TânVân — Restaurant in London

Stumbled upon this restaurant on a Friday night, it was fairly quiet for the time of day.

The decor gave me an authentic feel of Vietnam with lots of old pictures and nostalgic wall papers. The waitresses were friendly and attentive so my first impression was good.

Coming onto the food, we ordered some pork spring rolls to start with. They were okay, not bad but not outstanding either. I thought they could incorporate a bit more Vietnamese flavours in these, especially the sauce. E.g., more lime, fresh chillies and fish sauce.

To me, the score-defining dishes at any Vietnamese restaurants are Pho and Bun bowls. If they can get these two dishes right, they've earned their 5*.

I have to say that I was not overly impressed with either dish. My Bun Cha Hanoi was pretty mediocre, there were no layers of flavour.

Vietnamese Bun bowls should be packed full of fresh herbs, served with fragrant chargrilled juicy meats and more flavours from the diluted sweet and sour fish sauce. The pork belly slices were dry like very crispy bacons with no Vietnamese aroma and the meatballs/pork patties were dry too. The bun noodles were too cold to my liking, unlike others I've tried that were served at room temperature. This fish sauce was probably the same as the one served with the pork spring rolls. Again, not very exciting. Perhaps it needs a bit more lime, garlic and chilli.

As for their original beef Pho, it was okay overall but it still lacks some flavours. I find the broth lacking in flavours from some toasted spices such as star anise, cloves and cinnamon etc. Also, the soup was not hot enough.

On the upside, their Vietnamese drip coffee was pretty good. They only use moderate amount of condense milk and the coffee aroma was on point.

Price wise, I think it's slightly too high for the quality of food I received.

Overall, a pleasant dining experience. The food has lots of room for improvement. I probably would not recommend to my friends if they were looking for an authentic Vientmese restaurant.

Recommendation for the restaurant:

I'd suggest putting more love and effort into the foods than the decor. Ultimately, this is what will keep your customers...

Reading the reviews here, I wonder if We went to the same Restaurant… regrettably, We had very high expectations of this place that were not fulfilled. We had what the Menu offered as “Sticky Chicken Wings” and the “Honey glazed pork Summer rolls” as Appetizers, and to be honest, in the rolls we couldn’t find the pork; the herbs though were fresh and it tasted nice; the chicken wings were bland, with no particular Vietnamese taste, very simple roasted wings. For Main course we had the Lemongrass Chicken Bun bowl, offering Chicken Turmeric and lemongrass, apparently served with pickled daikan among lettuce and fresh herbs…. There were no pickled whatsoever and the turmeric and lemongrass were totally absent. The other main was a Saigón Pork Belly Stew Rice Box, again no pickles found and a very bland, simple pork belly, no particular Viet taste. Overall utterly overpriced, considering that nearby eateries offer tastier dishes for half the price. Unfortunately, our experience on the Service does not match the reviews given here. Sadly, having so many other better Asian options around, we reckon is not worth it such a poor experience...

Delicious but Deafening. My partner and I came here tonight for dinner and the food was tasty and authentic, but the staff sadly managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. For some reason the chef only started cooking my meal after my partner was served hers, so she had mostly finished by the time mine arrived. That I could deal with, though. What really soured our experience was the young waitress who was inexplicably able to laugh at a sound level of 120 decibels without taking a breath for the entire duration of our meal, all whilst loitering right next to our table. What seemed to trigger this cataclysmic and unrelenting hollering was the male kitchen staff member who ceremoniously slapped her on the backside as he walked past her (again, you guessed it, right next to our table). This isn't the sort of atmosphere that I expect from somewhere that isn't particularly cheap, and that adds a service charge by default (which we obviously asked to be removed). Since I don't miss the feeling of being sat in my old high school canteen, I don't think I'll be visiting again. All in all this was a shame because the...