Huong Restaurant

I’ve patronised Huong on and off over the years. It’s a reliable option when I’m in the area: solid food, good prices and there’s always space. I’ve even come in here for post-​birthday-​drinks dinner with a medium-​sized group on a Saturday night once without a reservation and still got seats within minutes.
Good for me, but not so good for Huong.
To be honest, I’m not sure why they’re not more packed. Sure, there’s a lot of competition over on Kingsland Road, but the food at Huong is pretty good in itself. It’s my second-​favourite Vietnamese restaurant in the area (third if you include banh mi places) and it has a few features that other places lack, namely friendly service and spacious seating. Maybe it’s because we’re recognisable regulars but we’ve always received our orders pretty quickly.
I usually only get the chance to eat here in the evenings or on weekends, so I’ve not had the chance to try their set lunch. It does look like good value though so I’m pretty envious of those who get to eat here regularly!

I went here today for lunch and it was ok, nothing amazing. I had singapore noodles, which were nice, but not particularly spicy, which I would expect.
The lady serving us was very nice, and the atmosphere was friendly, however, my friend, who ordered the same, got served between 5 – 10 mins before me, which I found a bit strange.
All in all a nice place and not too expensive for a meal around this area, but I think I would choose other places over this in future.

I’ve been there for 4 – 5 times now. I remember the first time I was with a Vietnamese friend who lived in the area and I wanted phở. We saw Huong Restaurant and we just walked in, it was lunch time. I had Bun Hue for £5.5! It was spicy which was what I wanted. I asked my friend what was her verdict she said it was very authentic, probably one of the most authentic Vietnamese restaurant in London.
I went there again for lunch with my partner, I just couldn’t resist. And after that I went there a few times with friends for lunch and dinner.
I have to say that the price isn’t bad at all at Huong, and sometimes the restaurant is very quiet without many customers, where the not so good ones are packed… Anyway, I think it is my favourite Vietnamese restaurant in London so far.

To the large batch of people moaning about the lack of good food in England, obviously your head has been shoved firmly up your arse for way too long.
Was craving some good but healthy food and stumbled on this gem, waddled back and forth trying to decide and finally went in.
Solid Vietnamese food.
Order:
The Black Pepper Ribs
Phở (thin sliced beef)
Spring rolls
House wine
Dessert: fried bananas
Definitely quenched my appetite and then some. Excellent service. Will be my go to when I return again.

I ate alone here on my birthday.
Honestly, it’s not as bad as it sounds. My birthday fell on a Monday, I have a small baby, and eating alone is actually a small slice of heaven. So really, I was quite looking forward to it – and when a late meeting ended early, I popped into Huong for phở. It was rainy and dire out, I had the babysitter for another hour, the stars seemed to be aligning.
And…in this case, it was exactly THREE stars aligning. Pretty mediocre, sadly.
I had the summer rolls and the beef phở. Neither of which were very good, but passable. The summer rolls were blaaaaand with a mucky dipping sauce. The phở just a bit lackluster, but again — really all fine. It did take an oddly long time (typically a starter and phở is pretty fast given the contents). Seeing as I was one of 5 people in the entire restaurant, I expected things to run at a faster clip.
The service was fine, the woman was friendly and my stay was absolutely without alarm. It just doesn’t have a great vibe somehow (not quite sure why), the food is just OK, and it wasn’t compelling enough for me to justify a return trip, especially given proximity to Vietnamese restaurants on Kingsland Rd.
So that phở was not quite the sublime birthday experience I’d hoped for — but as the world turns, so do I. Three stars and moving on, friends.

When in London, one must eagerly dine on delights harder to come by north of Hadrians Wall. This time, it was the guilty pleasure of banh mi — summer rolls as a sneaky side of ‘go on…’ if you must. The door eagerly announces that it is a popular Unilocal haunt — and I can see why. It brought back fond memories of living in CA and having great Vietnamese food on my doorstep. Very happy with my dining choice of the day.

We had too many snags on our trip to this restaurant to give it the best review. There was a slight language barrier and one of us didn’t get exactly what we ordered, which was just noodles with vegetables (not on the menu). We ordered the vegetarian spring rolls. I made sure to say tofu, and it came out with prawns in it. Perhaps that’s how they come, with tofu AND prawns, but it wasn’t noted on the menu. I ordered the fried tofu and broccoli. It was good. The tofu was soft in the middle. I liked it, but my boyfriend didn’t. The entrees don’t come with rice.

