Coming to a West End near you, a slice of Little Hanoi. Let Pho fever be unleashed. Again. Yep, you feel it too don’t you. It is starting, Cay Tre is going to sweep the intertubes, and with good reason: they flog smashing Vietnamese food to the public.

Many of you are already quite familiar with the Vietnamese Kitchen’s group of restaurants, namely Cay Tre and Viet Grill, which counts Mark Hix, amongst its many fans. This time round however, Mr Hix happens to also be a very involved stakeholder with Hieu Trung Bui’s latest venture.

So it is little surprise that the new Cay Tre in Dean Street shares much of its menu with the Hoxton branch and Viet Grill, such as the theatrical Chả cá Lã Vọng and the incastratable Mekong Catfish.

Reminiscent of Viet Grill, but one in which its decor has been given a spit shine of the highest order. Pristine, white enamel table tops, black chairs with black leather cushions, wooden panel walls, painted white and pressed against cement walls (also painted white). Wah… so clean. The room is long and narrow, a little clastrophobic, and if you squint, you would be forgiven for mistaking this to be NOPI, but with less brass. Much less brass.

My eating schedule is all screwed up these days, so lunch for us was at the sleepy hour of three on a Saturday afternoon. Understandably, you lot were all frolicking in Hampstead Heath or licking ice cream cones at Gelupo, so the restaurant was completely empty. All this space to me and the missus then.

We chose from a limited afternoon menu, that listed large bowls of pho, plates of rice and small bowls nibbly things. Prices range from £8 to £9 for the large ones, and £4 to £7 for the small bowls. Now the afternoon deal was £14 for a large and a small, so we very carefully chose the priciest pairs in order to maximum the discount.

Grilled calamari with lemongrass, coriander and chilli oil, £7.

Nice. These small bowls were so large, they put the entire shrinking small plates revolution to shame. You seeing this Nopi? This is how big, small plates should look like.

Large parcels of cut squid, simply charred, but served with a stonkingly great dipping sauce. Was it the lemongrass that I was tasting, the chilli oil, or was there more to the secret ? It tasted like a fire breathing bitter burnt chocolate gravy with chilli and oil doused over it. What a great dipping sauce. Ka pow.

Cha la lot. Spicy ground pork wrapped in betel leaves, served with roasted peanuts and nuoc cham, £7.

The nuoc cham was a sweet chilli drizzle, which was less exciting than the calamari’s dipper, but this one was great for the vermicelli. I’m sure I’ve had something quite similar on my many visits to Viet Grill.

Ox Cheek au Vin Pho, £9.

Stop the press, or the blogging and run out to Cay Tre, now. This was the best bowl of food I had had all week long. I don’t think the combination of ox cheek and pho has been done yet, at least this was a first for me, and I have got to say: This is a winner. A real winner. You and I both know how good ox cheeks can get when they are slow cooked to off-the-bone, tenderness, with the melt-the-glacier tendons falling off the meat and such. The cheeks were absolutely divine, cubes of silky, slithery and buttery clumps of protein. So tender, they deformed like marshmallows do under the stress of a metal fork. Extremely generous chunks of cheeks were allotted to this bowl of pho, I counted five, maybe six, or perhaps seven. Everytime the soup spoon went in, the better half scooped up yet another piece of meat.

Lemongrass and marrow rich and it wasn’t spicy at all (which suited me fine.) the soup stock was great, but I couldn’t really tell if it were greater than the Cafe East version. Truth be told, I can’t actually tell the difference between Kingsland road’s finest versus Cafe East, but what I can conclude is that they are all good enough for an enjoyable experience. But if you pressed a gun to my head, I would probably say the Cafe East version was better.

I thought this ox cheek pho was a real knock out punch. A superb combo, the depth of richness in the ox cheeks really does do the pho alot of justice. I could really do with another bowl of this as I write this. Go try this, and then come back here to tell me if I’m right or if I’m dead wrong.

Com Saigon. Grilled pork and shredded pork fillet, served with a fried duck egg and jasmine rice. £9

I’m a rice fella, Chinese roots and all, I need my steamed rice. The better half is from down under, so she’s a better judge of the soupy stuff, but I pride myself as a man who lives by the grain, a man who swears by his one plate meat + rice, and by those estimations, this was not the best pork fillet rice I’d yet had. It was alright, but just nothing to shout about.

