You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.
Neither should you do the same for a door at restaurant.
Likewise you should be careful listening to a hypocritic. Do what I say, not what I do. Such was my self talk as I first entered, noticing the red plastic flaps (i.e. lack of door) leading into the kitchen. Against my initial inclination, I thought to see this as atmospheric, rather than cheap. Likewise, the various ornaments on the shelves and the typed plastic menus reminded me of days in Saigon. There, things were so much lower priced there but that didn’t seem to affect the food quality. Sure food was to be eaten perched on plastic road side stools eaten over a newspaper covered toddler table but I choose to see this as adding some spice (and probably debris from the road) to my food. Things tasted more authentic in that way.
So here, with food that was more than 10x the cost of Hanoi, would it bring multiples of delight? Or at least something a bit better.
Well, at least they had the table ware going for them. They had the metal cups down pat. Perhaps a recycled metal water container would have suited better. Yet who am I to criticize someone’s table ware when I have more than 10 different styles of mugs at home. However, as they often say, those that have the most problems are quickest to find them in others.
Belly greens banh mi, braised pork belly, deep-fried, house sauce & tangy pickled mustard greens. However, you aren’t here to listen to me muse about random things that cross my mind. You are here to hear about the food I ate and what happened to me there. Speaking as to this dish, first the baguette. Crunchy and excellent, this was the spicy version. Packed with delightful pork belly, fried onion and delightful fulsome mustard greens. This was a nice sandwich if a bit sparse in the ingredients. Especially so when this costs you a pretty penny. At GBP10 in the heart of Peckham, I couldn’t help but feel like I had been taken for a ride with something a only a touch above ordinary.
Ryelane delight, housemade seitan & mushroom cold-cut with tofu whip & miso kho quet. Catering to the anti cow (meat) crowd, this was seitan. It delighted me not snob that I was. If I don’t want to eat meat, I just won’t eat meat. No need to try and deceive myself that I’m eating meat. Fake things inevitably disappoint. With cucumber, carrot, chilies and greens with seitan, this was really not bad, for something that’s very existence is built on lying to you. This should be fed to some politicians I know. Which brings me to another point which is probably the reason why I won’t be coming back.
Tardiness. We also ordered drinks with the food but 20 minutes later, they had still failed to arrive. Even though the restaurant looked half full. Which only made their arrival suitably unimpressive as they were rather unexciting and more diminutive than the sandwiches. I was (strangely) in a forgiving mood this day so slow person that I am, I decided to give them another try and go for their ice-cream as they promised fish sauce caramel ice cream. However, it was not to be as even after 20 minutes, when we asked them where it was, we were told it was being scooped as we spoke. 5 minutes later, nothing appeared. Guess scooping can take quite a while. In which case, the inside scoop here is be prepared to wait for something really not that good.
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A quiet eating 6/10.
Lunch (1 sandwich) was GBP10 excluding drinks and service.
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Lai Rai
181 Rye Ln,
London SE15 4TP
