Restaurant review: Anh Dao

Anh Dao. Photo: Tim Sullivan

Kingsland Road already teems with Vietnamese restaurants – a new one here needs to do something special if it is to stand out.

But the team behind the new Anh Dao restaurant are confident that they have the key.  The chef is from Ha Long Bay on the coast of North Vietnam, and specialises in seafood.  Fish, accordingly, is prominent on the menu – very prominent.

Even among the starters, the choice includes intriguing options such as crispy fried eel, chargrilled monkfish slices (to be shared between two) and steamed scallops.  Main courses include squid, lobster, langoustine and pomfret.

You certainly won’t find whelks at any other restaurant round here – and I must admit, it was more out of curiosity than anything else that I went for these.  But spicy, barbecue-tinged and fresh, they were a revelation.   At £6.00, they were also excellent value.  Mine were with lemongrass, but they are also served with bamboo shoots.  In addition we chose a classic char-grilled bream (£9.50), with spinach and egg fried rice to accompany.

As for starters, the sweet potato pancake with prawns (£5.50) was easy to misunderstand.  Call me pedantic, but I would describe it as more of a lattice.   Both this and the Anh Dao spring rolls (filled with crab meat, prawns and shiitake mushrooms, £5.50) were truly substantial.

Although it’s focused on fish, the other options do not feel like afterthoughts.  There’s plenty for out and out carnivores to get their teeth into, such as stewed beef, stir-fried lamb, roast duck and char-grilled quail.

Much work has gone into sourcing fresh ingredients, and providing authentic recipes and decor.  Tram Dao, who started the restaurant, often goes to Billingsgate fish market at 4am, before proceeding to New Spitalfields for vegetables.  All the furniture is shipped in from Vietnam and looks appropriately gleaming new.  In fact, the restaurant is so young that at the time of our visit it still had no licence to serve alcohol – but progress in this area will hopefully be swift.

Tram met her husband Peter in 1979 at a refugee camp in Sussex where he was working.  Tram had fled there from the Vietnamese communist regime with her sister.  Starting a restaurant is her long held ambition, and the enthusiasm is tangible at Anh Dao.

Her story is one of triumph in the face of adversity, and Anh Dao deserves to find comparable success.

The food can stand on its own, and I would certainly return here.

Anh Dao Restaurant
106-108 Kingsland Road
E2 8DP
020 7739 3841