The best Viet style pork chops on rice I’ve tried in London were at Song Que, and the best pork chops on rice I’ve ever tried were at a restaurant called ‘Black Shop Pork Chop Rice‘ in Danshui, about a 20 minute train ride from Taipei to the coastal town. Not a fair comparison, since the latter are pork chop rice experts. If you ever visit, GO THERE.

Puddings are at least another 2 weeks before they make it on to the menu, and I hazard a guess that it will include the tapioca, durian and coconut. Plus two glasses of Vietnamese coffee, the bill was a respectable £37.12.

All in all, I think Cay Tre is a wonderful addition to Soho. We’ve all made the eastward pilgrimage to sample the internet’s favourite Vietnamese cafes, and much of what I love about Viet Grill, has (seemingly) been successfully transposed to the new site in Dean Street.

Now if only Cafe East would do a ‘Cafe West’ and open right next door to Cay Tre. They are the momentary master of pho… and the three colour drink, and would it be so bad for the two restaurants to duel for our affections. Wishful thinking? Stranger things have happened.

The Gist of It

Cay Tre Soho
Vietnamese, £20pp
44 Dean Street, W1D 4QD
Tel: (020) 7317 9118
Tube : Piccadilly Circus

Pho now: Skinny Bib , Greedy Diva , Time Out London , Fay Maschler

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One can do no wrong dining in Phởmile, even though I think it is established that arguably the best London Phở is found outside of it. Arguably. After a fantastic experience at Cafe East, the better half was craving yet more soupy noodles, and so we decided to head toward Shoreditch. Mien Tay is one of the better published brethren amongst Vietnamese restaurants, though many (if not all) are reputed anyway. Success has since led to the opening of a second Mien Tay in Battersea (which AA Gill loved) , and most recently, they launched a strong PR campaign which saw the Vietnamese restaurant collabing with Bibendum to tailor a wine list to match the spicy menu. No doubt you would have heard about this in one form or the other.

Meanwhile at the Dalston Kingsland branch, we arrived at a modest little eatery. The room is rectagular shaped, long and narrow, lit by nefarious bulbs with wattage that bordered the limboland of being bright enough to see, but underpowered that it felt suspiciously dim. Decor is whimsical, clad in polished rattan, especially the tables – Rattan foundation holding up a glass surface that gave the illusion of eating atop violet coloured flowers (artificial I gather). It all looks so flimsy that this may as well be a film set. Then again, what is one to expect from such a modest restaurant right?

Fresh Coconut and Three Coloured drink.

Ahh… refreshing, a young coconut which tastes surprisingly ‘old’, which is to say that the juice wasn’t sweet. There was alot of water content in anycase, and of course, we couldn’t resist the multicoloured, multi textured sweet drink. Maybe it is just psychological, but of all the places I’ve been to, I like Cafe East’s version the best – the green tapioca jelly was chewy and addictive.

Crispy Chicken with Fish Sauce.

The sauce was syrupy, sticky and mildly fishy. The chicken was indeed extremely crispy, similar to crispy sliced beef and alot like deep-fried chicken skin. Note the flowers, underneath the glass table top.

Pho with Sliced Beef

Expectedly cheap at £5.50…. but we didn’t like it. It was underwhelming. The broth tasted of fat and it was so mild that it may as well be just hot water. Too bland, at least for me. Most disappointing however, were the noodles. The ho fun carried a tinge of bounce, but at the same time, it was soggy like a rainsoaked, muddy football pitch, and like soggy chips, it lacked vibrancy. To be fair though, it was perfectly edible, but it just paled in comparison to contemporaries, in my opinion. Out of all the pho we had tried up till now, this was the least exciting. All relative.

Stir-Fried Goat with Galangal

A strong flavour, a distinct sweetness too, like plums, but I felt there was too much spring onion and shallots in this sizzler. The goat meat was about as chewable as latex. I didn’t enjoy it at all.

