Cafe East Pho — Restaurant in London

this was wrote by my husband as I wouldn't want to describe how I angry I was: My wife and I visited Cafe East for a lunch, but had one of the worst experiences of eating out in London (we've been living in London over 10 years!). The quality of food is OK but the service is very poor and staff are very rude. We ordered a starter and two main dishes. After starter arrived at table for 30 minutes, there are still no trace of main dishes but there are 4 tables with guests arrived at the restaurant later than us who all got their food, some of them even finished and paid the bill. We had to ask one of the waiter what's happened to our food and he seems to visit the kitchen for a check but after 15 minutes' waiting, still no food coming. My wife then come to the counter to ask the manager, she says because we ordered the starter, then we have to inform them when we finish the starter and they can serve the main dishes. We think this is a ridiculous explanation because

1. this is a Vietnamese street food (equivalent to Asia's MacDonald), other restaurants all serve food in one go
2. We asked one nearby table, they got their food in one go without informing the waiter they finished the starters. More importantly, we asked a waiter to check after half an hour's waiting but he failed to give us any replies. During the process of talking to the manager, initially she was very rude and refused to take any responsibilities and basically made us feel it was us to blame to get the food later. When we pointed out we asked one of waiters to check our food and the manager called this waiter to our table and talked to him in Vietnamese, the manager finally said a apology to us and left immediately in a impatient manner. The whole thing left my wife in tears. When the food arrived, we lost appetite and only managed to finish part of the food and left. We think this will be the last time we visited this place, hope other people have better...

I love this place.

I love it so much, that I'm prepared to visit the Odeon next door, with its chewing gum ridden seats, just as an excuse to eat here.

I love it so much, that I want to write a reply on behalf of the restaurant to all of those people who decry foul over the most ridiculous of reasons.

In a London where we scream for authentic food from across the globe, a London of middle class madness gone wrong, why can't we appreciate when something comes along, that is clearly undiluted and not 'butter chickened' to the greater public's taste?

Why, when we do realise that it is in fact very good, and a close approximation of our experiences in South East Asia, rather than Kingsland Road, do we then expect tap water to be served? I certainly wouldn’t drink tap water in Vietnam, or any other country in that part of the world.

Visiting a restaurant that serves delicious and fresh food, which takes a deceptively long time to prepare, with many pots and pans, lots of fairy liquid to clean up and lots of people to orchestrate this, all for the low cost of around eight pounds, should surely be a better use of money and time, than visiting See Woo Cash and Carry in North Greenwich, trekking home, boiling bones for broth, chopping, mixing and finally after ten hours, presenting your loved one with a bowl of imperfect Pho, for five times the cost of visiting Café East, but smugly knowing that the glass of water from the tap, served alongside that middle class Chardonnay is potable, and FREE!

However, you might wish you had just queued for ten minutes, thinking of ways to improve the décor before heading off on the rest of your cheap date night to face the seats at the...

Cafe East in Surrey Quay has been my most favourite one in South East area. They have moved to black heath recently. The food quality is same which is amazing though the price is a bit higher, but i think it is worth with their food quality. They also have new dishes in the menu as well. That’s great. However, their staff service is terrible compare to these staffs in Surrey Quay. They have less paid attention to us even thought they have 1 aunty was doing a bar, and 3 staffs on floor while the restaurant was very quiet. I went there 3 times since they have opened the restaurant in. Black Health. 1st time i went there, i called for a bill and have to wait for 15 minutes. 2nd time i asked for orginal fish sauce, then a guy gave me a sweet & sour fish sauce that they usually serve for spring roll. I did asked twice as they gave me the wrong one, and the guy said they finished original fish sauce. It is nonsense for me when u said a Vietnamese restaurant does not have “original fish sauce”. Then my bf asked the aunty in the bar for it, she went down and took it for us. Thanks aunty. The 3rd time, i went there and asked for take away, they gave me some take away boxes but no carry bags. I wonder how could i bring 4,5 containers without a carry bag. I knew there is always no service charge included to the bill, but it is a reason for service going down now??? I dont mind paying service charge, it just made me down while...