Category: Bistro 
Sunday lunch time and I was craving Vietnamese food. Viet Grill seemed the right place to go to as it had received loads of raving reviews and I expected a meal full of culinary delight. But I was bitterly disappointed.
Without doubt,Viet Grill is –compared to the other Vietnamese restaurants in and around Kingsland Road –incredibly upmarket regarding its decor while still being relatively cheap. It is managed by the same people who also do the substantially less stylish Cay Tre in Hoxton;I had however the much better food at Cay Tre.
I resisted my urge to order the fresh summer rolls (I have some Pavlov reaction whenever I enter a Vietnamese restaurant to order the same things) and decided on the Pho cuon (5). The description was:‘Steamed ‘Pho’ paper roll filled with pickle and wafer thin tender beef served with sweet chilli sauce’. So maybe there is some communication problem between Vietnam and Austria here but I did not expect the beef to be minced (?). It was quite nice anyway but relatively heavy and it did not impress with the fresh flavours that I associate Vietnamese food with.
I absolutely love Vietnamese salads so I was intrigued by the Mango Salad with dried squid (7) on their menu. It was ok,but again lacked depth of flavour. No competition at all to my favourite Vietnamese salad,the papaya salad at Song Que.
Then one of my favourite dishes of all time,Bun Sa (7) –a one bowl dish with rice vermicelli,chicken,lemongrass and bean sprouts. This was really quite good at Viet Grill and we happily finished it. I could however have done with some more fresh Vietnamese herbs which would have raised the dish to a higher level. They were in general a bit stingy with their herbs I have to say.
Then we made the big mistake to order Muc Xao Lan Viet Grill Squid (7.50). I had the best squid dishes ever in Vietnam and have been searching up,down and around Kingsland Road for something similar ever since. Just to let you know,I have not been successful yet,but the Viet Grill version was the lowest point on my quest for the perfect Vietnamese squid.
The squid was basically inedible. Chewy,though and bland. They promised us ‘fresh vine tomatoes’–but the tomatoes in the dish clearly resembled rather the Dutch greenhouse version,pale and tasteless and not even properly cleaned off the the middle green bit. Apart from the inferior ingredients the dish also did not impress tastewise –the flavours did not work together very well and we hardly touched it. I mean me not finishing food! that’s rare,believe me…
It might really be that I was just very unlucky,but I have had far better Vietnamese at Song Que,Cay Tre and Que Viet. Such a shame really,as Viet Grill has without doubt has the nicest atmosphere and you could imagine bringing e.g. a date there or your parents.
- Food:5/10
- Ambiance: 7.5/10
- Service:7/10
- Value for money: 6/10
- Chances of returning: 5%
- Verdict: very mediocre experience
What you say