The New House of Ho Fitzrovia

House of Ho has an elegant new home in Fitzrovia, at the beginning of Charlotte Street. Taking over the space that was once home to Bambou the Vietnamese restaurant. This townhouse has been given a revamp with a colonial style casual dining area on the ground floor, an elegant bar space on the top floor and several stylish private dining rooms in between.

The kitchen is now headed up by Ian Pengelly who has helmed several other Asian fusion restaurants around town. The menu is mainly Vietnamese influence with touches of other South East Asian cultures interspersed.

My last visit to the original House of Ho in Soho was for a casual lunch of pho. I did not have a chance to sample the ala carte menu. This time, we had the Chef’s Tasting menu which was a very tasty romp through their new dishes.

The starters were Bo La lot, a popular Vietnamese snack of grilled beef wrapped in betel leaf. A tasty morsel of meat served with a peanutty dipping sauce.

Bo La Lot

This was followed by a delightful combination of crispy duck and watermelon salad. A colourful dish with lots of differing textures from the juicy watermelon to the crisoy duck and the crunchy cashew nuts.

Crispy Duck and Watermelon salad

A bit of dim sum in the form of Sea Bass dumplings.

Sea Bass Dumplings

This fabulous dish of Tempura Soft Shell crab was a late addition to the menu. The crabs were lightly battered and fried, then served with great theatre on this bed of dried chillies. It was quite spectacular. If it’s not on the regular menu, you should request that they make this dish.

Tempura Soft Shell Crab

Then followed an array of main course dishes, served Asian family style. The first of these is the crispy squid with garlic and chilli. This is always popular, whether it is in a Chinese or Thai restaurant. The crispy squid covered in aromatics and sightly spiced is a sure crowd pleaser.

Crispy Squid

Another distinctly Vietnamese dish is the Lemongrass chicken. Fried pieces of chicken coated in a slightly sweet sauce perfumed with lemongrass flavours was a great accompaniment to the Ho Rice (their special fried rice).

Lemongrass Free Range Chicken

Here they serve their Chilean Sea Bass marinated in a fermented plum sauce and wrapped in a leaf and served on black slate. A very stylish presentation, perfectly suited for this delicate fish.

Chilean Sea Bass with fermented plum sauce

Shaking beef, the dish named after the cooking method where the beef is shaken. in the wok while cooking. This is not your typical Vietnamese home cooked dish but a celebratory dish as meat is usually a treat. Here it has been given an elegant modern interpretation and served up beautifully. Tender pieces of beef with a hint of smoke had bags of flavour.

Shaking Beef

Ho Special Rice

Kailan is uniquely prepped into florets and lightly dressed in oyster sauce provided the vegetable accompaniment to the menu.

Kailan with oyster sauce

The execution of all the dishes were faultless. We had very attentive service and well chosen wines to match each course throughout. I didn’t take down which wines we had with it but the sommelier can guide you through their wine list there.

Colonial style dining room

By this point, dessert was almost beyond us. We managed to have a little taste of the decadent banana crumble and the white chocolate matcha fondant. The glass of sweet chilled Muscatel they served with pudding was a delicious finish.

The House of Ho did a triumphant job of serving up Vietnamese and South East Asian cuisine in a refined and stylish way. Dishes were flavoured with a nod to the traditional with a London twist. If you want delicious modern Asian food in a lovely setting, look no further, this is the place.

House of Ho

1 Percy St, London,

Fitzrovia

London

W1T 1DW