Alright, we’re back for another week. Hope you’re well. Let’s get straight into it you might know the deal by now. News, review, random bits and bobs to finish.

Let’s just get this out of the way, it wasn’t just any meal we ate at Nam Song¹. It was the meal on the night of our 2^nd wedding anniversary.

We’d never been, it was a bit of a punt to be honest, but did it pay off? I think so.

Nam Song is owned by a couple of people who travelled around Vietnam and then came back home and wanted to bring those flavours with them.

This is illustrated quite nicely by the walls of the restaurant adorned with dozens of photographs the two owners presumably took on their travels. It’s a fun story. One that conjures hopes that one day any one of us could go somewhere new and discover their passion.

I sit down and I’m excited.

We order some drinks and ask for a bowl of sesame crackers while we decide on the food.

Here’s where things get a little weird, I expected the crackers would just arrive instantaneously in a little bowl and we could nibble at them while we perused the menu.

What actually happened is they seemingly cooked the crackers from scratch, which I’m a big fan of, resulting in us having already decided on our food long before the crackers arrived, which I’m not a big fan of.

Okay, weird start, what about the crackers then?

A bowl the size of my head arrives with these giant, twisting sesame seed flecked crackers rising out of it. It would have fed eight people as a nibble never mind two.

The crackers were warm and crisp and packed the necessary sesame flavour. The ginger miso dipping sauce they came with was incredibly moreish and I was left concerned I’d not have any actual room for the real food.

So what did we order? We were sharing everything and went with 3 starters and 2 mains.

It was too much food.

The chicken bites were crisp, juicy, chunks of chicken thigh coated in batter and dripping in a sticky sauce. They were great.

The chilli bread was, unexpectedly, my favourite thing on the menu.

A soft Banh Mi bread roll smashed flat, and gridlled to go all toasty before being drenched in chilli oil, vegan sriracha mayo, chillies, seasoning. I couldn’t believe how much flavour and texture it packed. An unbelievable piece of cookery. And it was too spicy for my wife so bonus, I got to eat most of it.

The summer rolls were a bit of a left field choice at something not fried, and they were fine.

The flavours were very clean and fresh but honestly I felt the ratio of rice noodles to everything else was skewed and they struggled to stand up to some of the other big flavours on display even with a dipping sauce.

Fine if you wanted a healthy snack at lunch, probably should have got the spring rolls instead. Probably the only thing we ate I wouldn’t order again.

Then the mains, a Ca Ri² curry with lemongrass chicken over broken rice. A lovely, katsu-adjacent curry but more fragrant with coconut and herbs. It had huge chunks of chicken and red pepper and a fluffy, sticky, rice to mop up the sauce with.

And a Bun, a vermicelli noodle salad we ordered with Nam Song pork.

A wonderous bowl of happiness. It combined the clean, fresh and herbaceous aspects of the summer rolls but with boat loads more salty, sweet and umami.

It came with what I presume was nuoc cham dipping sauce but what I decided was better as pouring sauce. Drenching the plate with this incredibly balanced, sweet, sour, salty sauce.

The pork was crispy and sticky with hoisin it simultaneously tasted amazing and felt like it was making you healthier. I’ve never eaten anything like it.  

Was any of this food “authentic”? No clue, never been to Vietnam. It tasted great though.

Well. Job done. Food was amazing. End of. Right? I wish it was honestly. Because I so wanted to write a perfect review of this place. After eating everything above I was ready to book in next week and try 5 completely different items.

Then things kind of got bogged down.

We sat, stuffed, food mostly eaten but with a few tasty morsels tormenting me, for a while. Nobody came over.

I had ordered a second beer³ that never arrived. I was too stuffed for desert but their website promised “Legendary coffee” that was served with condensed milk. I wanted that.

I waited for them to come and take my food away so I could order that and say “don’t worry about that beer.”

Anyway to cut a long story short. I had to get up, go to the counter and ask to pay.

The plates from the food were still on our table.

I didn’t see the bill the waitress just punched the price into the card machine and I paid so it’s possible I paid for the second beer I never received.

Did it sour me on the experience? Yes it honestly did. I was kind of annoyed.

Could I have said something? Sure.

Did I cut my own nose off to spite my face by not simply saying “excuse me can someone come and take our plates away and can I have a coffee”? Probably.

Will I be going back some other time to get a coffee? Also probably.

It’s not enough to suggest not going there. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention it. Everyone has an off night. I won’t hold it against them. Nam Song. You were so close to being one of my favourite restaurants. I’ll be back and we’ll try again. 

That part of the meal you don’t know if you really want but someone ordered it so here it is!

This is something I’ve been wondering whether or not to broach and given the whisper of negativity at the end of today’s main it seemed like something worth discussing. I’ll just come out and say it:

I’m not going to publish outright negative reviews of restaurants.

There are any number of reasons a restaurant might be having a bad service and I don’t want to put something out into the world that could negatively affect people’s entire lives because someone was having a bad day.

It’s a cop out. I understand that. But I want this newsletter to be, on the whole, a celebration of good food not a scathing attack on the regions food industry.

You may be thinking, wait, what about your review of Bagel Factory⁴, and to that I say, fair. So I’m going to add this important addendum:

I reserve the right to publish negativity about large scale chain restaurants and/or franchises.

I understand people still work there, I understand people still have their livelihoods tied into these places, but ultimately, the people who are most affected by these places failing are suit wearing executives in London or New York and that hardly feels like the same thing as Mr and Mrs Smith who own the local restaurant that served a meal I didn’t like.

So there it is, there’s my line. For all intents and purposes it’s an arbitrary line that I’ve self-imposed and that you are free to disagree with but it’s the line all the same.

And now, shameless promotion, if you admire this stance you might consider buying a new snazzy knife set that somehow sharpens itself at this link to support me.

Something literally sweet for afters today. Has anybody tried Cadburys Dairy Milk Winter Mint Crisp? It’s a pretty great entry into the pantheon of weird Dairy Milk versions.

It smacks you around the face with mint and the crunchy, crispy bits add a fun texture while you eat it. I’ve eaten a full, rather large, bar mostly by myself this week.

Look out for it in the supermarket (or buy here).

Another one bites the dust. Hope you enjoyed. Once again I’m faced with a week upcoming that doesn’t suggest a natural foody thing to write about so come back next time to find out how creative I can get!

Chris