Kim’s

I found this place through the Amex Shop Small promotion, and it is on a small street off of Fleet Street, beyond the stretch that I typically wander. It is billed as a Vietnamese restaurant, but to me it seems distinctly Chinese. The case in point is that their egg rolls are very much Chinese style, much larger than the Vietnamese kind, and you are not given fish sauce to dip them in. There is phở and banh mi on the menu boards, but no one in the queue was ordering either of them. It seems the most popular for rice or noodle boxes topped by the likes of salmon, roast duck, fried prawns, pork belly, etc. I got a rice box (it’s a light fried rice to be specific), topped by roast duck (this is not like Cantonese roast duck, it’s more of a poached method and lacks the soy flavour) and pork belly (this is not like Vietnamese pork belly, it was totally braised in soy sauce Chinese style). I had to pay £2 extra for the combination, but the box itself was only £6 so still quite reasonable. I also got two egg rolls. Instead of having warming drawers, the staff heat up the food in microwaves behind the counter once it’s assembled. I thought that was quite unusual. There was also some boiled broccoli and carrots in the box, and then there is the option to add coriander and chili sauce before the box is closed. Overall it is very traditional, authentic Chinese food and pretty good value. I will definitely be back.

I’ve only ever had the bánh mì from here, but frankly I’m not interested in trying anything else. £5.50 for a supremely filling sandwich with fresh flavors that will leave both your stomach and your wallet satisfied. I usually go for the pork, make sure you don’t skip the pâté.

Kim’s Kitchen
+ Vietnamese lunch on the go
+ banh mi with all the trimmings
+ takes credit card
— small venue
— long queue waiting for food to heat up
This is Kim’s second venture, taking up residence on 62 Fleet Street which is in fact down a side road called Bouverie Street. The venue is small (it used to be Fuzzy Grub the sandwich shop), and inside you’ll find a small area for queuing and a long counter, offering banh mi on the left, hot noodles and rice dishes in the middle, and a couple of tills on the right.
Kim’s is for takeaway only and there are no seats (and barely enough room to queue!). There is some space for one orderly queue but there is a different process for ordering banh mi (takes longer to assemble) to ordering hot food, so the queue gets a litte chaotic but the staff manages the best they can.
The speed to making banh mi is hampered by only one person building the sandwiches in the cramped space. It’s not a speedy process as the creation requires spreading on a thick layer of pâté on the baguette, followed by adding a topping of your choice (for example, roast pork) and sausage meat, all of which gets heated in an oven to crisp up the bread before topping off with pickled vegetables and coriander. During the busy lunchtime, you are waiting in one corner of the shop as other hungry city workers manœuvre around you to order the hot food and pay. The plus side, though, is the staff seems to know the banh mi process is not the most efficient, so upon the creation of the Vietnamese sandwich, the staff takes it over to the furthest till to make sure the banh mi orderer isn’t effectively queuing twice.
The hot food looked appetising too, but the downside is that the counter didn’t appear set up for keeping food hot so every order has to be re-​heated in one of the many microwaves behind the counter. The staff, though, tries their best to take orders as quickly as possible, and it is absolutely amazing to see 5 – 6 staff dancing around each other in such a small space to meet the hungry’s demand.
The banh mi itself was pretty good and was a generous portion although at a city price tag of £5.50. I’ll definitely come back to try the hot food, and to be honest it’s the closest spot for banh mi from my office so I am sure I’ll come back for that too!