Lunch for 1 with Vietnamese Coffee: £15.00

Recommended by: Cheese and Biscuits

The purpose of my trip to Clapham a couple of weeks ago was to see if it was a neighborhood I might like to live in.  It should come as no surprise that one requirement for any place I choose to live is proximity to good food shops and restaurants.  Since I didn’t know the neighborhood at all I looked around at some of my favorite food blogs for ideas.

Mien Tay was enthusiastically reviewed by Cheese and Biscuits and since I love Vietnamese food I was eager to try out one that I might be able to get regular take away from.

Mien Tay is a short walk from the train station and it has that fairly standard bland interior of many a Vietnamese restaurant.  The welcome I received from the staff however was so friendly that it warmed the place right up.  You so often forget what its like to get personal service in a restaurant in London, its such a pleasant surprise when you do.

I started out with the Ban Xeo with shrimp and pork.  I love Ban Xeo and this one was good.  It was also completely enormous which makes them better to share – especially if like me – you also order a main.

Next up came the Bun – rice vermicelli with spring roll and char grilled pork.  Anyone who has ever been to a Vietnamese restaurant with me knows that I am rather obsessed with this particular dish.  9 times out of 10 this is what I will order.  And this was really one of the best servings I’ve ever had of it.

The pork was excellent and the spring rolls were super crispy.  There were plenty of fresh herbs and vegetables.  It all tasted freshly prepared – so much better than much I’ve had on Kingsland road (though I’ve never been to the Mien Tay on Kingsland).  I thoroughly enjoyed this meal.

Having Mien Tay as a local is definitely a draw to Clapham, but even if I don’t end up living there I’ll go back for the food.

Book I was reading: The Wordy Shipmates

Mien Tay
180 Lavender Hill,
London, SW11 5TQ

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 3:10 pm and is filed under London, Moderate, Recommended By, Restaurants, Vietnamese. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.