We've already got the Vietnamese Noodle Bar across the road and Bia Hoi, a sort of South East Asian theme bar, but we are keen to try what this part of former Indochina has to offer.

You can't miss Pho 68, painted a bright orange outside, green and white inside with orange cushions on white wooden seats.

Pho is the word for the broad, flat noodles in some of the main dishes and 68 is a lucky number, says Kenny, the manager, later.

The waiting staff, in matching green tops, bring a dish of prawn crackers while we study the menu. It's almost 100 items long, divided into sections, with starters, soups, noodles and stir-fries.

We need a bit of help. How do the Vietnamese order their meal - a khia vi (starter), soup and then a main course, perhaps?

Our first waitress doesn't understand us. A nice lad arrives and says the soups are big and the equivalent of a main course. He's from Malaysia.

'We order by number and ask a waitress if it will be enough'

We abandon the idea of soups and press on, meanwhile ordering Vietnamese green tea which is replenished throughout the meal.

We order by number and ask a second waitress if it will be enough. Yes, she says, and she's right. We have mounds. She's from Malaysia, too, but says the chef is the real thing.

Our first starter is listed as "fresh rice pepper with beancurd with garlic and chilli sauce" but we get a surprise. "It looks like supper in a condom," exclaims my wife.

There are two long transparent cylinders stuffed with cold vermicelli, coriander and cucumber. As we eat them, luckily you get spoons as well as chopsticks, we admire the way the tastes and textures work.

It feels fresh and very healthy but there has been an error in translation. For rice pepper read ricepaper.

Our other starter, Muc Rang Muoi Ot, salt and pepper squid (£5.20), is now an almost universal dish, and the Pho 68 kitchen scores with some very light batter and really emphatic seasoning. The squid itself is soft and juicy.

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Banh Cuon Nhuan Thit (£6), steamed rolls with minced pork, is another surprise. We're back to the rice paper and the garlic and ginger sauce and this time the rolls - there are two big ones perched on top of each other, resemble a sort of Vietnamese lasagne.

Again we like the flavours from the pork and a great waft of fresh coriander.

Thit Bo Cho, crispy beef Vietnamese style (£6.20), is very similar to dishes we've seen on Chinese menus.

It comprises lots of little batter twizzlers, not all of them encasing strips of beef, bathed in a sweet-sour sauce. It's quietly addictive if you're not looking for anything subtle but very unhealthy, I should imagine.

You'll find subtlety in Ga Xao Gung Han, sizzling chicken with ginger (£6), where the ginger is restrained but persistent, although it comes in big slices.

And the plain stir-fried noodles (£5), which turn out to be more vermicelli, flavoured with soy, are extremely good.

We've enjoyed the meal which has been too much to complete. Portions are particularly generous.

We find all that tea only costs £1 although the pot has been refilled at least three times during the meal.

We paid a very reasonable £32.80. Healthy for our tums and our wallets.