We chose this place because there was no queue outside and we were starving!
We went in with good hopes and left with no intention of going back.
The place itself is warm and not too noisy, good space, service was friendly but slow, food was average/​bland and on top of things they got the bill wrong (counted a bottle of wine instead of a glass) so won’t go back. No wonder there was no queue… :(

Hmmmm I’m not so sure about this place. I picked it because it had some pretty good reviews on Unilocal.We were looking for somewhere to eat in the Hoxton area which was cheap and reasonably healthy and we all love Vietnamese food so decided that was the way to go. There are a lot of Vietnamese restaurants in Hoxton and Shoreditch but we picked this one as it was on the same street as the venue we were going to afterwards.
When we arrived we were immediately offered a seat beside the front door which we rejected as it was a cold night. We sat elsewhere but there was still a draft so we moved again.
I ordered a sparkling water, (dry January:) but was given a still water instead. I assumed it was a mistake but it turns out they had no sparkling — would have been nice to been given the choice of an alternative or at least to let me know the situation.
On top of that the service was slow, however on the plus side the staff were polite and friendly.
The food was only ok — I had the Bun Hue which is a hot and sour soup with rice vermicelli and king prawns, and although it had a bit of kick I felt it was a bit bland.
My friends had a variety of dishes including fish in a tamarind sauce, prawn curry and stir fried vegetables and while one of my friends was of my opinion my other friend really liked what she had.
Overall I didn’t think this was a great Vietnamese restaurant and looking around at what other diners had I didn’t feel any major food envy. I really love Vietnamese food and maybe I have just been spoilt in the past but I think I will give this place a miss in the future.

Came here with three other friends from the US. We were all starving when we walked by this place and decided to check it out without looking at Unilocal first. So glad we did as the food and service were great!
We all ordered soup (can’t remember which ones), imperial rolls, and the singapore noodles. Everything was delicious and the singapore noodles were phenomenal. I’ve had my fare share of this type of food from areas with high Vietnamese populations (San Jose, CA; Garden Grove, CA, etc.) This was the best Vietnamese restaurant I’ve ever been to and one of the best meals I had in London.
The owner, Tony, was pretty cool and hospitable. I’d grab a beer with him any day.
The place is well decorated and cozy.
Have a friend going to London soon which prompted me to write this belated review. Crossing my fingers he brings me back the singapore noodles! Having a craving for them now. Yum!

Awesome satay tofu and bun xa. YUM.

Must admit that this was our third choice of restaurant in area, and rocked up with no expectations. However, Huong Café really came up with goods for our little party of five. We ordered, drunken fish, goi duck salad, Vietnamese rice noodle chicken salad among other goodments. Everything was pretty delicious. For me the goi duck salad was the best. Summer rolls are a special favourite of mine — we ordered some but they did not arrive — the only slight negative. Service in these places can be very robotic, but our waitress was personable and pleasant.
Huong Café offer the genuine Vietnamese experience: good prices, efficient service, no fuss and a good feed. Excellent choice for the area.

Been wanting to come here for a while… But to be honest, I’d give this place a miss. The food is meh. The crispy tofu was ok, but too dry in my opinion. A bit like an overcooked omelette.
The crispy duck was not great, but then again, this ain’t a Chinese restaurant, so don’t know why I wanted to order it in the first place. It was too bland in my opinion.
The phở soups were also bland, and the beef too fatty. The broth unseasoned, with no umame whatsoever.
Not my favourite, and wish we’d gone to Viet ho instead.

Bun Bo Hue was alright but the Bun thit nuong was pretty good. Served a bit differently than some of the other ones we have tried… on a sizzling hot plate, the meat appeared to be of higher quality and very tender. The interior was a bit more upscale than the other Vietnamese restaurants nearby and they also take American Express!
Bun Hue rice vermicelli in a hot’n’spicy soup with beef /​chicken /​prawns /​tofu
Bun thit nuong char-​grilled pork

This visit was quicker than a whistle stop, but I still had time to stay for a giant bowl of their special Phở. With beef, prawns, chicken and tofu — all for £7.50, it was restaurant quality food and surroundings at café prices.
Would highly recommend

My husband and I thought it would be fun to have a wander round Shoreditch on a recent Saturday afternoon. I’d been to the area for a workshop a few weeks before, but didn’t get much of a chance to check things out. I’d heard good things about The Diner, but the queue was massive when we arrived.
We noticed Huong just next door and wondered if waiting at The Diner was worth it. After a quick Unilocal search, I decided trying Huong was worthy of a try at the very least (not to mention there weren’t any massive queues there!).
We were not disappointed. My husband has not eaten too much Vietnamese food, and I’ve not had any since moving away from the States, but I found this place to be excellent. We started with the vegetarian spring rolls, and they were amazing. They were deep-​fried and super crunchy on the outside, and the dipping sauce was fab too – a little bit of chilly with a hint of sweetness. Yum. Being the boring married couple we are, we were both tempted by the chicken curry, which was quite good, too. Lots of chicken and veg – we definitely got our money’s worth and then some!
The service was efficient and friendly, and the prices were more than reasonable. If I’m looking for a place to eat in this part of Shoreditch in the future, I will definitely keep Huong in mind.

