janestarz | Food review: Little V

"Good food is a feast for the soul;" I said to NoKey. We were seated around a large square table on backless benches. The waitress would sit on them on her knees too serve the multitude of dishes and drinks. Arranged around the table were what I call 'the Nijm side of the family': my father and Detty, Jos and Eef, Raphael and Marguerita, and Nokey and myself.

Because of my father's illness, we had wanted to book a trip to Barcelona. When that didn't work out, we opted for München. But then there was talk about a possible surgery and the trip fell through altogether. And then the surgery itself fell through and we went to dinner instead.

Little V was one of three recommendations from my brother and nearly in his front yard if he didn't live in an apartment building.The restaurant serves Vietnamese food, something we had never tried before. Groups from six persons upward can order a surprise menu of choice dishes from the menu, and although I was a bit sceptical whether the surprise menu would cater to our varied tastes, I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the selection we were served.

We started with some dim sum like wraps in rice dough, followed by an interesting soup with fresh beansprouts and beef balls and slices. Our main course consisted of grilled chicken, beef in sauce with mushrooms, grilled vegetables, a shellfish-curry dish, fragrant white rice, rice noodles and a brilliant caramelised sea bass, which was exquisite.
It was really a fun experiment, and the dinner was very fragrant. It didn't have the sharp tastes of Chinese food, our the deep chestnut experience of Japanese food. It was definitely worth our while. The portions were large enough, but I think that Jos and my father would have liked a little more. NoKey was stuffed.

Little V, Rotterdam (Iens.nl review)
Grotekerkplein 109 (near the Laurenskerk)
Food: 8
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 8

The waitresses did screw up a couple of times, though, and they tried talking their way out of their mistakes, which didn't sit too well with me. Still, I'd like to revisit this restaurant some time. They serve jasmine tea by the pot, have cutlery and chopsticks both, next to darling crockery.