Viet Grill, Basement Bar & Restaurant

Haven't been to this place in years. But visited today with some family friends. We are Vietnamese and this is certainly a more high end establishment. This is reflected in the price being slightly higher than your typical Vietnamese restaurants but the quality and quantity of the food is certainly higher also. I was pleasantly surprised on my return and had a most enjoyable meal. We had the banh cuon, banh uot, goi, cha gio, bun bo hue, bun cha hanoi, and com ga. All items were excellent and very authentic. To top it all off, after discussing among ourselves how delicious the chili sauce is, we ended up having a lovely nice chat with the manager too.

The food at Viet Grill was excellent. We shared a mix of meat, fish, and vegetarian starters, all of which were delicious. The bone marrow pho was unlike any pho I have had before and very tasty. There was also a good range of non-alcoholic drink options. I especially enjoyed the sour plum tonic, unusual flavours but really enjoyable. Service was a bit mixed. Our mains took quite a while to arrive, and one member of staff came across as slightly surly, though others were friendly and helpful. The music was also far too loud for my liking.

Viet Grill is the favourite spot on the Kingsland Road strip of a Vietnamese girlfriend of mine. I like the food but my enthusiasm is dimmed by the fact that it is 30% to 40% more expensive than their competitors on Kingsland Road. The extra dosh does buy you a nice decor, and romantic dim lighting. Somewhere you could take a date. Unlike their competitors that mostly offer a canteen atmosphere. Our server advised us well on how much to order for a non ravenous table of 5. From the starters section we had Hanoi style Banh Cuon, fish sauce caramel chicken wings, grilled aubergine with minced pork, salt and pepper squid. All were good. The salt and pepper squid was served a little differently than in other restaurants on the strip, in that squid was first deep fried and then stir fried with some onion and peppers. Banh cuon is served by some other restaurants nearby, but not all. It is similar to Chinese cheun fun. Viet Grill offer three regional variations of this less commonly available dish. From the mains we had the sizzling mixed seafood stir fry, which was the only disappointing dish, being characterless and a little bland. Stir fried morning glory was dependable if unremarkable. Beef stew redolent with cinnamon and lemongrass was tender and delicious. The best of our mains was the claypot catfish, stewed in the same fish sauce caramel that coated the chicken wing starter. This is a somewhat uncommon dish not available in every Kingsland Rd restaurant. We needed three servings of plain rice for the 5 of us. I did like the food but questioned the pricing compared to nearby competitors. That said, the decor and atmosphere is much better than the other Kingsland Rd restaurants. I would recommend Viet Grill for a romantic date, or when taking out an elderly relative who is put off by the basic canteen-like atmosphere of most of the other Vietnamese offerings on Kingsland Road.