Back to the 'Nam

In general I have a sense in London that almost all restaurants which are "hot" are in vogue for a reason, which is usually a pretty simple combination of good food and service at fair prices. There are plenty of places which do those things which aren't that busy, so I guess some kind of usp is also good news, as well as a good location, both of which apply to Pho on St John Street in Clerkenwell. I had been hearing quite a bit about this place and it is a very different kind of Vietnamese restaurant to those in Shoreditch in that it majors on super-healthy food, most especially pho. I was very lucky to a get a table as a walk-in, since a hefty queue built up in the hour in which I was there. This was not, however, a bored queue, this was not a perfunctory kind of queue, this was... an M&S queue. No, hang on, let me get that right... not bored... not perfunctory... but a happy and slightly zealous kind of queue, full of people who were obviously really, really looking forward to their pho.

I began with summery vegetable rolls which were about as far removed as could be from vegetable spring rolls in that they were unbelievably fresh and zingy parcels of cold noodles, mint, coriander, basil, lettuce, carrots and beansprouts. With an apple, carrot and beetroot juice, I was feeling bloody virtuous at this point. I then had a spicy tofu and mushroom pho which was de-lici-ous: tofu fried a long way-in, so that it retained its crispiness even within the soup, rice noodles, plenty of mushrooms, ditto chilli, and a whole extra plate of herbs, beansprouts, fresh chillis and lime to tip into the soup. Service was good and it was interesting to hear the owner chatting to another table about the place, because there was a clear match between his passion for this style of Vietnamese food and what was served on my plate and in my bowl. I guess that's another mark of a really hot restaurant: a passion for food and a desire to share that feeling with your customers.