Vinh Phat, SE16 3RW
- 234 Southwark Park Road
Vinh Phat was a small Vietnamese supermarket on Southwark Park Road in Bermondsey. According to Google Street View, it closed down by May 2016.
The information below is retained for historical purposes.
They have a small selection of fresh vegetables at the front as you go in, including the less usual things such as various Chinese and Vietnamese greens, long beans, holy basil, and Vietnamese coriander; the quality is not always as good as it could be though.
Next to this is a fridge containing things like fresh tofu, fried tofu cubes, century eggs (preserved duck eggs), salted duck eggs, Vietnamese pork products, and pork floss. Further back are shelves of instant noodles, tins of mock duck, shrimp paste, tamarind paste, that sort of thing. There's a small selection of crockery — some of it ceramic and quite nice (on shelves towards the left near the front) and some of it durable and plastic (on the right at the back).
A relatively large bank of freestanding freezers holds frozen seafood, meat, offal, pork bones for making stock, dumpling/wonton wrappers, and frozen dim sum and other dumpling-type foods. The brands and selections of dumplings/dim sum vary, but those we've seen include Young Woo brand Misori mandu (vegan dumplings) and Kam Kee brand siu mai (Kake quite likes these, and they're manufactured just down the road in Woolwich). However, we've noted on several occasions that the frozen dim sum appear to be suffering from freezer burn, with copious quantities of "snow" inside the packets.
Right at the back is a meat counter with interesting cuts of meat (on bob's August 2008 visit these included pig trotters at 50p each).
At the cash desk in the front, they sometimes have fresh snack foods like banh cuon (steamed Vietnamese pancakes stuffed with pork and things). On a March 2011 visit, they had fresh cheung fun and ho fun here, along with a tray of balut.