Netter Vietnamese in guter Lage, der nicht viel falsch macht aber dabei auch nicht wahnsinnig heraussticht. Die Einrichtung erinnert aufgrund der herumstehenden Getränkekartons etwas an Lagerhaus und das Personal ist teilweise etwas überfordert, auch wenn nicht wahnsinnig viel los war. Mein Phở war gut, kleiner Tipp: die normale Portion reicht wohl für die meisten, groß ist wirklich groß.

One of the more nicely decorated Vietnamese places in the area, Huong has become the restaurant I go to for cheap and good comfort food. Whilst customers were few and far between in the months shortly after opening, it’s seemed to have livened up a fair amount recently.
As Katherine B. says, the phở is not the best (although I quite like the hu tieu soups. despite the presence of my mortal enemy, celery). However, their grilled meat dishes are great, especially the com tam (which is permanently lodged on the specials board). Whilst that’s my standard dish, I’ve also gone for the pork kho before — belly pork stewed with duck egg in a dark soy-​based sauce. It’s a fantastic winter dish due to the heartiness of it, and I think Huong do a really decent rendition of it — the pork is tender and the overall flavour is good. The eggs didn’t quite come out exactly right last time (there seemed to be bubbles in the white, so the texture was a bit off) and the sauce isn’t quite as thick as it could be, but I didn’t expect it to be exactly the same as the one I had in Saigon.
In spite of the number of quality establishments in the area, I’m going to keep coming back to Huong. Like the other restaurants, it has its strengths and weaknesses, but I know where I’m going to go when I feel like rice.

Ok, so the phở is still not my favorite.
BUT I have been back, oh, at least 7+ times since my initial review. Why?
Their special on the board, Com Tam (which doesn’t seem to change…). (The dish that Gene P. talks about, Com Thit Nuong, is it’s real name. They just call it Com Tam at this restaurant though. Gotta make it simple for us western folk).
Com Tam means ‘broken rice’ in Vietnamese, and should be a different kind of rice (broken into smaller pieces before cooked). Sometimes they actually serve real com tam, sometimes it is just normal rice, but either way, this dish is delicious.
Steamed rice, salad and shredded cucumber, grilled pork, and a gratuitous yet essential fried egg on top. Basically, just pour the sauce over the top and mix it all together. It is flavorful, fresh, a fun variety of textures, and one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes. This place does it well.
Eat here. It makes me happy and is really affordable.

Totally decent totally reasonable vietnamese in the wilds of ShoreHox.
Reasonable portion size, fresh food, not fabulous, not bad. I reckon most folk would call this 4 stars, but I reserve that for special (and 5 for exceptional).
Friendly staff & good for takeaway as well — though there was a slip-​up as we’d asked for a selection with no pork (muslim guest — fortunately it was only one) and we got a couple of dishes with imperial rolls — with pork.
Otherwise, happy to go back and, for the hood, decent prices.

This is my comfort place, especially during hectic days at work. I’ve been in London for a year and a half now, and one thing I noticed is that the level of service in London compared to just about any major cities in the world is pretty bad. This place is an exception tho, always nice and friendly any time of the day. So I’m a regular there now. :D
As for food, I’ve tried the phở and I wasn’t impressed. The thing that impressed me here are the rice dishes, the appetizers, and the desserts. As Katherin B. mentioned the Com Thit Nuong (pork, salad, with rice) was great. My usual food there is the Com Thit Nuong, Prawn summer rolls, Com Vit (roast duck, rice, and salad). Those always make me happy and get me ready to get back to work.
I’ve also had the Com Xuong (spare ribs with rice and salad), also excellent. I don’t recommend it if you’re going to work tho, it gets a little messy. If you do get it make sure to check your face and teeth, especially if you’re going to a meeting. Don’t want to make the same mistake I did. I’ve also had the viet coffee (iced coffee) and some home made ice cream, which I don’t see online on their site, but look for those when you’re there.
The environment is very relaxing, it’s also not too loud and perfect if you’re trying to get to know someone. I also love the big windows, try to get a seat near them since this is a great spot for people watching. I always try to make sure I take friends here whenever they come visit me in London.