Cay Tre - The Vietnamese Kitchen

I absolutely love this place - as good as the food in Vietnam! Really recommend.
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Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Friday, May 01, 2009

I love Vietnamese, This is a fact. Beef pho being the dish I use as a control when

visiting the many varied Vietnamese places in East London.

Cay Tre is number one top of my list for this dish and a few of their others! The summer rolls are lovely and tasty, not overwhelming herbed ( the technical word) QUAIL CURRY.... bring it on and the shaking beeks rocks as well as shakes!

The place has a great vibe, always busy, testament to the quality of the fabulous fresh ingredients and great chef.

The wine list is well chosen thoughtful and affordable through to special occasion.

As if that wasnt enough, the staff are lovely and service quick enough but not too quick to be ready prepared.

quite simply, if you like good food, you cant go wrong.
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Katy Ingram
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, January 19, 2009

The food is excellent, service fantastic and the atmosphere is wonderful. I do recommend it for people who want to experience a tastey vietnamese food!
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Vian Rastin
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Sunday, November 30, 2008

The place immediately boded well, having a busting atmosphere and being almost full on a wednesday night, we (2 persons) only had to wait a couple of mins before being seated downstairs. The clientele was a mix of city suits grabbing a bite after a couple of beers, and twenty-something 'trust-funder shoreditch wanabes'.

On recommendation from the menu, I ordered the 'signature dish' of (£10 for two) Cha ca la Vong (monkfish I think). First a rather moody waitress (who clearly didn't want to be working), brought out shrimp sauce and noodles. The sauce was extremely pungent and malodorous, so much, that we had to hide it under the leftover noodles to hide the smell. The fish was fried on a portable cooker in front of us, and mixed in with mountains of fresh dill, then served up with noodles, peanuts and chilli. Overall, cooking the starter in front of us did add to the food theatre, and was a nice touch, but it was a distinctly average 'signature dish'.

For main we ordered Brisket beef (£7) and BBQ Pork (£6.50) with steamed rice (£2). The beef was fatty and in an underwhelming curry sauce, but was extremely tender. It was accompanied by three segments of badly cooked carrots which added nothing, and were for decorative purposes only. The pork itself was perfectly cooked and very tasty, but was let down by the plainess of the ubiquitous noodles accompanying the dish. It (the pork dish) improved immeasurably when smothered with garlic chilli sauce. A word of caution - I normally always order Beef Pho as a control dish, but didn't last night as felt like trying new stuff. The Pho we saw there looked ok, and came in both big and small portions (something not offered in most of 11 or so Kingsland Vietnameses 5 mins east in Shoreditch).

I thought £3 for jasmine tea (for two) is a little dear, and they added a little too many leaves for my personal preference, although my better half liked it that way. When I upended the lid, unlike the other Kingsland Vietnameses that perpetually re-fill the pot, it wasn't till I'd finished eating that a refill was offered.

One HUE beer was £2.90, added to the bill that gave a grand total of £31.40. They then added a gratuity rounding the meal to £35.33 which I though was a little pricey for what we had (plus I get irritated when I receive ok service, but I'm not given the choice of deciding to tip or not). Overall I wasn't too impressed with the place, I know this is linked with one of the Kingsland restaurants, but I'd personally recommend the extra 5 minute walk to get something a little better value and tastier.
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Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 5
Thursday, November 13, 2008

To paraphrase Frasier, long-time reader, first-time reviewer here.

Felt I had to counter the previous reviewer - went to Cay Tre for the first time last night having visited Viet Grill on Kingsland Rd on a number of occasions. Firstly, whether you like the decor or not, I can't really see how anyone could describe the room as "tired" - I would describe it as hot, noisy, busy and loud! I don't see that as a bad thing necessarily - it's maybe not the best place for a candlelit dinner for two, but there are literally hundreds of places in London for that. A bright busy atmosphere if you're dining with friends sounds perfect to me.

Also, sorry to harp on, but criticising a place for the length of the menu?! Er, surely some places have short menus and some have menus running to several pages? Vietnamese cuisine is extensive - if Cay Tre is trying to serve up a genuine Vietnamese experience, then a long menu is authentic (and generous).

