Viet Hoa Cafe, the first Vietnamese restaurant to have opened in an area that is now dubbed London’s ‘Little Saigon,’ has undergone a total interior refit to distinguish itself from its shabbier culinary competitors on Kingsland Road.

VIET HOA CAFE

70-72 Kingsland Road, London E2 8DP (020 7729 8293)

The restaurant has been open since 1995, which in London restaurant terms is a lifetime. Since then, numerous other Vietnamese eateries have opened along the rather haphazard stretch of Kingsland Road between Old Street and Geffrye Museum. The common theme has always been about cheap, quick eating – after all, the business model is driven by volume. As such, one has come to expect busy, noisy restaurants with rapid service and no-nonsense functional interiors but, most importantly, tasty authentic food.

However, despite being located only spitting distance from the trendmeisters of Hoxton and Shoreditch, there has been a distinct void when it comes to decent graphics and interiors in these restaurants. That is, until Viet Hoa Cafe stepped up the game and unveiled its new ‘designed’ space, created by VONSUNG.

On the restaurant’s website, they state, “Viet Hoa Cafe was designed to offer a natural feeling for diners reminiscent of Vietnam’s organic and colourful culture. We wanted to reflect this with the interior of the cafe, giving it the wow factor that you’d expect from a premium, design-led restaurant in West London.” They finish by saying, “We hope you like the new East London. It’s getting smarter.”

There will be groups of nostalgic folk who won’t welcome in this change. Indeed, part of the ‘charm’ of Little Saigon is the distinctly design-less dining environment – a sort of antidote to the uber-designed offerings of other eateries. 

Whatever your preference, the upside now is that you’ve got a choice.

Further to the interior, VONSUNG also created the branding and identity. ‘Hoa’ means ‘blossoming flower’ in Vietnamese and a logo mark has been added across all way-finding, branding collateral, packaging, and uniforms.

February 2010 will see the launch of Viet Hoa Bar in the basement.