Tay Do Restaurant

Address: 64 Kingsland Road, Shoreditch E2 8AG
Website: http://www.taydo.co.uk/
Nearest tube station: Old Street (or Hoxton or Shoreditch High Street Overground stations, Hoxton being slightly closer)

After going past the tugging tramp – sadly, not a trendy bar in Shoreditch, but a homeless man providing himself with his own Friday night entertainment – under the railway bridge, we headed up Kingsland Road to Tay Do for a Vietnamese meal after work one wintry Friday night.

We were quite early, so there were only a couple of tables occupied, but the restaurant quickly filled up and was packed by the time we were tucking in to our food.

I don’t know much about Vietnamese food, so I was interested to see what was on offer. The menu had a selection of pan-Asian dishes - chicken satay, prawn toast, sweet and sour chicken – and some more ‘interesting’ dishes including frog legs with betel leaf (which I was not brave enough to try).

For starters, I had spare ribs – good flavour but a bit gristly – and Mrs BYO had a couple of Vietnamese spring rolls, both of which starters came on a bed of shredded lettuce.

Our mains were delivered while we were still on our starters, and so weren’t too hot when we tucked into them. We had the Tay Do special pork with rice vermicelli and the crispy egg noodles with chicken, the latter being my choice.

As well as the rice vermicelli (thin rice noodles), the Tay Do special pork came with another Vietnamese spring roll – luckily, they were tasty, so we didn’t mind having a third – a stack of pork, grated carrots and a dip. I snaffled some of this, and it was really very good.

I didn’t choose so well: my crispy egg noodles with chicken was a bit bland. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a massive wimp and can’t handle really spicy food (as you’ll see if you come back for our review of a curry house…), but the dish could have done with more flavour.

For dessert, Mrs BYO had chosen something from the menu, but the waitress gave us the bill without asking if we wanted anything else, so, well, we didn’t have anything else!

Two starters, two mains and no desserts came to £32.50. I’m not sure if that included corkage (the menu said £2 per person) or a tip, as the bill wasn’t too clear and was whipped away from us when I paid by card, rather than cash (which they prefer).

Tay Do has a BYOW - bring your own wine - policy, so goodness knows what would happen if you brought beer or cider. For your wine, there are lots of small convenience stores in the area, a big Majestic Wine on Shoreditch High Street (around the corner from Shoreditch High Street Overground station), but not much in the way of supermarkets.

So, would I have Vietnamese again? Yes. Would I go back to Tay Do? Hmm… (although Mrs BYO would be in favour of a return trip).