Having launched on Old Compton Street in Soho a couple of years back, House of Ho seems far more suited to its prominent new location within a four storey townhouse on Percy Street, while the original premises has morphed into the more informal Ho Modern Vietnamese.
Formerly the site of Richard Caring’s Bam-Bou, the Fitzrovia venue lends itself particularly well to offering customers different zones; from a buzzing brasserie on the ground floor to an elegant bar area dining space on the first, plus three further private dining rooms upstairs, each has a chic, almost Parisian-looking design that succeeds in elevating modern Vietnamese dining, more typically a cuisine we associate with street food.
A world away from London’s first Vietnamese street food restaurant, Pho, which a British couple were inspired to open in Clerkenwell in 2005 after holidaying in Vietnam, House of Ho is going for an altogether more sophisticated vibe, with attentive service and a wine list focussed on grape varieties that can handle such bold food. Founded by Hanoi TV chef Bobby Chinn, who was educated in Somerset before spending 18 years in Vietnam establishing restaurants in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Ian Pengelley is now the group chef director, who has an abundance of experience in heading up restaurants with strong Asian influences.
And Pengelley really seems to have found his groove on his first dedicated foray into the flavours of Vietnam, a country he has enjoyed travelling around for food inspiration, although, if you’ve ever dined at one of his previous establishments, particularly the Pan-Asian E&O in Notting Hill and Gilgamesh in Camden, you’ll be pleased to recognise an overlap of several other Eastern influences. The sharing menu is easy to follow and consists of dishes broken up into obvious sections such as pho, rolls, dumplings and salads, along with the more expensive signature sharing dishes, but whilst our waiter suggested 8 dishes per couple, this produced a generous banquet that kept us going for a couple of hours, so you could easily order just a few things each.
Highlights included? I’d pretty much order everything again. As you’d expect, the fresh Vietnamese chicken salad, with buckets of fresh mint, really showcases the cuisine that takes your palate from hot, sweet and sour, and comes presented in a cracker basket that not only looks great but offers another texture dimension. The tender snow crap and scallop dumplings were sweet and succulent bite-sized mouthfuls; the jasmine smoked chilli glazed ribs were rich and sticky and literally fell off the bone, and my old favourite of duck spring rolls happened to be some of the best I’ve ever tasted; crammed full of wonderfully moist shredded meat and enshrouded by an ultra fine, crispy pastry.
Whilst we didn’t order it this time, I’m keen to try the soft shell crab with Vietnamese sauces next time (I’ve already made my next reservation), as it certainly grabbed our attention whenever one of the other diners ordered it, due to being flamboyantly presented on a bowl almost overflowing with dried chillis. They like to create an impression here.
As for the signature dishes we sampled, they really are worth splashing out on. The Chilean sea-bass was cooked to perfection, served off the bone, wrapped in a leaf, and partnered with a complex fermented plum sauce, which to simply term ‘sweet and sour’ is to do a grave injustice. Meanwhile, the elegantly presented shaking beef featured cubes of black Angus fillet which had been marinated in onions, pepper and soy, then sautéed (hence the ‘shaking’) to ensure maximum flavour. But whatever you choose, House of Ho is a house of culinary fun and you simply can’t order the wrong thing.
House of Ho, 1 Percy Street, Fitzrovia, London, W1T 1DB. For more information and to make a booking visit the website.