I do feel bad having to write about this rather forgettable meal, since staff were such sweet little angels, and I can’t remember how much we paid because I forgot to take the receipt with me (but I did pay), pretty sure it was no more than £30 (for two). So at least the damage was limited. In the end, I’m slightly miffed as to why Mien Tay has received its praises as it has done, as regretfully, Mien Tay didn’t do it for me. Food was average. I guess you could possibly do worse in Phởmile, but truthfully I wouldn’t know.

But I do think you can do a lot better. Look for the bright green signage…

The Gist.

Mien Tay
Vietnamese, £12pp
122 Kingsland Road, E2 8DP
Tel: 0207 729 3074
Overground: Hoxton

Steamy: Metro ; Hungry in London ; Krista ; The next R.W..

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It was the first time we rode the ‘new’ overground trains all the way from North to the nether regions of South East London. It’s a whole other world out here, bridges, apartment blocks, round-abouts and eerie silence. Arguably the best pho in town is said to be found Cafe East, housed in a brick laden warehouse situated in a ‘Leisure Park’ , which I imagine, are where starting investment banking analysts hang out, on Sundays.

OK… so, there are two things to remember when you eventually make your visit, one: Cafe East is cash only and two: if you see a blue side door that is locked, you need to walk all the way around it till you see the al fresco garden.

Inside, the plainly decor feels like a permanent marquee, with an abundance of innocent, white light bouncing off those white paint walls. For some reason, this place reminds me very much of Asia, and in particular one of my dad’s friend’s restaurants. He had decided to convert his garage (a large one) in his double storey house into a restaurant, and if memory serves, he went to Hong Kong to employ a hotshot chef to do the food. Pretty good ho fun.

Che ba mau, £3.

Or the special three-coloured drink, with red kidney bean, green jelly and coconut cream over crushed ice. I’m sure you are well acquainted with this liquid genius by now, most Viet restaurants offer this, the Cafe East version is brilliant. It must be some super suped up syrup used, as it was an unadulterated sugar rush to the brain. The tapioca green jelly is a revelation here, squidgy like an elastic rubberband. Boing..! We ordered this twice.

Cha Gio, £4.30

Straight up fried spring rolls served with their very own secret fish sauce on the side. Yeah great.

Banh Cuon, £4.80

This is the must-order dish. Vietnamese steamed rice pastry filled with savoury Chinese mushroom and minced pork. Topped with meat loaf, poached bean sprouts and shallots and also served with their secret fish sauce.

The rice pastry is really well made, vibrantly rubbery and squidgy, analogous to great cheung-fun. The mince pork is bland by itself, but dip it into their secret sauce, and it brings about all kinds of colourful flavours. Ideal and appetising start.

Pho Tai Chin, £6.50

Right then, this is the main reason you come to Cafe East – for the pho. The better half ordered ‘well-done beef and rare beef’ with flat rice noodles. The strength – like the banh cuon – are those squidgy and spongy noodles, which I am supposing, are all made in-house. They taste fresh and lively, making for a joyful slurping session. Beef were cut razor thin and were tremendously tender, and on our return, we’ll do (and I recommend you order) the Pho Tai – noodle soup with only rare beef – for a fuller experience, ie, watching rare beef slowly cook itself in the broth. Speaking of which, the soup was a case of zest and mild chilli (we asked for mild I think) with well-balanced, if subtle flavour.

Personally, I think the Viet Grill soup base might be a touch better, but overall, I think the missus enjoyed the Cafe East pho the most. She loves soupy things by the way, and was really impressed with this. It was certifiably delish, and rightly so, deserves the attention it has enjoyed thus far.

Com Suon Bi Cha, £7.50.

In English – Vietnamese Lemongrass pork chop, meat pie and shredded pork skin served with boiled rice and Café East fish sauce on the side.

And I prefer dollops of meat on rice.

Much less successful, I’m afraid. Biting into the pork chop was not disimilar to biting into lumps of of charcoal, the meat pie was pretty good, like a meat loaf, but on the whole, just disappointing. It is as if the owner has deliberately turned out average rice dishes to emphasise the superiority of their pho.

