Inside Cô Thành, a room which looks very different from its previous guise as Frenchie.
What can you tell us about Cô Thành?
This is a Vietnamese restaurant, but one that actually comes from Hong Kong.
The original opened there in 2017, founded by American-born Brian Woo, following time spent in Vietnam. While in Vietnam for three years, he frequented a stall run by Nguyễn Thi Thành who served amazing noodle soups. She had become famous after appearing in an Anthony Bourdain programme where he dubbed her "The Lunch Lady" (a name that stuck since although she was also known as Cô Thành). While in Vietnam, Woo got to know the "Lunch Lady" (who passed away earlier this year), and she taught him her recipes.
Woo eventually opened the original Cô Thành in Hong Kong, named in her honour, and now he's brought that to London.
Where is it?
It's taken over what was Frenchie in Covent Garden (which closed early last year). A long, relatively thin restaurant space, you can still see the structure of the previous restaurant in there, but it's been stripped back quite a bit, with the new exposed brickwork, mirrored tables and seating being almost identical in design to the original Hong Kong Cô Thành.
You'll find the restaurant on Henrietta Street, right next to Big Mamma's Ave Mario, with either Covent Garden or Leicester Square being the closest stations.
There are a few more tables looking into the open kitchen downstairs.
Where should we meet for a drink first?
There is a bar space at Cô Thành, but realistically, this doesn't seem like a place to meet for a drink. The most obvious recommendations nearby (assuming you don't want to go high-end with Rules) are back into Covent Garden for wine at that old favourite, The Crusting Pipe or, much closer, Bedford Street wines (from the people behind The Oystermen).
What's on the menu?
Inspired by Southern Vietnam, the menu here is split into snacks and small plates for starters and then the main event, the noodles. Starting with the former, there are options like fried pork spring rolls (£8), pork sausages with peanuts and dipping sauces and more. From this early section, we went for:
Gỏi Cuốn - freshly wrapped summer rolls, with pork sausage, fried sole, okra and prawn options (we chose the latter at £8). Summer rolls are a must for us on any menu and these, absolutely crammed with prawns, were excellent.
Nem Nướng - Marinated pork sausage skewers, roasted peanuts, spring onion, tamarind nước chấm glaze (£9)
Cánh Gà Chiên - Beer-battered fried chicken wings, roasted peanuts, nuoc mam smoked chilli glaze (£9). The crunch on the coating of these chicken wings was fantastic.
Then it's onto the main event, the Bun noodles. Here, you'll have the option of having the noodles in a hot broth, or served cold with dressing you can add yourselves. We tried both to show you what to expect, but we found ourselves strongly preferring the soup version. That's just a personal preference, though, as both were fabulous.
We have to be honest here and clarify that we're not experts in Vietnamese food in any way (any more than our love for the restaurants on Kingsland Road would make us). So there will be far better people than us who will be able to comment on the authenticity. What we can say is that there's clearly a great attention to detail put into these creations, and they're noticeably generous on the non-noodle ingredients. You could come in just for a bowl of noodles and leave very happy, we think.
There are nine different noodle dishes to make your way through here, centered on a mix of beef, pork and seafood ingredients (we'd definitely be up for trying the crab and pork bone broth), but here's what we had to give you an idea.
Bún Bò Huế(£19.75) - Beef and pork bone broth, roasted shallots and ginger, lemongrass, pineapple, pork and mushroom ball, beef ball, pork ball, beef shank, rare beef, pork sausage, crispy fried shallots, fresh herbs, vermicelli. As mentioned above, absolutely crammed with great things.
Bún Thịt Gà Nướng (£19.50) - Lemongrass roasted chicken, roasted peanuts, pickles, crispy fried shallots, fresh herbs, vermicelli, nước chấm dressing
And desserts?
There were two options when we visited, with another coming to the menu which we got a chance to get a preview of. In addition to the below, there is a simple banana and coconut ice cream option if you need something small, but we'd go for the following:
Chè Ba Màu (£8.50) Tri colour ice dessert with coconut milk, palm sugar, red bean, pandan jelly. They encourage you to empty this into a bowl, mixed up to create a kind of cold dessert soup. Much better than that description sounds, mind.
The Tiramisu. Not on the menu at the time of writing,
Anything else to mention?
Being early days for the restaurant, it was an introductory menu when we visited, so there were a few dishes still to be added. Chief among those are the banh mi, but expect them to join the menu in the coming weeks.
What about drinks?
There's a strong softs list here, led by Vietnamese coffee (they've said that getting the right kind of condensed milk has been a priority), smoothies and no alcohol cocktails. Otherwise, there's Saigon beer and a short cocktails list, led by an excellent Banana Colada that's a must-have.
Overall thoughts
Cô Thành brings a great Vietnamese restaurant to Covent Garden and cements Henrietta Street as one of the best roads for dining in the area. Seemingly as close to a copy of the Hong Kong original as you could hope for, this brings a collection of really great small plates and fantastic bowls of noodles that are really worth your attention the next time you're near the piazza.
More about Cô Thành
Where is it? 16 Henrietta St, London WC2E 8QH
How to book: Book online
Find out more: Visit their website or follow them on Instagram @cothanhlondon
Hot Dinners ate as guests of Cô Thành. Prices are correct at the time of writing.
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