BY KELLY BESWICK
Set a little apart from the many other Vietnamese restaurants that grace the area, this hugely popular eatery, Cay Tre is also distinct from its ‘no frills’ counterparts, offering an incredible array of inventive and distinct dishes in a lovely setting that evokes Vietnam’s French colonial past…
On an ordinary Wednesday afternoon, the Bel Epoque-style dining room of Cay Tre is positively heaving with diners of all ages and ethnicities, elbows deep in steaming bowls of pho, huge mounds of noodles and all manner of other, more unusual looking dishes that we were quickly itching to try.
First, however, drinks were in order as liquid refreshment was very much required on such a blistering summer’s day. Our waiter tried to steer us towards the cocktail list, which has recently been revamped to bring a more Asian-inspired twist to the offering and better pair with the menu. With names such as Mandarin Orchards, Hanoi Highball and One Night in Saigon, we were sorely tempted, but with this being a weekday luncheon, we thought it best to stick to white wine and fizzy water. Besides, now we have the perfect excuse to come back!
As we waited for our drinks to arrive, rather than peruse the menu, we began craning our necks to see exactly what our fellow diners had ordered. We spotted a couple of really interesting dishes, which we then asked the waitress to identify. Suffice to say, our eventual order was heavily influenced by our observations.
To start, we played it fairly safe with prawn summer rolls and salt and pepper squid. Both were perfectly executed, with the fronds of aromatic herbs and nutty dipping sauce especially noteworthy with the rolls, while the squid was perfectly seasoned and melt-in-the-mouth soft.
Next up was our visually inspired order of Saigon Xeo, a wonderfully crispy coconut pancake, stuffed with prawns, crabmeat and chicken, plenty of those aromatic herbs and bean sprouts a go-go. It came with a fiery dipping sauce and so a dipping we immediately got. Hot on its heels was crispy fried sea bream, served with mango salad and mixed herbs. This was a whole fish that had curled up on itself under the intense heat of the deep fat fryer and was a timely reminder that Asia really does do the very best fish cookery. As accompaniment we’d opted for stir fried noodles and stir fried morning glory, and finer bedfellows you’d be hard pushed to find.
All in all, Cay Tre is a restaurant at the top of its game, and we will most definitely be returning to try the cocktails!
Cay Tre
301 Old St,London, EC1V 9LA
caytrerestaurant.co.uk
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