Tay Do Cafe Canon 550d introduction
So I've recently purchased a Canon 550d DSLR and what better a way to test it out then a short visit to Tay Do Cafe on Kingsland road.
A cheeky BYO Red Stripe beverage.
Summer rolls for starter, prawn and pork with a tasty dip.
Spicy squid, well cooked, tasty.
Crispy duck for the main. Not strictly Vietnamese, it's a Chinese dish.
Pho bo tai, so far the best dish on the menu I've managed to find. Huge portion, a bargain at £6.50 (I think).
Look out for more sexy Canon 550d Vietnamese food shots!
Project A Thai Islington
Shoreditch Vietnamese has now branched out to cover Thai food. And Islington.
This is a great bar slash restaurant on Regents canal kind of in between Shoreditch and Islington. On a sunny day you can enjoy a nice beer and Thai food right on the edge of the canal.
We came here once on a sunny Sunday afternoon and enjoyed a few beers with a crazy Russian chick live singing to some chilled techno beats. She was performing about a meter away from us, out towards the canal with onlookers cheering her on. Bizarre but enjoyable.
I had a fish starter which was good, Nadia had duck rolls and Ryan had prawn and squid. I'm reliably informed by Nadia that the rolls weren't as good as Tay Do. Controversial. (Is it legal to compare a Vietnamese restaurant with Thai?)
My main was in the special list, I can't remember what it was called but I know it started with a P. Tasty and clean, nice beef.
Nadia had a red curry. "Amazing" she tells me.
Ryan's green curry was pretty damn good too.
I'd thoroughly recommend this place, great setting, great food.
- Posted from 51°32'N, 0°5'W and Hackney, United Kingdom
Tay Do post Notting Hill Carnival
Having smashed two portions of jerk chicken rice and peas (one with a side of curried goat) at Notting Hill Carnival on Sunday, my diet and digestive system hasn't been in the best of shapes. Time to get that back on track with an early week Tay Do.
For starters we went for the trusty spicy squid along with something we hadn't tried before, spring rolls (not the Vietnamese ones).
The spicy squid was perfect - golden brown, freshly cooked, neither too soft or too chewy - just right. Tasted great with the fish sauce. We hadn't tried the spring rolls before, they were quite moist and mushy with onion and prawn inside. It was nice to try something different but I don't think they'll become a favourite.
Next up for the main was the classic pho tai or rare steak noodle soup. Just what I needed to get my diet back to normal. Perfect mix of onions, coriander, spring onions, beansprouts and herbs. The broth was bang on - completely balanced, no flavour stood out from any other, they all came together perfectly. The meat was great too, there was a lot of it and it was cooked nicely and soft. All in all it was another great meal, maybe sway the spring rolls next time in exchange for summer rolls.
- Posted from 51°31'N, 0°4'W and Hackney, United Kingdom
Tay Do post Ibiza
So I'd been in Ibiza for a week, eating rarely and badly, I needed to get my diet back on track. Time for a trusty Tay Do.
I went for a different starter, not sure why, I think I was telling myself the steamed roll with prawns were healthier than the fried salt and pepper squid. They probably were but they weren't as satisfying. There was too much much roll and not enough prawns. They were awfully small as well. Still, at least I gave them a go. My mate went for the spicy squid as per usual. I had one and they were good, but I decided to stick to the more healthy route and declined any further.
For my main I needed a satisfying reliable dish and my body needed protein. Enter the pho bo dac biet, a mix of rare sliced steak, well done brisket and meat balls - a.k.a. nuff protein. As expected, the taste was great, good side dish of herbs and beansprouts, nice amount of onions in the soup. The rare steak was nice, however the well done steak and meatballs weren't particularly amazing. I think from now on I'll just stick to rare steak. I'll only do the triple trouble if I need to O.D. on protein.
Mien Tay disappoints
On a Tuesday evening it was a toss up between Song Que and Mien Tay. We had our own drinks and I'm not sure whether Song Que allow BYO, plus TimeOut gave Mien Tay the 'critics choice' and said about the place: "A haven of consistently good Vietnamese cooking". If it's good enough for TimeOut then it's good enough for us.
Wrong. Now to be fair, the review by TimeOut was written in 2009, but how a restaurant on the pho mile can get a staple dish like salt and pepper squid so wrong, I don't know. When they brought it out, it's the smallest starter I've seen in a while. If you look at the photo we'd only eaten 2 pieces. It was hard (to the point where it scraped the roof of my mouth and gums), dry and chewy. There was no flavour and I'm not sure I could detect any pepper. It was also lukewarm. It was like they'd cooked it the day before and kept it under a heat lamp. If KFC started serving salt and pepper squid, this would be it.
The other starter we went for was chargrilled quail in a honey and something marinade. It was quite small anyway and we shared it so it made for a very small portion. Thankfully it tasted great so we stripped it to the bone and savoured the flavours. They do the same dish but with pork meatballs which I'm hoping will be a bit more substantial. If you're going to go for the quail make sure you have it all for yourself.
