Mrs Le's @ Banh Mi & Grill

Mrs Le's Banh Mi & Vietnamese Grill

http://vietnamesegrill.co.uk

Cheese and Biscuits: Mrs Le's Banh Mi and Grill, Battersea

In stark contrast to the collection of half-assed pizza/kebab joints, fish chip shops and bland curry houses that were their neighbours on this unlovely stretch of road, Mien Tay was a Proper Vietnamese Restaurant, serving fresh summer rolls, honey-glazed quail dipped in lime and salt and sizzling plates of spiced lamb and fried onions, in a cosy (if not always comfortable - blimey they love to keep those radiators on full blast) family-run space.

Mien Tay could, I'm sure, have used their acquisition of one of the aforementioned half-assed fish chip shops next door (it was called Salisbury's, if you care, which you shouldn't) as a kind of Mien Tay spillover, as the mothership quite understandably gets so slammed on weekday evenings.

Instead, the concept is something genuinely new to London - a fiercely authentic (or so I'm led to believe) replica of the kind of grill restaurant you'd find in South West Vietnam, complete with laminated menus full of offal, seafood and grilled meats, and enough unusual eye-catching specialities to make any blogger's head spin.

The bill for two people, with four beers and an extra banh mi to go (well why not) came to £56, perhaps not as bargain-basement cheap as Mien Tay was in its early years but still fantastic value for careful, fun, innovative cooking of this level.

Yes, thirteen years after I moved to Battersea of course I wish there were more, and better places to eat in the area, but when somewhere like this comes along that allows me, even for a while, to ignore the other dross on Lavender Hill and pretend I live a few steps away from the foodie hub of Kingsland Road, well, they have my eternal gratitude.

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Mrs Le's Banh Mi & Grill | Fourteen Ten Blog

Mrs Le’s is an exciting new opening that has been created to be the closest replica to a Vietnamese grill restaurant in the capital and the restaurant serves many unique dishes that cannot be found elsewhere in London.

Ingredients have been carefully sourced including purchasing directly from Billingsgate Market and in the kitchen all sauces are made from scratch, pickles are homemade and dishes such as the fishcakes in this instance carefully prepared in the kitchen from whole Kingfish.

The restaurant is owned by Van Le, eldest daughter of Mrs My Le, matriarch of the Le family, namesake of the restaurant and owner of London’s popular Mien Tay restaurants which in the words of AA Gill, “may well be the best Vietnamese (restaurant) in London” and a certain Daily Mail critic  “is some of the best Vietnamese food you’ll find west of Saigon”.

Ingredients have been carefully sourced including purchasing directly from Billingsgate Market and in the kitchen all sauces are made from scratch, pickles are homemade and dishes such as the fishcakes are homemade, in this instance carefully prepared in the kitchen from whole Kingfish.

name Mrs Le’s honours the Le family’s matriarch Mrs My Le who, alongside husband Su Tran, have built Mien Tay from a small restaurant that opened in 2008 to 4 locations across London; Fulham, Battersea and two locations in Shoreditch (they could not accommodate the demand so were forced to take a second property a few doors down!)

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Mrs Le's Banh Mi and Grill brings authentic taste of Vietnam to ...

Mrs Le’s Banh Mi and Grill has opened in Battersea bringing an authentic Vietnamese restaurant experience to south London.

Derived from the Le family’s matriarch Mrs Le’s has built a dynasty of restaurants across the capital and continues to expand.

The key to her success has been to stick to what she knows best, and despite overseeing a growing empire Mrs My Le continues to make early morning trips to Billingsgate market after peeling garlic by hand into the early hours.

With photographs of Vietnamese life on the walls, a monk-blessed shrine in the corner and authentic food on the tables, guests are immersed in local culture as they tuck in to dishes such as fat oysters in cheese sauce, sun-dried squid and coal-grilled whole chicken inspired by the streets of Mien Tay.

The country’s famous coffee is served alongside Mrs Le’s sodas, freshly made juices and smoothies as well as the delicious Egg Coffee, adding yet another level of authenticity to this exciting new restaurant.