Tay Do - Kingsland Road - Shoreditch - 5/10

The other night the Bear and I were taken out by The Bastard and the Rocket. The Bastard and the Rocket are good friends of ours that we met in a field in Herefordshire one damp August weekend, whilst listening to UK Apache, but enough about that!

They're a lovely couple that live in Shoreditch, which is pretty much the opposite end of London to us, so they very kindly shared a bit of local restaurant knowledge. The Kingsland Road is lined with Vietnamese restaurants and the thought of some spicy noodle soup was the only thing that got me through my eight hours in the office that day.

The particular restaurant we went to was Tay Do, which is BYOB and bright green. The place is heaving, and the windows are sweaty with condensation. It looks very inviting in a basic kind of way. We're seated towards the back of the restaurant and given the extensive menu and glasses for our beer purchased from the offy next door.

The menu is very long. Too long really. I was overwhelmed by the choice and found myself relying on our friends to tell us what they'd had before. It's one of my pet hates, long menus. Especially when most of the dishes are just repeats with different meats. Undaunted, we order and await a feast.

The starters and main courses arrive as soon as they're ready, so there's no standing on ceremony. To begin with we ordered Summer Rolls and a starter Platter, which included Ribs, Spring Rolls, Crispy Seaweed and Prawn Toast. The platter was average, the spring rolls being the stand out. The Summer Rolls were better. They're pancakes filled with prawns, spring onion, cucumber and basil, served with plum dipping sauce. They were fresh and light, so they lived up to their Summer title. And the sauce was excellent.

The main course came rapidly after the starters. I went for the fried Tilapia with Mango sauce. It was a bit disappointing. The fish was pretty solid. If you picked it up and hit it over someones head, they'd probably get a concussion. Having said that, the flavour of the spices and mango sauce was very good, just a shame they'd been incinerated. It was served with a thin spicy dipping sauce, which made it more palatable, but nearly took my head off. A few chilli tears were shed by me over that sauce.

The Bear went for a noodle soup, as did the Rocket. They were both served with a separate portion of bean sprouts, Thai basil and lemon, which you could add to your soup at will, which was a nice touch. But the Bear was a little disappointed with the soup itself. The depth of flavour just wasn't there and the flavour of the stock over-powered everything else.

The Bastard went for Spicy Tofu, and she kindly put some my way. It was OK. The tofu was well cooked. It wasn't falling apart and it wasn't rock hard either. But again there was something lacking. I could see big slices of red chillies in the dish, but I couldn't really taste them.

We also ordered some Egg Fried Rice. I wouldn't normally mention this particular dish, as one is usually the same as another. But at this restaurant, it was the stand out for me. The egg used was bright orange and ran through the rice in generous veins. The rice was perfectly cooked. It's just a shame the more fancy plates didn't live up to the standard of their humble accompaniment.

What the food lacked in flavour, it made up for in quantity, so we were properly stuffed by the end of it. But one more disappointment was waiting. Once the plates were cleared, without so much as a "by your leave", the bill was thrust on the table. We hadn't even asked for it. It was pretty obvious that the staff wanted us to move on as quickly as possible so some more customers could jump in our graves. Not good.

To spite them we stayed drinking our beer for another 45 minutes. That'll show them.

The whole lot came to £42, which for four people is bloody cheap. So I guess that's one reason to go.

One other saving grace was the company. There wasn't a dull moment with the Bastard and the Rocket. In fact, the whole restaurant was jumping. I'm sure I would have got a hell of a lot more pissed off it it hadn't been for the atmosphere. The place had a real buzz and it certainly made up for its shortcomings. Everyone in the restaurant was having a good time, and I guess that's what this place is all about. Bring your mates, bring your beer, eat some food, and have a good time. And that's what we did. I'm sure the Bear, the Bastard, the Rocket and me will all be out eating again soon.