Our experience at this restaurant was one of the worst ever. Our starters (spring rolls and pork wrapped in betel leaves) were decent, even good, but the service was brusque from the very start. Our mains, (vermicelli noodles with stir fried pork and beef) were awful and completely indelible. I signalled our waiter and told him that I could not eat my meal. Glaring down at me he demanded "Why?" I responded the meat seemed old and had a strange taste. "We are busy!" he said. "Meat is fresh!" "Well, I cannot eat it." I said, pushing my untouched bowl in his direction. "You must pay!" he growled. So we paid for the full meal and left, swearing never to return.

Disappointing service. We were asked before we sat down to leave in 1 1/2 hour, to which we agreed. However, we waited at the table for 10 minutes before someone came, only after many wild hand waves, and the place was still pretty empty. The waiting staff were walking about without paying much attention to the customers. We had to carry on waving wildly for everything we needed. I asked for green tea and got jasmin tea. The food was quite good but I will not go back because of the poor service. They can only survive on good reviews for a while and after a few bad comments it's easy to lose the good reputation, and with all the competition around and the hard times, they should really up their game!

i was put off vietnamese food due to the last experience i had in chinatown. but my friend recommended this place. 'get the soft shell crab' he said.

it was fri night and proper packed to the max.

i ordered the soft shell crab and the rare beef and tripe in soup.

absolutely fantastic!!

ive been here many times and recommended to everyone. the price is affordable too.

its a pity ive moved home but i always visit if im passing through. hard to find parking thou

thumbs up

Fantastic food. The service is average, but the food is fantastic. As a Vietnamese person, I can confirm that the food is very authentic. Great price and great food, what more can you ask for.

All I can say, after the other negative reviews, is that the restaurant must have changed, as I was perfectly satisfied (no, really) with a delicious meal last night, with no negative impressions as to service.

I do intend to use this restaurant again, and incidentally, what is revealing is the number of obviously Vietnamese customers eating there: that says a lot about any restaurant.

Awful service at Song Que last night! We were basically thrown out before having finished our meals despite there being empty tables and no queue waiting.

The rudeness of the waiter was unbelievable, he refused to serve us tea or dessert and insisted that we leave as our time was up.

No one had mentioned there was a time-limit at any point.

When we asked to see the manager he said he was the manager. Never again to Song Que, there are plenty of other Vietnamese around with great food AND service.

Sorry to hear of the last reviewer's experience -- the waiters are a bit on the rough side, no doubt about it, but to me that adds authenticity to the place.

I feel fortunate not to have been in the situation that they found themselves in, however.

That having been said, I often go to Song Que on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon to enjoy a pho and a starter, and invariably have found the food superb.

At the risk of going against the general opinion, this will not be a review about the food, which is (and I still think so despite the awfull experience I had) delicious. This critique would be more about the awfull service and personnal attack I was victime of on peaceful Saturday afternoon. Living on Kingsland Road, Asian food addict, there is no need to say I was a regular and loyal customer of Song Que, until that Saturday of September, when I was unfairly assaulted by one of the moody waiter of the "critically acclaimed" restaurant. Considering the cheap prices and good quality of food, when one goes to that type of restaurant, one woud not expect to be greeted and treated like a queen, but lack of politeness has its limits and rudeness towards customers should not occur, anywhere. Firmly decided to enjoy my favourite tofu noodles dish, I was brought on the table instead, a plate of seafood noodles, which I do not like, and which I should not even justify myself of as this was not what I wanted to eat. I then asked, nicely as usual, to the waiter to bring the toffu dish I ordered. This is how I was unfairly accused of having ordered the wrong dish. Instead of apologising and let it go, he ran to the bar to grab the order sheet and put it right under my nose deliberately accusing me. His incongruous reaction left me totally baffled and upset. I did not say anything, and patiently waited to be served my toffu dish, which I was not craving for anymore, and decided to talk to the manager at the end. More than being untruthful, he has shown unwarranted aggressivity and huge lack of respect towards me. This is not really the order that matters at this stage, but more the insult that was made, and out of principles I thought fair to talk to the manager. When I got to the bar, I was told there was no manager. The waiter said to my face he would not apologise, but when the manager finally came up, he finally did, with a big fake smile. I will never go again to Song Que.