Picture of Cafe East, SE16 7LH

Historical version 14 of Cafe East, SE16 7LH (view current version)

  • Telephone: 020 8691 7777
  • Address: 100 Redriff Road, SE16 7LH (streetmap) (osm) (gmap) (bingmap) (streetview)
  • Opening Hours: noon-2pm, 5:30pm-10:30pm Mon-Fri; 11am-10pm Sat-Sun

Cafe East is a Vietnamese cafe/restaurant that used to be situated on Evelyn Street in Deptford. In Spring 2009, they moved to the Surrey Quays shopping/leisure complex, near the cinema. Kake and bob attempted to visit the new location a week after they reopened, but they'd had such great demand the day before that they'd run out of food and had to close! A visitor known as MC tells us that the food is as good as ever, though the prices have gone up marginally. MC adds that the new premises are much bigger, seating around 100 people, and there's now a waiting area.

(The original Cafe East premises are still in the hands of the same landlord, and his son has opened yet another Vietnamese cafe there, known as Mama Pho. We haven't yet visited it.)

Getting here: On the map, Cafe East is on the corner of Redriff Road and Quebec Way; however, the frontage and entrance face west, across the carpark and towards the bowling alley and cinema. The photo on this page was taken from the carpark.

Our review of the old location is below - we'll be trying another visit to the new location soon!

Opening hours provided by Culinary Hags In London.
Small cafe in Deptford serving good, authentic Vietnamese food. It has seating for maybe about 25 people. They also offer takeaway and possibly delivery. No alcohol, and it's really a cafe rather than a restaurant, but it is open in the evening.

Kake and doop visited on a Saturday evening in December 2007; we'd been warned that we might have to queue, but we got a table straight away.

We shared summer rolls to start, then both had pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) - doop had chicken, and Kake had chicken, beef, and prawn. Kake liked everything about hers: the base stock was really clear-tasting; the noodles weren't even slightly stodgy; the prawns were good big ones and not overcooked; and although the beef was well-done, it was still tender and not at all dry. Portions were very generous. Our bill was £18.20 in total, including tea (50p per person) but not service.

Will try the Bun Bo Hue (spicy beef soup) next time, as it's been recommended on Chowhound.

Note that the owners of Cafe East close up and go on holiday for a month or so every year, generally around August/September.

See also:

Last visited by Kake and doop, 1 December 2007.
OS X co-ord: 536042 OS Y co-ord: 179312 (Latitude: 51.495875 Longitude: -0.040004)
This is version 14 (as of 2009-04-22 18:36:11). View current version. List all versions.