Hai Cafe — Restaurant in London

Extremely disappointing Vietnamese food experience that needs to be called out. Firstly I want to mention that based on all the rave reviews and even recommendations on social media (which brought us here originally), this review seems out of place, however I can’t stay silent as someone who is Vietnamese in ethnicity and concerned for the integrity of food enjoyed by many people like me. The problem I have is with the Beef & Chicken Phở that was served to us, which visually confused me but tasted nothing like a Phở I’ve had in Northern or Southern styles. For the beef (excuse the blurry photo), broth was heavily spiced with meat chunks similar to a Bò Kho, and the chicken tasted like something out of an instant packet. It did not have the accompaniments akin to what is traditionally served (eg. perilla leaves used) except for the noodles. Needless to say, you can research what the dish should look like and if you’ve had Phở, you know what it should generally taste like. I can acknowledge that there can be minor adaptations to a dish (to suit customer tastes) but it shouldn’t compromise it’s core identity. My expectation was imagining a bowl of Phở that matched all the photos we saw online, but for some reason we ended up with what I suspect was a kitchen emergency/bad day that needed to serve customers. I absolutely wanted to love the food but combining this with waiting almost 40 minutes for our food with no updates and being served something called ‘Phở’ which was further from the truth, felt genuinely insulting. To anyone trying this restaurant, don’t assume Phở looks and tastes like this anywhere else. To the owners, you need to evaluate your mantra written on the chalk board “We do everything from the beginning, the...

I think the photos speak for themselves. The food was so tasty and delicious. We shared the crab & chicken spring roll which was plenty between two. We also had the peanut sauce which was Mmmm! If I was to nick pick, I would have liked this brought out first then the main and they brought it all out together. Also would have liked the water on the table sooner, as had to chase it. I had the prawn curry - which was so flavoursome with a slight sweetness to it. My other half had the spicy prawn Pho which was most certainly spicy & he thoroughly enjoyed it. Didn’t realise we could BYO drink by paying corkage, but we are not much of drinkers. It was very busy & full inside when we arrived at 6.15pm, even though it only opened at 6pm. We added our name to a waiting list, then went to a very nice bar along the road. Waiting time given was 30-40 mins. A What’s App message tells you when to return. By 7pm we were seated, and by 8pm we had finished! At this time there were a lot more tables available so will bear that in mind next time. However, We enjoyed the atmosphere of the small space and service overall was good, staff helpful and friendly. Will be most definitely be returning after our trip to northern & central Vietnam. It will be interesting to see how the food compares. Spent £46 &...

I really like this place the food is always exceptional but when I went there for dinner yesterday, I didn't expect to get a table as it is always full. I ordered my food and ask if any of the tables were free (tables are usually reserved). I was told there was a table available and that I would be charged £2.00 to eat in, which was news to me because we had never been charged for eating in berfore, but I paid the eat in fee anyway. When I looked at my bank account today, I see that I was charged £6.00 to eat in, which I am extremely annoyed about. We got takeaway from here last week Saturday and they forgot to put my summer roll in, which I got charged for. I can't stress enough how good the food is here, but they really need to make sure that they are not over charging people and also that they are including everything for takeaway orders. We live in Tottenham (just a 5 min walk away from Edmonton) so when I got home to find that the summer roll wasn't included, I wasn't about to go all the way back to Hackney/Clapton, to inform them of their mistake. Also, I couldn't find a phone number for them anywhere, not even on...