Mien Tay - Lavender Hill - 7/10

The other night I took the recommendation of a work colleague and made a trip to Mien Tay, a Vietnamese restaurant on Lavender Hill near Clapham Junction. And boy am I glad I did.

As we walked up to the restaurant, the steamy windows drew us in from the chilly night outside. On the inside the place is pretty unassuming. Mirrors line the walls on two sides, and flaky magnolia paint adorns the rest. The main restaurant is raised up from street level, and kitted out in wicker furniture and paper table cloths. It looks very similar to its East End counterparts on the Kingsland Road, which is no bad thing.

Lifted by the shabby chic decor, the Bear and I plonked ourselves down for a feast.

First off, the drinks. The restaurant is bring your own booze, but the Bear and I stuck to non-alcoholic alternatives. He went for the Vietnamese coffee, which is served in a two tier contraption, with condensed milk in the bottom and the brewing coffee in the top. When the coffee is ready you pour it into the milk. If you're a fan of sweet coffee you'll like this, I had one sip and it gave me an instant sugar high. I went for the homemade lemonade, which was beautiful, and again, very sweet.

To start we ordered a Tofu and Bean Sprout Pancake and Roasted Whole Quail. The dishes come out when they're ready, and my pancake made the first appearance. It was huge, and very tasty. The crisp batter gave a delightful crunch which contrasted with the soft tofu beautifully. We thought they might have forgotten the quail so the Bear ate half of my starter, only to be faced with a whole bird to eat.

We over-ordered on the main course too. I went for the Tamarind Prawns and Vegetable Rice and the Bear ordered Whole Sea bass and Seafood Vermicelli.

The tamarind prawns were beautiful. They were coated in a sticky sweet tamarind sauce which oozed around the tender meat of the prawns - by far the best dish of the meal. The seabass was of an equal standard. The skin had been cooked so it crackled, with deep scores down its sides allowing the chilli and spice to soak into the succulent flesh. The mixture of coriander, chilli, ginger, garlic and onion was tip top. All fresh, all delicious.

The side dishes (which were bigger than the mains) were average. Vegetable rice is pretty much just vegetable rice. The seafood vermicelli came in a large bowl, with its constituent parts placed separately. There is a childish joy in mushing stuff together, and it was tasty, but it didn't sparkle like the other dishes, and the mussels were a little grey.

The service through out the meal was excellent and the total bill came to £42 including service, which was great value considering the amount of food we had. We could have done without at least a third of it.

I will definitely be back to Mien Tay. In fact, the Bear made his second trip only three days later. It must be a hit.