We paid around £30, assuredly, bottomline isn’t an issue with Vietnamese restaurants in London. Anything with rice noodles/pastry at Cafe East is brilliant, in my opinion, because their rice flour recipe produces benchmark ho fun and I feel that contributes to the excellent pho. The rice dishes pale in comparison. We really like it here, if not for it being so far, we would make more frequent return visits. However, as it is, I think Cafe East is worth the journey, plus you get to ride the rather plush overground trains to get there. Phoking brilliant.

The Gist.

Cafe East
Vietnamese, £15pp
100 Redriff Road
Surrey Quays Leisure Park SE16 7LH
Telephone: 020 7252 1212
Underground : Surrey Quay

More pho: Catty didn’t eat Pho, Tehbus ate vermicelli ; The boy who ate the world, ate pho ; Wild Boar ate the pho, too. ; TimeOut ate it all.

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The idea behind Viet Grill and Cay Tre – sister restaurants both owned by Hieu Trung Bui – is simply to bring delicious (and authentic) Vietnamese cuisine to London. They’re not the only ones in the Shoreditch area hoping to do so, of course, with much of ‘Phở Mile’¹, the term coined by Bellaphon, vying for the same. Affectionately or otherwise, many have come to recognise the brillance of this wonderful strip of Vietnamese restaurants along Kingsland road. Personally I have limited knowledge of Vietnamese cuisine, being Chinese, I grapple on to equivalents when ‘translating’ the cuisine whenever I visit a Vietnamese restaurant, for better or worse. They eat rice, we eat rice. They share dishes, we share dishes. They have noodle soup, we have noodle soup. Chopsticks apply. I have colleagues who hail from Vietnam and their first choice is Song Que, the crowd favourite really,I loved it too on my visit. Unfathomable affordability and food was delish.

With Vietnamese cuisine being so accessible, it was only natural for people to be fascinated with it. Twitter is always alive with praise (and debate) of Vietnamese restaurants in London, not limited to Kingsland road of course, as the bloggerati claim phởveyors further afield such as Cafe East² in Surrey Quays.

Generally speaking, Londoners and especially bloggers like Viet Grill. Its popularity is also partly attributed to Mark Hix’s very public affirmations toward this restaurant. If a superstar chef regularly raves about it in his national food column, it can’t be half bad. Styled with a ‘French Colonial look’ of patterns of trees across the beige walls. It feels like a vacation inside, even more so with the sun beaming down on us right now.

Let’s cut to the chase then, Cha Ca La Vong, for two £10.

‘Cha ca’ means grilled fish, and this dish has its roots in Hanoi. The original place said to have popularised ‘Cha Ca La Vong’ is also the name of a restaurant in Hanoi³. I’m not sure how they serve it originally in Cha Ca La Vong in Hanoi (or Saigon for that matter), but at Viet Grill, I was pleasantly surprised when the waitress fired up a moveable gas cooker on our table.

“Slices of Monkfish marinated in galingale and saffron, grilled at your table and served with rice vermicelli, pimento, ground nuts, fennel and shrimp sauce.” …. yeah exciting fine print. Watching the gold coloured monk fish fillets sizzle away in front of us was hugely gratifying. As it heated up, a bevy of herby and grassy aromas accompanied, it was a great way to start a meal, with our senses fully engaged.

Such a visually arresting dish could taste as good as it looked. The range of ingredients was like a field of blooming roses (well…) on the palate. There was zestiness, not unlike mango, there were grass-like flavours, dare I say which reminded me of dill, nutty, saffron and pimento for a perfumed kick. I read elsewhere that a fresh water fish known as hemibagrus⁴ is the primary choice for this dish. For purists, a fish only available in Vietnam called Anh Vu⁵. Can’t say I’ve ever been to Vietnam, for what it’s worth however, I thought monkfish was a good substitute, necessarily flaky and all.

Saigon Sate Phở, £8.

We ordered the mandatory bowl of phở, this one in particular made “with tender beef poached in a full bodied chilli broth, smothered in Viet basil and smashed nuts”.

It was bloody full bodied alright, a big whack of chilli, like pouring a volcano down the throat. Also present were rich flavours of tomatoes. The soup was cloudy, so I assumed it was coconut cream that I was tasting, along with slices of mango. The better half thought it was great, especially the soup. About the the only thing I found wanting were the noodles, I thought they were a little too mushy.

