Nice enough - but we won't be back. (Lang Sen Vietnamese Restaurant (Bexleyheath))

Member Name: mouche202

Product:	Lang Sen Vietnamese Restaurant (Bexleyheath)
Date:	06/08/09 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some nice dishes, independent local restaurant, reasonable prices

Disadvantages: No atmosphere, average food on the whole, frozen desserts!

Last week, my husband and I took his colleague and his wife out to dinner at this local restaurant. I chose it due to its high review scores on toptable.com. To be honest there isn't much choice within walking distance from our home - the local Chinese is good and we like Zizzi but we wanted to take them somewhere different. None of us had eaten Vietnamese cuisine before so we plumped for Lang Sen.

The restaurant décor is attractive but nothing special. The tables and chairs were comfortable but a little cramped. The space between tables was ample though which would be helpful when the restaurant is full. The weekday evening we went, it was empty though and there was initially no one to meet and seat us. Someone turned up eventually and the service was adequate for the rest of the evening.

Coming to the food - in general it tasted like a variation on Chinese food which is to be expected I guess as all Far East cuisines have similar roots. The menu is extensive and they also have a 'buffet menu' from which you can order as much as you like for the fixed price of £13.95 per head. The buffet menu looked almost as big as the main one and eventually we decided to order from it. The highlights of the meal were the duck wrap. The wrappers came in a dimsum basket, the salad and sweet stay-style sauce came on a plate and the duck was brought to the table and cut into flakes at the table (there is a technical term for this which I can't remember right now). We then had to assemble our own wraps and these turned out to be surprisingly good. The other three starters were good but nothing exceptional. The standout main course was the pork in caramel sauce. I ordered it in fear since it sounded very different but I ended up having the last laugh as it was much nicer than the other's safer choices. The portion sizes were quite big and we had plenty of leftovers from 4 starters and 4 main courses.

The desserts were a disappointment. We knew from the menu they would be store-bought frozen desserts but we did think they would defrost them before serving! Unfortunately the centres were still frozen and put a dampener on the otherwise enjoyable meal.

It's reasonably priced, especially the buffet menu. Two beers, two cocktails, four starters, four mains and two desserts and a 10% tip cost us £80.

Overall, it's a nice enough place and the food isn't bad but it didn't rock our world. We will probably not be back - especially since our local Zizzi's provides a much more lively atmosphere with nice food and warm service.

Summary: Okay - but sometimes okay isn't good enough