Just "Meh".
I'm going to try not to make this a long winded review like I usually write as it's late and I want to sleep, however I had to write this as it's been on my mind for a while now. My friends and I decided to go to this restaurant after seeing that it was in the top restaurants on restaurantica for London. It was nice that they had parking for their guests, however the area was very "sketchy" and it was strange going in their back entrance (it didn't feel right). We were seated by an older gentleman and I ordered some sort of coconut juice with coconut bits inside. It tasted odd and not really strongly of coconut. My vietnamese friend who was with us ordered a vietnamese iced coffee which she claimed was way too strong, even for her. My other friend just ordered a pop. When it came to ordering our food, I ordered a chicken chow mein, the friend who ordered the pop got a vermicelli bowl-type dish, and the vietnamese friend got a pho. The pho was apparently "just okay", the noodles in the vermicelli were funny shaped compared to what we get at our usual restaurant and not as tasty, and my chow mein was quite tasteless compared to what I've had at other restaurants. When it came to service, the waiter seemed okay, however my vietnamese friend was given chopsticks right away, my other friend (who looks very unique and maybe even part asian) was asked if she'd like chopsticks or a fork, and i was just given a fork. I found this to be very rude and insulting of them to make these stereotypical assumptions. How do they figure that I dont know how to use a pair of chopsticks (which I do), and how do they know my vietnamese friend wasn't brought up in a white family using forks? A downfall of the atmosphere was that you could hear a lady yelling something in vietnamese in the kitchen for a while. Kind of noisy when you're trying to have a peaceful meal. All in all I don't think any of us really enjoyed our meals and were kind of disappointed. We left unsatisfied for what we had paid for and wishing we'd done our usual place. Maybe it was a bad day, or maybe the people who are ranting and raving about this place are all friends and family...all I know is we won't be going back.