Vietvan Croydon

Vietvan - Croydon

Whilst I have been sampling the foods on offer at Boxpark I noticed a couple of stalls across the street, one of which being Vietvan.  As I'm off to Vietnam next month I  thought I would give them a go, get a flavour of what I can look forward to and oh my G, am I glad I did!  Firstly, I have to say Nick and Tracy who are the founders, what a couple of characters, bubbly, chatty and more importantly passionate about what they are doing, I knew from the moment we first spoke this was going to be an experience.

My friend Cheryl and I both opted for the lemongrass pork Banh mi, this is basically a fresh crusty baguette stuffed full of carrot, cucumber and salad, topped with the pork and drizzled with a basil dressing and sriracha sauce and topped with coriander and fresh chillies (amongst other things...sorry, I was drooling too much to take a note of the other extras lol).  Shortly after ordering the sodding gas cylinder ran out....noooooo, but clearly someone was looking down on me as Nick had just cooked some of the chicken, all was not lost, I would still get to sample some of the Vietvan foodie goodness.  I really felt for the guys as there was a queue forming and you could see those behind me clearly crossing fingers that there was enough cooked chicken to go around, to be frank though I was just glad I was going to get mine, sorry peeps, every hungry man for himself and all that! 

With my two Banh mi in hand I scurried back to the office (I had to, otherwise Cheryl would have inflicted serious injury on me, she does like her food!).  Well, what can I say, this was so tasty, the baguette, fresh and with a decent crunch, the veggies, vibrant and crisp, the chicken, cooked to perfection and tasty as hell, the dressings just added to the overall zing and boy did those fresh chillies give it that kick that you look for. 

 I can honestly say this is one of the best lunches I've had in a long time and at £5 for a good old portion, definite value for money.  They do salads as well with the chicken and pork and also tofu so a good choice for all, get yourselves along to Vietvan if you want to sample some good, tasty Vietnamese street food, you won't be disappointed.

I am truly gutted as I'm only working in Croydon for a few more weeks so my time to sample the foodie goodness on offer at Vietvan is very limited!  Keep up the good work Nick & Tracy and peeps, you need to check these guys out- take a look at their Facebook page.

Vietvan Salad