Value from Vietnam

There are a great many Vietnamese restaurants in East London, but Green Papaya stands out by virtue of sound cooking, excellent value and a casual café-bar atmosphere.

The menu claims, 'for a true experience of Vietnamese cuisine', and for once this may be true, as there are some remarkably economical dishes that are also full of authentic flavours - like a large bowl of vermicelli, shiitake mushrooms, black fungi and kohlrabi soup.

There is also a wine list with a good selection of workmanlike New World wines at accessible prices.

The cooking is accomplished and makes use of the fresh ingredients and herbs to be found from the many Vietnamese suppliers nearby.

You know that on Mare Street they are unlikely to run out of purple basil.

Starters include the usual suspects such as Vietnamese herb rolls with prawns; banana flower salad; and the eponymous green papaya salad.

They are fresh, crisp and delicious.

Try the banh tom for a change and experience lightly battered strips of sweet potato and king prawn deep-fried and presented as a nest.

Very moreish.

There are enough variations of braised, stir-fried and steamed meats, seafood and poultry to satisfy the choosier diner, plus a ten-dish tofu section for vegetarians (although somewhat perplexingly several have fish in them).

Slow-cooked lamb cubes with galangal, lemongrass and coconut milk comes in a curiously light-coloured sauce, but the lamb is tender.

There are also unusual dishes such as stir-fried kohlrabi with shiitake mushrooms and black fungi, and stir-fried sweet gourd with bean sprouts and spring onions.

And, of course, there's stir-fried morning glory.

Green Papaya
Mare Street, London, E8 3QE