The Hanoi Bike Shop

I’ve been here a few times, with large groups and small and have always been impressed with the food quality and service.
Situated just off Byres Road, Hanoi Bike Shop has been here for a few years, and has become quite a popular spot. They specialise in Vietnamese food (which, as far as I know is the only place in Glasgow doing so) and, as confirmed by a friend who visited Vietnam, it’s as close to the real thing as you’ll get.
The décor is (I’m assuming) meant to look a bit like a Vietnamese bike café! There’s bikes on the walls! There’s not a huge amount of seating, so it can get busy at weekends, I’d book ahead.
Sadly, I’ve been very boring everytime I’ve went and ordered the same thing, the beef phở. There’s a reason though, as it’s absolutely amazing. Phở is a noodle broth dish, quite like Japanese ramen, but the broth here is so flavoursome, could drink a pint of it by itself! Thankfully other people I go with are more brave and have tried the other dishes. The one I always remember was a special which was firecracker pheasant, the seasoning on the pheasant was amazing, a really nice dish. The desserts change often, but tend to be tropical fruit based. Once I had a spiced fruit pudding that was really tasty.
Have to also make a special mention to the Vietnamese coffee, comes served with it’s own mini cafitiere device, and with condensed milk, really good!

Haven’t been in a while so a friend and I decided to stop in for lunch after studying a bit. We were crammed in with the rest of the patrons, but managed to get a table right away.
It took us quite a while to choose what we wanted to eat as there are so many things on the menu to try (including Vietnamese style sandwiches).
We were pretty hungry, but we ended up ordering way more than we could eat. It was all so delicious! My friend ordered a beer to drink, the crispy fried chicken livers, kimchi, steamed rice and the beef curry. I didn’t think I was a fan of anything she had ordered, but was made to try it all and I can now say that I absolutely love everything she ordered. The livers were perfectly cooked, and didn’t taste of liver at all The beef in the curry was so tender and the kimchi was just spicy enough to add so much flavour to the dish.
I ordered the prawn crackers, the seasonal veg (Pak choi with loads of toasted garlic), the pork spring rolls and the BBQ chicken sandwich. All very tasty as well. I could have used a dipping sauce for the prawn crackers even though they are tasty enough on their own. The pak choi was so flavourful, I could have eaten it all in one gulp and the spring rolls were minty and filled with glass noodles. The sandwich was so delicious and came with a huge side salad of mixed greens and mint leaves. Since we ordered so much stuff, I was able to take half home to my guy and he was so grateful I did. Even warmed up later on, he said it was absolutely amazing.
This place is still a favourite of mine and it’s well worth the price tag for what you get. It was a bit on the expensive side for lunch, but seeing as how I filled up completely and took half of what I’d ordered home, I’d say it was worth it.
Stop by Hanoi Bike Shop, you’ll be so glad you did. If you don’t manage to walk in and get a seat, they’ll take your number and call you when a table to available.