Evening Standard
David Ellis gave a luke-warm reception to a new Vietnamese restaurant inspired by the late Nguyen Thi Thành, a Ho Chi Minh City stallholder known as Cô (Aunt) Thành who was made world famous by the (also late) chef/writer Anthony Bourdain.
“Moments of brilliance” were balanced by “moments of boredom, although David sensed the cooking – “true to Vietnam’s milder taste” – would “tighten up very soon”.
Successes included fresh-tasting goi cuon (summer rolls) “bulging with shrimp and rice and salad leaves… restorative, pure-tasting things, with a creamy peanut hoisin sauce somehow sweet and spicy and salty at once.” On the debit side, bún (noodle broths) “felt timid, underpowered, low on personality; where were the great big thwacks of aromatics, the vivid lime leaf and lemongrass? Someone in the kitchen should let go, drop the subtlety, uncuff the restraints.”
David Ellis - 2025-11-02