Beef Vinh, £7.

This one was from the ‘Dishes we like most’ part of the menu, with a smiley face next to it. Rolled beef fillets, seared over charcoal and stuffed with what appears to be it’s own fat. I really liked this. It came with a nectarous ginger paste on the side, not unlike a ginger beer, perfect as a dipping. The beef itself was smoky, juicy and plump, I suppose with it being marinated with a number of spices unknown to me, the seasoning helped to add depth to savoury and beefy flavours.

Vietnamese durian and Tapioca Cake, £5.

Pudding was lovely, I didn’t detect the fragrance (or stink) of durian in the tapioca cake, rather it carried a sugarcane starchiness, a gluey textured. It was served super hot which provided a lively contrast to the icy coconut ice cream which began to melt from the moment it was served. Simple, enjoyable.

Condensed milk is such a revelation isn’t it? We finished with two Vietnamese coffees, one hot, the other with ice, both with condensed milk. Along with a bowl of steamed rice and a glass of soya milk (freshly made), the bill was £47 for two. Hmm, a little more expensive than I expected, considering we only had four dishes. All in all however, we enjoyed Viet Grill, the cooking seemed able enough and food was delicious. Of course, the beauty of such a restaurant is hidden in the sheer depth of the menu. Campfire beef, sitting duck curry, slow-cooked Mekong catfish… the next time I go to Viet Grill, I’m bringing my extended family and ordering one of everything. All to share.

The Gist of It

Viet Grill
Vietnamese, £25pp
58 Kingsland Road E2 8DP
Tel: 020 7739 6686
Tube: Hoxton

Distilled from the digital ether Chris at Cheese and Biscuits ; Fay says ; Cara at Gourmet Chick ; Luiz at The London Foodie ; Mathilde at Mathilde’s Cuisine ; Tom at TomEatsJenCooks and Mark Hix’s passion...

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Song Que £15 pp , plus imported lager.
134 Kingsland Road E2 8DY 020 7613 3222

There is a whole street of Vietnamese restaurants in Shoreditch, otherwise affectionately as ‘The Pho Mile’. My knowledge of the London Vietnamese food scene is murky at best, but I was pushed by my Vietnamese colleague – who frequents for the spicy squid – to give this a try.

And so I did.

Imported from Vietnam

This place has proper buzz, it was completely packed out on a Sunday night. There was a huge queue as well although I noted a quick turnover with the noticeably zippy service and flash speed food flying out of the kitchen. There were also huge print out posters of the Timeout review, proudly plastered across the large windows, probably in an effort to emphasize their Pho-cred.

Positioned next to Song Que was a rather posh looking wood laden Viet restaurant (I forget the name). My mate told me to keep walking till I saw some really garish forest greens. Oh yeah, atmosphere, I’ve never been to Vietnam but I’d like to feel like I was submersing myself in Vietnam, in London and drinking Halida, imported from Vietnam.

Paper Rolls

The laminated menu is huge and the long list of dishes got me a little cross eyed. Not a bad thing, I’m sure. Everything looked very affordable, ranging from £4 to £8 (I think) and there were a few seafood dishes that were just above the double digit mark. The waiters wrote our order down on the paper table covering (cloth? I don’t know.), maybe it’s just me, but I kinda find the whole write on the table thing quite a cool feature, they do it in Alan Yau’s fast food oriental chains, and I’m always intrigued with the flick of the pen. Flick.

The first dish to land on our table were the rice paper rolls, with a kind of thickish (thickish??) sweet chili nut sauce on the side. The coriander and chive wrap was rolled with some juicy prawns and dipping the sticky and bouncy dough into the sweet sauce produced a refreshingly appetising crunch to get the juices flowing. Not bad, not bad at all.