And lastly before I get to the food, the language barrier issue...you know what? You're in London. If you are visiting an "ethnic" restaurant, chances are that some or all of the waitstaff might not have English as a first language. It didn't seem to hold us back last night, and we were a party comprising one Scot, two South Africans, and one Portuguese.

Right then, the food...I've been a fan of Viet Grill for a while but I have to say I thought Cay Tre was a cut above. I had the stuffed swimming crab, which was heavenly - my only criticism is that it needs to be served with a crab pick so that you can scrape out every inch of the meat - I ended up up-ending a spoon to do this, not very classy but worth it! My Portuguese friend had crispy dumplings with a sour dipping sauce, which were pretty good, and the two others had the king prawn vermicelli rolls, which looked amazing though sadly they had scoffed them before I got a chance to try! I am assured they were excellent.

For mains, two of us went for the one-meal dishes, which to my mind didn't quite look as interesting as some of the other stuff, so I must confess I can't comment on them as I didn't try. This was because I was completely engrossed in my quail curry. I will be having this again the next time I go back (and I will be going back) - really tender spatchcocked quail in a rich, thick curry which had wonderfully flavoured aubergine and I think galangal. The dish is served in a clay pot at the table which the waiter sets light to by means of some sort of flammable liquid under the pot itself! Looks as if you are eating a birdy Christmas pud with blue flames licking up the sides of the bubbling curry. Outstanding flavour and spectacle. Good Viet beer as well - Hue nicer than Tiger and quite similar in flavour to Tsing Tao.

Downsides? The rice was nothing special and the room itself was a bit cramped. The only other drawback to our meal last night was sitting next to the biggest load of Hoxton idiots imaginable (yes, I know it's in Shoreditch, I should know better) who made puking noises at everything even vaguely esoteric (I mean, how odd is it really to have frogs' legs on the menu? Grow up) and asked the waitress if they served crispy aromatic duck (!). God, I wish you could pick who sits next to you at restaurants. Next time I'll be taking my other half so we'll hopefully get a table to ourselves out of earshot of the idiots!
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marrowbone
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Friday, November 07, 2008

We had a rather indifferent welcome into a tired unpleasant room. The menu was overly long and when we asked for help in choosing, the language barrier between us and our waitress meant that we didn't really get any help. When the food came it was quite bland without any great flavour. This was my first Vietnamese meal and I hope that it's not representative of the cuisine in general.
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Mark Wilkins
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Sunday, October 19, 2008

In an area that is filled with good value vietnamese restaurants, with vietnamese eating in them, this is the best.

In part, the difference is that this place is more expensive (at the level of a cheap-to-average restaurant, rather than a cafe) , and so can have more expensive dishes, and fresher ingredients. The other main difference is that they are trying to provide a fine dining experience.

Do yourself a favour, and try the duck (unless you're vegetarian), and whoever you are, try the vegetarian dishes.
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Marcin
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Sunday, October 19, 2008

First, I need to introduce myself.

I am a vietnamese borned in France and I used to eat vietnamese food cooked by my mother. When I came in London, I would had never thought that I could eat food like home.

I was surprised to find the same savours in this simple restaurant which has simple decoration.

Now, I go to this restaurant once a week because it's really my favourite vietnamese canteen and I called my mother to tell that I don't need to go back home anymore for her foods... ;-)

My advice is to book if you want to go there in the evening. It's a famous place now and many people don't hesitate to wait outside 30 min to get a table.

only one bad point is: it's too noisy so it's difficult to speak with friends but for lunch, it's perfect.

Waiters and waitresses are really nice and helpful.

Then, it's your turn to try and to review...

Cheers
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P.L.V.
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Saturday, October 11, 2008

We have never had such good service. Due to a mix up of times, there was no seat available for us and people were queing in pouring rain. The owner took us in his own car to their other restaurant. Fantastic food and service!
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Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Oh dear - there really is no pleasing some people.

I "accidentally" went for dinner again here and it was even better. I had the frogs legs - which everyone says are like chicken. Here, they are actually better than chicken - totally delicious.

We ate a load of starters and my friend who is half Japanese and a right fussy so and so loved it. This is officially my favourite restaurant in London and #2 in the world (O'Manuels in Macau FYI)

More please! Go soon.
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Coops
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Friday, September 19, 2008