Loong Kee Cafe

Met some friends for some late dinner and sat down at 9:30 this evening.

Waiter took our orders immediately and provided us with the tea which we ordered.

During the hour we were there, several tables which were sat after us were served, whilst the waiters continued to tell us our food was on the way.

After the hour had passed, we had no choice but to move on elsewhere.

Terrible service. I shall not be visiting this restaurant ever again.
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Steph
1 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Friday, January 13, 2012

First of all - to the reviewer below who doesn't have anything nice to say, are you the owner of the cafe you talk about in Canada Water?

My review: I work in the city and have popped into Loong Kee several times for lunch with colleagues. Lunch isn't their busy period, so the food was served quickly and the service was friendly.

I always go for the Banh Cuon (steamed rolls), best in London IMO. The portions are also huge, my colleagues loved the grilled meat & spring roll vermicelli, and the tangy chicken and prawn salad was appreciated all round.between the 4 of us we ordered 5 dishes and tea for everyone, the bill came to £36 :)

this place has been around for years, I'd recommend anyone there, trust me, I'm Vietnamese ;)
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London Viet Chick
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 10
Monday, December 12, 2011

Last weekend saw our little supper club 9 strong and heading over to Hackney for a Saturday night feast at Loong Kee. After a couple of beers at The Dove, which was a very pleasant pub and comes highly recommended, we wandered a couple of minutes down the road to the brightly lit restaurant. Fortunately we had taken the precaution of booking because at 8.30pm Loong Kee was absolutely heaving.

It was all hustle and bustle, and fairly chaotic, but we were soon found a table in the basement area (like a lot of basement rooms this one had a bit of a musty whiff about it which the owners had tried to ward off with incense - not so bad that it would put you off your dinner but worth noting if you have a sensitive nose). Menus and jugs of tap water soon arrived as did glasses for the beer and wine we had brought with us; no corkage charge here if bring your own.

Service was friendly if a bit hit and miss all night, but we kind of expected that on a very busy Saturday night. You might need to work on catching the eye of passing staff if you want to order or they have forgotten any dishes.

Various different starters were ordered and most were met with nods and smiles of approval. I particularly liked the soft shelled crab with salt and chilli which went down a treat. I ordered 12 of the pork and shrimp steamed rolls, a classic Vietnamese dish of stuffed steamed rice batter, which I shared with the group. Now these were certainly not to everyone's taste, but when teamed up with the accompanying dipping sauce I thought they were very tasty and I would recommend that you give them a try.

By now the wine was flowing and conversations were getting louder and more heated throughout the restaurant; all good fun if you are with a group but I would probably give Loong Kee a bit of a wide berth if you are looking for a romantic Saturday night supper.

Without too much of a wait our mains began arriving in a fairly random and haphazard fashion. No worries though as we were all in a very good mood by this point in the evening and we tucked into anything and everything that arrived. My main of the Hanoi Grilled Fish was a real winner; crispy, full of flavour and pretty authentic - I liked this dish a lot. B had the duck which was tasty, had been well cooked and was just the right shade of pink. Various different noodle and rice combinations were tried and all seemed to go down very well.

When the time came to pay the bill we were all more than happy to stump up our share. The starters and mains are all very reasonably priced and if you bring your own wine you will have the pleasure of a very cheap, very tasty supper. It's not somewhere I would recommend for a special occasion but it's a great place to eat with a bunch of pals at the weekend or for a quieter experience, come and fill your boots with quality Vietnamese cuisine on a mid-week evening.
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Nunhead Neil
7 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Great food and excellent value
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8 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 10
Saturday, October 15, 2011

Do yourself a favor save your money don't come here the people saying the food here is good are just plain idiots the service here is bad the food here is too salty and the meat quality was terrible best Vietnam restaurant I been to is in Canada water

Don't waste your money come here and you will regret it
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Vietman
1 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 1
Friday, September 23, 2011

I am vietnamese, I have been going to this restuarant for 18 years and even though it has expanded, it is still great value. It does taste authentic, rice with duck is good, the rice noodles dishes are big and i know that it is a favourite with a lot of people - grilled pork with vermicelli - big, refreshing and not like chinese nor thai food, this dish is filling and light.

I always go for the roast duck and rice, last time the duck was overdone but the time before that it was absolutely Amazing.. but it was only like £6/7 for the dish. Big value, cool area, service isn't bad, nor is the ambience. I hate the banker-fancy type restuarants, few of them actually deliver.
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Anom
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Used to go to this place quite a bit and loved it. However, without realising it had changed hands, I recently took my brothers there but was massively disappointed. They still do crispy squid but it's a shadow of its former glory. The menu reads like a generic oriental restaurant rather than genuine Vietnamese. Very sad indeed - the legend lives no longer.
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5 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 6
Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Used to come here before they tarted it up as well and bring lots of parties and connoisseurs of Vietnamese food and they all left satisfied. The notorious service was even fantastic as we always got the same friendly carefree waiter. Prices were dirt cheap for healthy and authentic to die for food. Sadly a victim of its own success - a change of management actually since I saw the old guard down the road and a new place they opened up we went there recently. Service is lacking and they really do get offended if you dare to do anything of your own accord. Food and prices have fallen by the wayside and although it remains busy, the crowd are the it type and all pretending to be trendy whereas before it was the original Shoreditch residents so far less pretentious. Now the people seemed to have lost their soul.

I am also voting on past experience re. the food etc. but give service almost a nil for rudeness and haven't been back in ages.
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Ash - View all reviews by this user
7 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 9
Sunday, November 14, 2010

Used to come here before they tarted it up. Sadly a victim of it's own success, we went there recently and although it was only 2/3 full nobody came to seat us, so we eventually sat down at one of the empty tables. A waiter then came and asked aggressively whether it was just 2 of us and we said yes (on a table for 4). He didn't ask us to move to a smaller table (we did not see one anyway). He left us the menus and chopsticks. 15 minutes later we left, having watched other people arrive and get served and the waiting staff going backwards and forwards, pointedly ignoring us as we tried to catch their eyes. So strange, what did we do wrong? What a way to treat customers.

I am voting on past experience re. the food etc. but give service a nil for rudeness and will never go back.
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suzerne
3 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 4
Thursday, September 30, 2010

The food is good, service was superb. I have come to this place sometimes and still have no complaint about the food. Ok, the atmosphere is a bit loud during weekend as there are some parties going on but you have to accept it since this is not a posh restaurant anyway.
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Simon
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Monday, July 26, 2010