Mien Tay

South Western Vietnamese in Shoreditch

Shoreditch in East London is well known to be a popular spot for its night life and Vietnamese food, you will see plenty of Vietnamese restaurants in the area with young crowds packed in thanks to the reasonably priced and authentic food, out of the lot it seems Mien Tay, Song Que and Cay Tre are regarded as the top three. But having eaten at Cay Tre in Soho I found it rather average, also judging from the outside Song Que looked like a canteen more than a restaurant so we went for Mien Tay to hope for some quality Vietnamese experience.

Mien Tay

The decor was very simple and a little worn out, but this place is all about the food so I wasn't that bothered with it. We started off with the house special Mien Tay spring rolls, it was deep fried with pork and oriental vegetable, tasted delicious with the sweet and sour dressing and salad. Spicy soft shell crab was also lovely, it had nice meaty flavours without too much batter clothing the crab.

Mien Tay spring rolls

Spicy soft shell crab

This was followed by a whole fried sea bream with fish sauce and mango, the mango was finely sliced with the sour fish sauce worked well with the crispy sea bream, nice mixture of sweet and sour flavours. Rice noodle soup with sliced beef, a classic Vietnamese pho was delightful  the noodle was smooth and soft with the hot soup containing all the flavours from the beef, lime, mint and all kind of oriental spices. Rice vermicelli with spring roll and grilled pork ball was also well executed, simple ingredients well put together, a great dish for a quick lunch fix.

Whole fried sea bream with fish sauce and mango

Rice noodle soup with sliced beef

Rice vermicelli with spring roll and grilled pork ball

It was a very pleasant meal overall, it was very good value and the portions was massive, (under £10 for a whole sea bream!) service was decent enough for these types of restaurant, it wasn't an issue for me but the tables are right next to each other so this isn't an ideal place if you would like to talk in private or on a date. But beside that, Mien Tay offered very good quality Vietnamese food in both taste and value and it is well worth a visit if you live or work near by.

Food 5.5
Service 4
Ambience 3
Value 8

£24 per head with a soft drink

122 Kingsland Rd, Hackney, UK E2 8DP

http://mientay.co.uk/