"You Choose" — Eat Vietnam

Venue: Eat Vietnam, 1422 Pershore Rd, Stirchley, B30 2PH; Instagram
Choice: Tamarind chicken wings (£6) Chooser: Our guest, Helen

Crunchy, sticky umami deliciousness is the technical way to describe what Ming and the team is doing with chicken wings at Eat Vietnam, which opened quietly on Stirchley high street in July. And ordering wisely with their eyes, each of the packed tables was sure to order the peanut-laden, plump pieces of joy. This was our second visit to the former pop-up's new permanent digs, and in under a month the flavours have transformed from pleasant to proper fragrant and punch-packing. The turmeric fried fish (£7) now comes with a zingified salad, the crispy belly pork (£8) sits in all the right chilli oil sort of territory and we can't tell you what the charred romanesco cauliflower steak (£7) is up to because it had sold out, in that actually very reassuring way that fresh food should. Based on our first visit, do get the cauli goodness if it's on, though. Coming with coconut and chilli, it's one of a good number of vegan options that also include a banana blossom curry and shiitake pho (each £9). The modest and simple but attractive spot is still waiting on its alcohol license, so you have a good excuse to top and tail your feasting with Stirchley's ever-growing beer game. Oh, and the menu is super subject to change, so don't go cursing us if things look a little different by the time you get there — we have the feeling this ain't a kitchen that's going to be resting on no laurels. Opening times