Mum knows Squid

This reminds me of the time when my Mum’s cooking reached a zenith. She reads this blog occasionally and she doesn’t always appreciate the name dropping. I persist in any case. My dear ol mum and me (no. I won’t use I) love deep-fried squid, and she was spurred on to find the perfect recipe after I’d told her I wanted to eat squid forever… when I was twelve (and I still want to). And so the story goes, about how a young madre tried out lots of different recipes then one day she discovered the perfect mix of salt, egg white (the secret is in the egg white) and baking powder which produced crispy, umami rich and powdery egg crumbs enveloping bouncy squids. And then her kids went off to Uni and she stopped making them.

Spicy deep fried squid. Simply seasoned with cut chilli (no noticeable seeds), pepper and a tinge of saltiness. It was a little tough but it went down with much moistness. There is just a little bit of heat in my throat and the fried spring onion bits were the best parts of the dish. Personally, and my mum would agree, it would be better fried crispier and more crumbly as opposed to the tough and crunchy. While this was good, but hey, no one does fried squid like my mum.

A star in the midst

Mince beef in Betel leaf wrap. I am convinced that this is one of the to-eat dishes on the menu. This dish resides in the starters section, and for about £5, the portions are pretty generous. Each wrapper hides chargrilled mince beef, bit like a doner kebab. There is alot of juice from the mince beef, accompanied by distinctive charcoal flavours and the fragrant aromas of shiso leaves. The cold noodles were great for dunking in the sweet sauce and the peanutty sauce went amazingly well with the beef rolls. All in all, a lively dish and a wonderful experience. Best of the lot.

Bring on the chops!

Suitably impressed. By this stage of the meal, I was really enjoying Song Que and all the tangy, zingy flavours swirling around made me hungrier than ever, ohh bring on the mains, indeed.

Grilled Pork Chop on Rice. I can’t remember the price exactly, but I think it was about £8 for this. Yeah, honestly though it looked abit of a sad dish – at least they could have layered the chops more evenly, absolutely zero marks for presentation. At first, I was a little skeptical as the meat looked to be sliced a tad too thin for my liking. It did look more like a veal escalope than a pork chop. On tasting I changed my mind, it was really soft and bouncy, lots of nicely grilled sensations. A little on the dry side but the flavour was spot on. I detected hits of sweet soya sauce to go with really fragrant jasmine rice. Im still uncomfortable with it being a tad dry, but overall the tastiness of the meat won me over. I like it, I want to love it, but something is holding it back.

The Pho.

And so we finally come to the hearty comforts that is the Pho. While I’m a big noodle boy, I rather prefer them dry, as opposed to a broth, but the Taiwanese part of me still appreciates a good bowl of noodle soup, every now and again.

I believe this is the Chicken and Pork Pho. Its a citrusy, hot and sour soup; a brothy delight with just a slight slick of oil on the top layer. There are good springs in the noodles and I felt like I was in South East Asia once again. A sizzly sensation on my palette led me to take a guess at the stock that was used to make the soup, erm… beef perhaps? It was lively as it hit my tongue and overall, I enjoyed this more than the pork chops.

‘Nam 2009.

I urge you to order this sweet liquid pudding with bits aptly named the ‘Three Colour Drink’. Consisting of mung beans, pandan jelly (my best guess) and finished with loving cream de la coconut. I had two, you can have two more.

All in all, the bill was no more than £30 for this spread of food, for two and I was impressed and walked away wanting to come back to try some other dishes I spotted on the menu – in particular, the grilled monk fish. I must say, I’m not the biggest Vietnamese eater (perhaps it shows) , my best experiences were years ago in the open air stalls behind Singapore’s Centrepoint, in tourist heaven, Orchard Road. Holiday Inn Park View is still my hotel of choice when I’m in S’pore; While I can’t be the best judge of how well Song Que compares with the rest of Little Vietnam in Shoreditch, I can confidently say that I had a good experience and was a little blown away by the mince beef rolls. For sheer atmosphere alone, and if you like buzzy and chatty restaurants, you’ll jive with the noise at Song Que; As for me, I’m looking into my calendar to squeeze in another visit in the near future.

The Gist of It.

Song Que £15 pp , plus imported lager.
134 Kingsland Road E2 8DY 020 7613 3222

Verdict: Great food, affordable prices and they have stuff like ‘three colour drink’ on their menu. While I can’t compare it to the other Vietnamese restaurants in the neighbourhood – it was still a heatwave of an experience.

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