Tay Do | Vietnamese in Shoreditch

Tay Do | Vietnamese in Shoreditch

• June 13, 2014

I've been to 3 restaurants along the famous Kingsland road stretch, where a lot of the Vietnamese restaurants are cluttered together. Tay Do is the frequented and preferred one by my friend Adrenaline G. I'd been once in 2006 so this is my second visit.

I may get some stick for saying this, but I don't believe the best Vietnamese restaurants are located on Kingsland road. Their approach and menu choices might be authentic, but I've eaten better Vietnamese food elsewhere in London.

For starters we got chopped eel cooked with onions in a rich satay/curry/turmeric sauce. Silly me forgot to take a photo! It was an interesting dish, but I found it a little overwhelming with the rich sauce. The eel was finely chopped, and could have been any other fish. If you're after an unusual dish, this would be one to try.

Beef wrapped in betel leaves with vermicelli, salad and rice paper. The beef was a chunk of slightly-tough beef, not the usual minced beef, and the rice paper wasn't necessary since it already came with vermicelli. Once everything was wrapped together, it became quite tasteless. I am told that the colander-like plates seperating the rice paper is how they serve it in Vietnam. 

Adrenaline G's crab pho was much tastier and I would come back for this. The crab wasn't too rich and together with the light tomato-y soup and a squeeze of lemon, this was a delight [first picture].

A meal for 2 with 1 starter, 2 mains, and 2 drinks came to around £32. Can't really beat that.

Address:
Tay Do Cafe
65 Kingsland Road
Shoreditch
E2 8AG

There are 2 Tay Do's - the cafe and the restaurant. We went to the original one at the cafe