of the counter. The discussion lasted a couple of minutes, probably they weren't ready for the possibility that a customer, after being told the blatant lie that the leaves were underneath the fish, could go on asking for them a second time. Anyway, when he came back he got a good story. The fish was actually cooked in banana leaves, but the cook removed them before serving the dish (contrary to his opinion, he seemed to suggest)

Apart from this weird answer, the fish was sticky an tasteless, without the minimum trace of the supposed banana's aroma

Quite depressed we ordered a creamy tofu which didn't add anything to the overall impression.

It wasn't finish though. Although there were a pair of couples still eating, the waiters started get eager to kick us out. The offhanded guy (it appeared that they were devolving upon him all the tricky duties) came a first time, seeking to bring away the bottle which was still 1/5 full... I quickly grabbed it before he would bring it away. However he's not that kind of guy to give up so easily. He came back one minute later and, as there was still wine on the bottle, he poured it down on our glasses and took it away. after anothe 2 minutes he saw that my girlfriend's gass was empty, so he took it and stood a while waiting while I was drinking mine, than he literally snatched it from my hand.

Rarely I found such an accurate combination of careless service and poor-quality food (both in terms of ingredients' freshness and actual dishes)

I should say that at least it wasn't expensive, so I wouldn't say it was a huge waste of money, just an average one
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andrea
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Thursday, September 20, 2007