Viet Shack & Siam Smiles Cafe, Manchester

Two of the current venues receiving adulation from the Manchester based bloggers are Viet Shack based in Arndale Market and Siam Smiles Cafe in Chinatown who serve up Vietnamese and Thai food respectively.

Mrs Nom is a regular at Viet Shack for lunch and for the price it provides a refreshing alternative to regular sandwiches. Billed as Vietnamese street food the summer rolls with king prawn are light and packed with vermicelli and vegetables, they are great paired with the house made peanut sauce.

The bánh mì baguettes are one of the signature dishes of Vietnam and this version with chicken and pickled vegetables. The flavours of this were much more vibrant and interesting than ham and cheese sandwiches.

Out of all the dishes that we have tried the one that did not live up to the hype was the beef on rice, we found the beef a little dry.

Overall decent for a quick lunch but we can't wait until they branch out in their own space in the Northern Quarter. We've not had many pleasant experiences in Arndale Market, with limited seating and people generally leaving the tables in rotten states with rice all over the table and a lack of cleaners. Probably the most off putting is people going from table to table begging for money or food, not that we are chastising them for doing so but it is not something you want to encounter whilst eating.

Siam Smiles Cafe is essentially a supermarket with tables along the side offering a range of Thai dishes. The Thai language menu on the reverse side of the English menu is a little longer which amused me, whilst Chinese restaurants tend to have whole different menus altogether for Westerners!

We ordered a range of dishes to share including noodle and rice plates which were all a little disappointing. Kow moo krob, crispy pork belly with rice and pork sauce was quite bland with the pork belly a tad burnt and a surprisingly small portion. The kow ka moo with braised pork joint fared a little better but the advertised Thai broccoli didn't make it to the plate, being replaced with cucumber.

The two yellow noodle dishes we tried were kuai tiew roast duck soup with morning glory and bean sprout and kuai tiew moo dang, with roast red pork, sliced pork balls, bean sprouts, spring onion and choi sum.

The only dish that stoodout was a spicy mixed seafood salad with mussels, prawns and squid. With the flavours being interesting and with just the right amount of kick in the chilli.

Perhaps being Chinese and regularly eating quality roasted three meats has had an impact on my opinions on the rice and noodle dishes. The dishes are priced quite competitively at £5.50 and up but the portion sizes reflect it.

Cheap eats in Westfield Stratford, London

There is a wide array of food choices at Westfield Stratford; it makes a mockery of the food court options available at The Trafford Centre. This post is a summary of cheap eats which can be had for around a tenner, as explored by yours truly during some recent work trips. It’s not all fine dining and it helps to balance out the more expensive meals.

The hierarchical structure of the food options at Westfield Stratford are quite defined, on the top floor you can find the usual chain restaurants such as TGI, Nandos, Giraffe along with an All Star Lanes. Outside in ‘the Street’ area more interesting options include Wahaca and Busaba Eatthai. The second floor will be the main focus of this post with good low to mid end options at affordable prices. This post does not cover the Great Eastern area around Waitrose with the likes of Umai by Japan Centre and Arancini Italian Deli as I simply haven’t got round to trying them yet.

There is an abundance of different types of cuisine at the ‘World Food Court’ area as the name would suggest. The pick of the bunch for me would probably be Pho (both the name of the store which multiple sites in London and the Vietnamese national dish). Here I tried the Pho Chin, beef brisket in a rich stock soup and rice noodles served with beansprouts, coriander and chilli. The broth was deep and meaty although the beef was not as tender as advertised. To accompany this I had a side dish of Nem Hai San, a spring roll filled with tiger prawn, crab and pork. This was better than the main event and I could have happily polished off a couple more.

For pizza Franco Manca is the obvious choice, sporting two wood fired ovens. I was impressed from my visit to their Chiswick pizzeria but was let down on this visit. I ordered the Gloucester old spot ham, mozzarella, buffalo ricotta, wild mushrooms and little tomato. The sourdough base this time was undercooked and this was magnified by the lack of tomato, probably due to the fast moving nature of food courts but no excuse to make sure that quality isn’t maintained.

Rhythm Kitchen serves up Caribbean fare and there was only going to be one choice for from the menu for me, jerk chicken. I chose rice and chips from the optional sides, however the chicken was only luke warm, quite disappointing as there is a visible grill smoking away with meaty goodness to entice customers. The jerk sauce also didn’t pack enough of a kick for me, which maybe toned down for the mall audience.

A fast food area can be found on the ground floor with the usual suspects of international chains along with a favourite of mine, Olive Oil & Oregano, a Greek chain. For less than a fiver I had a pork pitta wrap that equalled any of the above for comfort food. If only they had a branch up North next to my office, I think I would be there every day for lunch.

All of the above was paid for in full by myself and is in no way an advertorial for Westfield Stratford or any of the named eateries despite what it might seem. It is simply my experience of eating around the food courts.