The House of Ho

Visiting from the US, and popped in here right when they opened as our first meal for the week. Very much enjoyed it! The service was great, they were super attentive and really nice! Food was outstanding. We ordered edamame, spring rolls, sashimi, pho, sea bass and noodles. All of it was outstanding!

House of Ho does beautiful, tasty food, hitting the right balance between flavour and heat. In addition, they have a lovely Albariño on the wine list.

House of Ho just off Charlotte Street in Fitzrovia does what it calls modern Vietnamese food. I walked past a few times before and never realised that it has different dining rooms on different floors. When I walked in, I was taken to the first floor and got a nice table in the middle of the room.

The room is beautifully decorated. With the large vintage mirrors in combination with the light green benches and chairs, the place looks kind of fancy, while not overwhelmingly so. On my floor there was also a second room with walls of wine bottles, it looked even more stunning and interesting to me.

I started my dinner with wine. I immediately noticed the nice design of the wine glasses. It did not take me too long to make a decision, it had to be a glass of the Spanish 'Casal Caeiro' Albariño from the Rías Baixas region. It was a very enjoyable, young wine with strong mineral notes. Wines like this is why I became a fan of Albariño.

Staff at House of Ho were very friendly and knew something about the food and drinks. Throughout the evening, my waiter gave me great recommendations and I mostly went with his suggestions.

My first course was 'Black Angus Fillet La Lot wrapped in Betel Leaves, homemade Peanut Sauce'. I thought it was a clever, tiny dish. The Betel leaves were more than just decoration, they added flavour to the beef strips. And although I am not always a big fan of peanut sauce, this incarnation surprised me. I could see and taste actual peanuts which added an interesting crispy texture. The sauce was kind of fruity and sweet with the right level of heat, yet not too spicy for my palate. It was a great start and really very tasty, though a bit small.

When my starter came, I realised once again that I should probably better learn to eat with sticks. I did not even try this time and simply explained that I am too stupid, then I got cutlery, which made my life much easier.

For the main, I followed my waiter's recommendation and went for the Lemongrass Free Range Chicken and Chicken Scratchings together with some Ho Special Rice on the side. After the waiter told me what was so special about the rice, I asked him if they could leave out the prawns. It is like an egg fried rice with some crispy pork, I think, mixed in. The bowl of rice was very good and the pieces of meat added a bit of crunch.

Now to the chicken. On the menu, it was listed under "Signature Sharing", I asked my waiter and he confirmed that it is also good as a main dish for one person. And he was right, it's not a massive portion.

The chicken was crispy and delicious. I enjoyed the perfect balance between beautiful flavours and a certain spiciness. I could clearly taste the lemongrass throughout every bite and the chicken crackling added more texture to the dish.

Finally, I was ready for dessert. When ordering the
'Warm Green Tea Fondant, Passion Fruit with Vanilla ice cream', I was not entirely sure about what I would get. I remember once having a horrible green tea ice cream at some restaurant, so I was a bit wary. Luckily, this time the green tea dessert turned out to be a delightful white chocolate and green tea fondant with a liquid centre. I only would have prefered more passion fruit on the plate or maybe passion fruit ice cream instead of vanilla.

I really enjoyed all three courses and was more than happy with my wine. House of Ho is a friendly, modern restaurant where the plates do not only look good, but also taste delicious.

A friend and I came here recently with a Timeout voucher (4 cocktails for £16). We pre booked a table on a Wednesday evening but realllly didn't need to. We were seated on the first floor where there are plenty of tables and a beautiful bar however there was no one else there except the barman. Despite this it took forever to get cocktails (I think he was making them for people seated on the ground floor as well?). The cocktails were nice with an Asian theme, all presented in tall glasses (nothing tacky or OTT) but were nothing special. We didn't eat but the menu looks good. I will be back to try the food alongside their cocktails but will make sure to be seated on the ground floor where there is a bit more atmosphere. They also have a small terrace which catches the sun so will be sure to return when the weather is nicer.

This "Vietnamese" restaurant serves pho, sushi, and Bao. I had pho with cold broth, tough meat, uncooked noodles and not much flavour. It's probably the worst pho I've ever had.
There were no other Asians eating here.
They don't serve Vietnamese coffee, so I had a latte. Latte was the only thing great about this place.

Even though I had a reservation and there were plenty of empty tables inside, the host said the only table he has is outside. Possibly because I was sitting outside it took a long time to order. Waiter forgot to bring me water. At the end, I didn't even bother asking for the check. I went up to the front to pay.

I went specially to get a lunchtime Banh Mi (September 2015) as they were introducing it as part of hole in the wall service to sell their food for on the go.

Have to say I was quite disappointed. This isn't the main restaurant I must add, however the Banh mi wasn't anywhere near like I had in other places across town. Too saucy for some reason and didn't have enough meat I'm sorry to say. Bread was excellent though. Might be a one off but I'd be interested to see their mani meals more so.

Avoid this place. Not sure how it got any positive reviews. We had two pho, dumplings, and spring rolls. The pho was tasteless, and the broth as clear as water. The meat was tough and dry. I've had better pho from Waitrose prepared in my microwave.

Service was fine, but the whole place has a very strange and off-putting vibe about it.

The bar upstairs seems nice for foreign business travellers.

Wow. What can I say? Stumbled upon this joint on the whim and definitely won't be back. Venue was dated and clientele were 'off'. Thought we might as well get a drink while we're here but waited at the bar for around 10-15mins while the bar staff ignored me on a quite night attempting to polish glasses. My 'white' friend came and was wondering where the drinks were as it was quiet to which I said well, I've been ignored this whole time. The bartender finally took bit and seemed annoyed that I wanted a drink! Wtf. Being a member of of exclusive venues I though the nerve of this joint being so bloody rude! To top that off a water downed vodka costing more than I would pay for at exclusive service at Soho house. Who do you think you are?! Ridiculous place. Avoid avoid avoid.

Great food, nice atmosphere and excellent service! The Vietnamese chicken curry was light and flavourful. For starters, I would recommend the crispy squid and the soft shell crab. The bubble tea was refreshing. A great restaurant! I would definitely recommend!

We picked this based on high reviews on multiple sites. Maybe we went on an off-night. Cute restaurant with a varied menu. Service is attentive without being overbearing. The food was somewhat disappointing. We ordered vegetarian curry and received chicken curry. My beef was overcooked, the pho rather flavorless and there really was no need to oversell the rice as an accompaniment to my plate, since there were abundant potatoes. Will not be back and cannot recommend to anyone based on our experience.

I visited The House of Ho randomly with friends a few weeks back. We decided to meet up at Charlotte Street but didn't have a particular restaurant in mind. The food was pretty good but standard fare really. We decided to share a few dishes between us including prawn summer rolls, prawn and chive dumplings, and crispy squid. While I won't be shouting from the rooftops about the food (again, I liked it but there was nothing special about it), I will give a shout out to the fantastic service. They were very accommodating and attentive without being too overbearing. As one of our friends was arriving late we wanted to wait a while before ordering our mains, which they didn't make a fuss about. We pretty much just had drinks and crackers for the first 35-40 minutes we were there. The three stars say it all: A-Okay! While it wouldn't be at the top of my list, I would happily come here again.