Slightly outside the boundaries  of the SoHo bar and restaurant area, the Vietnamese restaurant Song is reached via a small alleyway off Hollywood Road. Inside the restaurant the décor is clean and pleasant, making use of wood and muslin with paper lanterns providing just the right level of lighting.

The wine list was short, but appeared to be well chosen and reasonably priced. Apparently a new wine list will be available shortly. We ordered a bottle of Louis Latour Chablis and a bottle of Villa Maria Cabernet Merlot, both of which were very good.

The food menu was considerably longer, and decisions correspondingly more difficult. We started with three types of spring rolls: fresh spring rolls with vegetables, and with soft shell crab, and deep fried tuna spring rolls with soy and ginger dip. These were all delicious - the vegetables fresh and crunchy with a piquant hint of mint, the warm soft shell crab contrasting well with raw vegetables, and an unusual combination of flavours working well together in the tuna rolls with the dip.

We moved on to pomelo salad, and again the freshness of the ingredients raised this above the ordinary. We were a little disappointed, however, in the warm eggplant with sweet basil and chilli dressing, which was overspiced, with the flavour of chilli overpowering everything else.

For our main courses we chose Lemongrass Beef with Rice Vermicelli and Cucumber, Grilled Lime Chicken and Black Cod with Tomato and Ginger Coulis. The beef was spicy, tender and flavoursome, the chicken succulent and sweet and the cod delicate and perfectly cooked.

We chose a selection of three desserts: Sticky Rice With Mango, Sago Pudding and Chocolate Marscapone Cake. The sticky rice was fragrant and sweet, and the mango perfect and beautifully presented. The sago pudding was smooth and creamy, flavoured with coconut, and the chocolate cake was rich, very chocolatey and even the men, who "didn't want dessert", made swift inroads into this.

Throughout the meal the service provided by our waitress, Winnie, was friendly, helpful and unintrusive. All in all we felt that the food was excellent, fresh, good quality ingredients interestingly combined and prepared and presented with care. We were clearly not alone in our high opinion; every table was taken which is not bad on a Tuesday night in the present economic climate.