03/02/20 'Sen Viet' review

‘Sen Viet’ is a restaurant my mum and I ended up at out of convenience more than anything else but it’s certainly somewhere I’d purposefully seek out in the future. Meeting her off the train at King’s Cross because she was visiting me in London for the weekend, we decided that it’d probably be better to find somewhere close to eat than go back to Stratford first and then decide, because by the time we got back it’d be 10pm and let’s face it, for all it’s charms Stratford isn’t exactly a culinarily rich haven. There’s only so much charm in Westfield’s varied but overtly generic food court. After a quick google of budget friendly restaurants around King’s Cross we narrowed it down to two options and having had really amazing Vietnamese food before we mutually agreed that surely we couldn’t go too wrong. It turned out to be one of the best meals we’d ever eaten together. 

The evening was surrounded anyway by a general sense of relief as we were both so happy to see each other again after a shitty few days on both ends. However, we found ourselves distracted from our impassioned rants by the deliciousness of the food. Wanting to try a few things we got the vegetarian sharing platter, which came with salt and pepper tofu, vegetables in a curry sauce, spring rolls and summer rolls and peanut satay and soy sauce. Not only was the presentation beautiful (yes the majority of my camera roll consists of someone sat across a table from me behind a plate of food) but the flavours were incredible. I can’t express how beautiful the vegetables and curry sauce was and honestly if we were throwing etiquette out the window I could have eaten the peanut satay sauce by the ladle full. The summer rolls were fresh whilst the spring rolls had the perfect level of crunch, fried to perfection. 

The staff at the restaurant were very patient and helpful as were were sort of blindly ordering what we thought sounded nice. The food itself was both cooked and seasoned impeccably. If you’re ever around King’s Cross and need a quick, relatively inexpensive bite to eat or want to genuinely enjoy some truly authentic Vietnamese cuisine, I cannot recommend Sen Viet enough. A short 15 minute walk away from the train station, described on google as a 'no-frills spot for Vietnamese favourites', that's exactly what you can expect to find. The fact that the restaurant itself looks so unassuming definitely adds to it’s charm and I can promise that you will be greeted by friendly staff and experience phenomenal flavours. 

Address: 
119 King's Cross Rd, 
London
WC1X 9NH