Khoai Cafe — Restaurant in London

A good friend treated me to a belated birthday meal and I wish she had saved the £80 she ended up spending.

Unfortunately the food wasn’t great!

The salted squid dish arrived cold, around 10 mins after the satay chicken was delivered. It would have been nice to have had all the starters on the table at the same time. The chicken satay was good, but it’s hard to mess that up!

For mains, the mango salad was ordered along with rice noodles, sizzling chicken in black bean sauce and the fish with dill.

The chicken was chewy and the sauce tasteless, some of the mangoes in the salad still had their skin on and the fish came with an after taste which made them inedible, eaten begrudgingly by my friend who was hungry, I couldn’t.

We spoke to the management who took the defensive and blamed Waitrose- where the mangoes had been bought and told us the fish tasted exactly as it should.

He was so rude, I asked for the service charge to be removed from the bill. And I don’t like to do this as I know how the hospitality industry is struggling, but this guy insinuated we were to blame for the food not being up to scratch .

Such a shame as we were both looking forward to visiting this restaurant, that my friend had frequented approx 15 years ago and had raved about over the last few months.

For a well established, long running restaurant this was disappointing and maybe the owners need to take customer feedback more seriously.

Apologies to the nice young lady who served us who was disadvantaged from the removal of the service charge due to the extremely rude head...

DO. NOT. EAT. HERE. EVER. DO NOT SUPPORT A BUSINESS THAT PLAYS FAST AND LOOSE WITH THEIR CUSTOMERS' HEALTH. I ate here awhile ago, and explained my severe peanut allergy to them. I asked whether I should even eat there, was the risk of cross-contamination too high? They guaranteed it to me, over and over, that they would clean everything before preparing mine and my family's meal. That it would be absolutely safe. And guess what. I went into anaphylactic shock and had the worst reaction I've ever had in my life because I had consumed so much. I've had past allergic reactions, but in this one, I truly was minutes away from death. I could feel my entire body shut down, my vision disappearing and my hearing going quiet. I had to give myself two EpiPens and put my body in shock from the amount of epinephrine in my body in order to stay alive and reverse my body shutting itself down. The doctor at A&E who saw me later that night said giving myself the two EpiPens did save my life, I would have died with even one. So. Even if you don't have a peanut allergy or don't know anyone who does, there's a Thai restaurant just a couple doors down called O's Thai cafe. Give them your...

I really love this place! I moved to Crouch End recently and have been pretty disappointed so far with the food options. Quite a few nice but extremely overpriced places, or overpriced extremely mediocre places that for some reason people rave about (cough Banners )

Atmosphere: just what I look for in an SE Asian place, a low key ‘authentic’ unpretentious feel, with relaxing ‘generic Asian restaurant’ Muzak and cheesy decorations. It’s always quiet when I’ve been in which for me is a plus! Service: again, low key but efficient - friendly if you’re friendly, prompt to bring your food/bill etc.

Taste: So yummy! So far have had the Pho with prawns and chicken, special prawn parcel starter, mango salad special... good quality fresh ingredients with that lovely balance of sweet/salty/sour/spicy. Not the best Viet spring rolls I’ve had though. Really reasonable prices (for London) - pot of tea, 1 starter, 2 generous mains for £34! Plus I love that I can have eat fairly healthily but still feel like I’ve had a treat.

I will say that my review is biased as I’m comparing to other Crouch End places, but if you’re local, or happen to be in the area, then this would be my...