Now their last chance to pull something back was with the main. I opted for pho tai (rice noodle soup with sliced beef) whilst Ryan went for bun hue bo (spicy rice vermicelli soup with beef). They nearly pulled it off. First impressions of the pho were, it had a load of meat in (good) and looked like dirty pond water (bad?) The side of beansprouts, chilli, lime, coriander, mint and basil was a great selection and got bunged in the pho straight away.
It passed the taste test BUT it wasn't hot. I can't stand cold food, it wasn't cold but I could tell that after I'd been eating it for a while it would turn lukewarm. I was right. I like my pho's to be steaming hot when they're brought out, this wasn't.
Ok so it failed the temperature test but passed the taste test. It sort of passed the quality test. The meat was good, really soft, lots of it and tasty. The thing that let the dish down slightly was the noodles. They didn't seem that good quality, they looked like they were straight from a packet of dried noodles from Longdan round the corner on Hackney road. If they could sort out the temp and the noodles then I'd rate the pho as great, instead I'll just have to give it an 'ok'.
Ryan's hue looked the part but had an overpowering taste of fish sauce. I think we tracked it down to the chilli mix you get on a side dish on the tables. It looked like they mix fish sauce with the chillis and must have chucked a touch too much in the soup. Overall it wasn't bad and he liked it, but after tasting my pho which had good balanced flavours, I could really pick up the fish sauce in his.
The bill came to £24 which was pretty good. With the bill they brought out this weird horrible dried up orange which we dared to touch and was kind of the icing on the cake. Time to go and possibly never come back?
Ps. loved the front cover of the menu.
Loong Kee beef pho noodle soup and fresh summer rolls with prawns
So we managed to last all the way to 8pm on a Monday night till the restaurants of Kingsland road drew us in. We decided on Loong Kee. It was going to be Song Que but we had a couple of beers on us and I don't think Song Que do BYO, fortunately Loong Kee do.
I decided on some nice and healthy fresh summer rolls with prawns for starter, followed by beef pho noodle soup as my main. Ryan went for crispy squid with salt and chillies followed by king prawns with cocunut and lemongrass.
My summer rolls were pretty good, nice and clean although to be honest they could have done with more prawns or the addition of pork would have gone down well. I think the first thing Ryan said about his squid was "shit" closely followed by the classic phrase, "it's no Tay Do". I tried the squid and found it a bit tough and the fish sauce with chilli (which we had to ask them twice to bring out) wasn't too great either. Again, it was no Tay Do.
Despite the bad start for Ryan he enjoyed his main. I tried it and it was full of flavour, very sweet and lemony. It's not something i'd order regularly though. My pho was pretty good, I asked for rare steak and the meat was lovely and tender, hardly any fat, nice shredded pieces - not like the clinical slices I had from Pho in Soho. The broth was pretty damn good, a nice full rounded flavour and i'm sure it had extra chicken flavour swimming around or maybe just over seasoned. It was nice and i'd give it a go again.
Service was ok, not particularly fast. The bill ended up at £28.40. There were 2 old guys in there which i'm afraid may been a premonition of myself and Ryan in the future.
Pho in Soho - Pho Tai Chin
Ok so I know this instantly breaks the alleged rules of the site, but I went here for lunch with friends and it would be a shame not to mention it.
I ordered Pho Tai Chin (steak, brisket) which took about 10-15 mins to arrive. At lunch time it wasn't too packed and the 3 of us got a seat straight away. The 'Pho' chain is like a commercial Viet eatery, no real authenticism, had a waitress with makeup on who looked like a clown.
My pho came with a tray of bean sprouts (not many though), some lime, coriander, chilli and a big Viet style wooden serving spoon. The pho didn't have much onion or bean sprouts in in so it seemed like it was missing something or a bit empty. The broth was very spicy, not in a heat kind of way but in a deep dark spicy manner. I could taste dark spices like cloves and dark cardamom, it was the most powerful part of the broth. I felt like it was missing the warm beef stock flavourings.
The meat was nice to chew but the cuts seemed a bit clinical - all around the same size. The noodles were... Ok? My friends liked their's, Chris said he preferred it to Tay Do as it was 'cleaner' but Aimi didn't finish her chicken pho saying it was rather 'gingery'.
It was a nice change and lunchtime treat but for me it seemed too commercial. Prices were a pound or so more than cafes on Kingsland road. I'd go again though and try something different on the menu.
Welcome to Vietnamese in Shoreditch
I live in Shoreditch. I eat a shit load of Vietnamese. I've been to Tay Do Cafe over 30 times. If i'd have written a blog post every time i'd eaten Vietnamese, i'd have a shit load of pretty sweet content. Unfortunately I didn't, but things are now going to change, at least I hope they will for a while until I get bored or think of a new fad to focus on.
So welcome to Vietnamese in Shoreditch, a blog chronicling the adventures of a Vietnamese cuisine fan living in Shoreditch, London. I'm going to upload reviews, pictures and any stuff relating to the title of this blog. I hope someone enjoys reading and looking at pictures of Vietnamese food as I sure as hell enjoy eating it.
Here's a picture of Tay Do's menu, enjoy.
- Posted from Hackney, United Kingdom
