Buddha Jazz
119 Grove Lane SE5 8BG
Tel: 0207 737 1888
www.buddhajazz.co.uk
Buddha Jazz on a cold Tuesday evening in February was bustling. We sat down in anticipation, the two members of our party who have been to Vietnam particularly keen to assess the authenticity of Camberwell's Vietnamese cuisine. With a nice selection of beers, we opted for the Vietnamese options, which were both pleasant, while one of us enjoyed a gingery non-alcoholic cocktail. We perused the menu in a friendly, jovial atmosphere marred only by the choice of music: Dido and Celine Dion didn't quite set the scene that the wall hangings, Vietnamese ornaments and subtle lighting tried to create.
On to the food, and we opted for Vietnamese spring rolls, the steamed, healthier brother of the crispy fried versions served in Chinese or Thai restaurants. As major aficionados of said spring rolls in Vietnam, our friends wondered if they were perhaps not as fresh and tasty as those picked up in the Hanoi market. The two of us who had not sampled the authentic item were happy though, particularly with the delicious sauce for dipping, and we all enjoyed them as starter.
For the main course, we opted for different meals. At this point, the service started to deteriorate a little: first two of the meals were served, then after a substantial pause the third appeared. The fourth took considerably longer and we had to ask a waiter, who was not especially apologetic or surprised at the delay. Though to be fair, the dish did arrive soon afterwards and was delicious: stir fried vegetables, noodles and delicately crisp tofu with a subtle flavour. The vegetable curry was very nice. The two Vietnam affecionados had the “BJ Special”, which was a combination of various starters with noodles and considered to be “okay, but not much more than it sounds like”, and a noodle-based soup with minced crab and prawns in a tamarind broth, which was pronounced rich and quite tasty, though perhaps suffered from a lack of fish.
After dinner, which was accompanied by a fairly attentive waiter bringing beer as quickly as we finished off the bottles, there was no suggestion or offer of dessert. Despite having glimpsed some rather tasty-sounding toffee fritters, we didn't request the menu and hoped our waistlines would thank us. One of us had Vietnamese coffee which was pronounced authentic and delicious. Of note, the waiter gave the impression of never having seen the menu before – he demanded our order be by number rather than by the adjacent name of the dish, and when we asked for the coffee, peered at our menu as though suspicious that we were trying to order something that did not exist.
Food: 4
Service: 2
Ambience: 4
Gay-friendliness: 3