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There are things everyone misses when they move out of east London. For some, it’s the warehouse parties or the canalside strolls. For me, waving farewell to the East End left a hole in my heart the size and shape of Kingsland Road’s many Vietnamese restaurants, which as you can imagine is a fair burden on the old circulatory system.
For rent-hike refugees who’ve ended up in Peckham, though, things are looking up, as former Bussey Building regulars Banh Banh have just joined the burgeoning food village at the tip of Peckham Rye. Housed within a neutrally decorated, plywood-clad space, the restaurant is run by five siblings of the Nguyen family, who have based their menu on recipes left behind by their grandmother, who worked as a chef in Saigon in the 1940s.
Granny Nguyen was clearly a bit of a trailblazer. As well as the classic Vietnamese dishes you’d expect, (summer rolls, pho, noodle salad) there are plenty that you may not, such as the house special banh khot pancakes – gob-sized eggy hemispheres filled with juicy prawns and topped with spring onion, served still-cooking in a cast-iron skillet, with leaves and dipping sauce on the side.
Like everything else on the menu, these come in at less than a tenner. Dishes may be designed for sharing, but most of the larger options will do the trick on their own, making Banh Banh just as great an option for a quick solo lunch as it is a communal blow-out with mates. Should you opt for the latter, here’s my advice – gather up a few dyed-in-the-wool Hackney types, order one of everything and watch their faces as they clash chopsticks over some of the best Vietnamese food in the city.