Restaurants

This veteran café does a brisk trade every night, when Vietnamese families and office workers (many bringing their own alcohol) squeeze into the tables for a feast. The menu seems endless, with all the vital Vietnamese classics alongside such rarities as goat in lemongrass and chilli. We sampled the canh chua ca bong lau, a sweet and sour catfish soup that came chock-full of juicy morsels of fish and pineapple, flavoured with zingy tamarind and the rarely seen bac ha (taro stem), a spongy South-east Asian vegetable. Less authentic and enjoyable was a bland mien xao thom thit (rice vermicelli stir-fried with prawns and pork). Fried frogs’ legs are usually a wise choice, but on this occasion the otherwise crisp batter was let down by an overpowering flavour of butter – still, we enjoyed the simplicity of the accompanying onions and Vietnamese coriander. Tre Viet excels in using rare and interesting ingredients, though which dishes include them isn’t always apparent; your choice of food can make the difference between an extraordinary and a merely average dining experience.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2009