Viet Thai Cuisine

We go here regularly to eat, fantastic food, excellent atmosphere and exemplary service. I cannot rate it highly enough!

Just back from our anniversary night out and Viet Thai deserves an immediate review. We’ve passed it regularly on the away to Asda at the Owlcotes Centre and have been talking about going in for ages.
It’s a small place, with seating for about 20. That said it’s surprisingly roomy; I’ve seen similar sized places with many more tables crammed in. The menu is fairly small but very good with a combination of Vietnamese, Thai and Chinese dishes. The staff are very friendly and chatty, and it’s clearly a place that people come back to again and again, since we seemed to be the only customers not on first name terms with the staff. There’s no liquor licence but you can bring your own bottle. Since my beloved was driving we’d opted for going teetotal, at least until we got home; I had jasmine tea and Beloved had orange juice.
We both started with the Cha; little chicken and seafood fritters served with sweet chili sauce. Very nice! That was followed by Duck in Phở sauce for my beloved and the Catfish for me. We both had steamed fragrant rice which was nicely sticky and skipped side dishes as we wanted to leave room for a dessert. The duck breast was large and plump and looked very juicy. I’m told it was delicious. The only word to describe the catfish is AMAZING. Juicy, tender and full of flavour, it was served in a sauce I really liked but couldn’t identify and had a substantial amount of shredded fresh mint as a topping. There are only two dessert options, either ice cream (Mackies) or rice balls with red bean paste filling. Well, Mackies ice cream is very nice but how often do you have rice balls? We both had the rice balls and enjoyed them. The texture is unusual and the red bean paste is quite sweet but they were floating in a ginger sauce which cut the sweetness nicely.
Beloved tried to conceal the bill but I have years of practice at reading upside down (also a useful skill when you’re sitting at the wrong side of a desk but that’s another story). The bill came to just under £44; very good value considering the quality of the food.
Definitely want to go again!