I am spoilled when it comes to Vietnamese food. Forget the fact that I've been to Vietnam. The more important source of raising the bar of my expectations was the 4 years I spent in Washington DC, near one of the largest Vietnamese communities outside of Vietnam. At the Eden Center (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eden_Center), a large mall with all things Vietnamese, I have had some of the best Vietnamese food and drink of my life. From avocado milk shakes to green young coconut drinks and pho and bun and summer rolls and everything in between.
Alas, my forays into Vietnamese food have been not as successful, but after some effort I've found some worthwhile places. The largest concentration of Vietnamese restaurants is near Shoreditch on Kingsland Road (E2). Easiest way to get there is Old Street or Liverpool street tube, but either way, it's a bit of a walk. What I love to do on a weekend (Sunday specifically) is to go up to Columbia Road market (maybe checking out Petticoat lane market and / or Spitalfields market on the way) and then get some Vietnamese for a late lunch. While there are a lot of Vietnamese restaurants in that area (some of them recommended by the Time Out), my favorite is the unassuming but reliably good Tay Do at 60 Kingsland Road. Some of the others (that have been recommended) that I have tried I have been sorely dissapointed. For some reason, at some of the other places, getting hot sauce and hoisin sauce (standard in most Vietnamese places in the USA) is difficult. If you don't have time / energy to truck all the way out to Kingsland, there is a decent (though not great) Vietnamese restaurant in Soho near Shaftsbury called Viet (34 Greek Street). Although it's so small, you often have to wait, but it is a million times better than the much flashier Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown. The one sore dissapointment with all of the Vietnamese restaurants I have been to in London is the coffee. Vietnamese coffee is amazing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_coffee). Sweetened condensed milk with very strong coffee (often made fresh before you in an individual - size filter). At least this is standard in most Vietnamese restaurants in the USA. In London, either the restaurants don't serve this at all, or if they do, it's not fit for drinking. Please do let me know if you find a restaurant that actually serves this amazing coffee fresh in London.
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