Looking for a quick bite at lunch with a friend Vietnamese seemed a smart option. House of Ho is much more opulent within than it appears from without, or was it just that my mind was elsewhere and I didn’t pick up the superior vibe? Either way I was happy enough to be led to the table by an elegant waitress and slide into my seat beside a quartet of adland kings.

To the food. The dumplings were extraordinary! A mixture of fishy ds were gelatinous melt-in-the-mouth perfection and really if I’d just eaten a dozen each of them that would have been a perfect lunch. But having slipped down three of the beauties I moved onto the chicken pho. Now normally this would have been just very satisfying. It had everything you expect in a pho – fresh ingredients, a tasty broth and a good mixture of sauces to liven it up to your own taste. But it was let down by some average noodles (weird but true) and thus completely upstaged by its warm up act.*

I looked enviously at the admens’ battered prawns (served on a gurt heap of chilli) next door which were resplendent among a range of goodies  and determined that this place would be better for a sophisticated dinner than a Pho-type lunchtime bellyfiller.

I’ll be back next year.

8/10

*Just like when I saw Radiohead (then unknown) supporting the Sultans of Ping FC (now unknown) at the now defunct Riverside in Newcastle. I bet the boys from Oxford don’t reminisce about that evening very often.

To see which other restaurants I’ve visited in 2016 check out my GoogleMap

London Restaurants Fitzrovia London radiohead Restaurant Review Sultans of Ping FC Vietnamese