We went to Sen Viet Vegan in Hoxton, near Shoreditch / Liverpool Street. It’s a fully vegan Vietnamese restaurant. We were excited to go here after seeing a few videos about it.

We decided to travel by bus once we got to Liverpool Street, which made the journey about a 5-minute bus ride and then a 5–10 minute walk. We went one lunchtime in October 2023 and arrived around 15 minutes after they opened at 12. It wasn’t very busy, which is probably expected at that time.

On this visit, we ordered:

Vegan crackers
Banana flower salad
Ha Noi caramel & banana with rice
Presidential Bun Cha warm noodle salad
Mango & coconut smoothie
Mango juice

The total came to £48, including a service charge, which is something you tend to get used to in London. It did help that they were offering a 15% discount.

Service was quite slow, unfortunately. It felt like a typical midweek lunch service where they’ve just opened but are already preparing for the evening. I’ve experienced similar before elsewhere, and it felt like that might have been the case here.

The food, however, was excellent, which made the slow service more frustrating, as we would have liked to try the desserts. The Ha Noi caramel & banana with rice had a nice level of heat, and the mock fish with green banana was a really strong combination. I’d happily order that again. The banana flower salad was fresh, flavourful, and one of those dishes you keep going back to.

If you’ve never had Vietnamese food before, this is a good place to start. You get fresh, fragrant, and aromatic flavours, with a mix of sweet, spicy, and cooling elements that work well together.

Even with the slow service, I’d still give it an 8.5.