Cay Tre with the real hustle and bustle of a Vietnamese cafe

A few days back my friend Patty came by to London just for a day, a quick stop to continue her trip but long enough to go for diner. The unusual suspect this time was Cay Tre, a Vietnamese restaurant, serving traditional street food "Pho" which is a Vietnamese noodle soup, and keeping the rest of the menu with traditional recipes and flavours.

The Place in Soho

Menu Style

Two locations Soho and Shoreditch, and another two siblings for the group Viet Grill and Keu. We ended in the Soho restaurant, eating this amazing food in a white clear atmosphere.

The place 

Almost empty dining before closing

For starters we got red sea prawn and steamed pork summer roll, and the charcoaled pork ribs coated in honey and lemongrass. Both starters were excellent, but the ribs were spectacular, I could eat those babies all day. Then for main I went for the Com Saigon after I remembered a post from Kang. Patty’s sister Cristina pointed out that the dish looked like a “Bandeja Paisa” which is completely correct is amazingly similar to the Colombian dish quite popular in Antioquia. Finally as a side we got the Tonkin Jasmine flowers which are stir fried with dried chilli and the Vietnamise Kim Chi with ginger pickle. The food was very good, my Bandeja Vietnamise (Com Saigon) was great, the jasmine rice was good the duck egg was perfectly cooked, and the grilled pork chop was excellent. The sides were quite good especially the Jasmine flowers, the Kim Chi was a little bit too gingery for me.

Summer Roll 

Summer Roll 

Pork Ribs 

Jasmine Flowers 

Kim Chi

Com Saigon or should I say Bandeja Vietnamese 

An excellent diner with good company.

The company ready for the Vietnamese delight

Vietnam reminds me the Seinfeld episode “The Burning”.

Mickey: Oh, my liver! Why did I drink all those years? Why did I look for love in a bottle?

Dr. Wexler: Mr. Kramer? You're up.

Mickey: Wait a minute. You are doing gonorrhoea, aren't you?

Kramer: Well, we'll see.

Student: So, what seems to be bothering you today, Mr. Kramer?

Kramer: Well, I guess it started about twenty years ago when I got back from Viet Nam, and this was the only friend I had left.

Mickey: Hey! That's my cirrhosis! He's stealing my cirrhosis! You want to be sick? I'll make you sick.

Student: Cirrhosis of the liver and PCP addiction?