Caphe House

I love eating eggs with toast here - it's just the perfect breakfast to get me going for the day. The place is great for a local coffee shop. I also like to use it as a meeting point. There are some things that can be done better but let's not ruin the overall impression. I like it :)

I used to love this place but its outgrown its small venue and always seems to be packed full of people ordering and waiting for their takeaway food, which means for those choosing to sit in it can be a bit of a stressful and unpleasant experience. There is only space for about 20 people to sit down and eat, maybe less, which is fine in the summer when they have more tables outside but I wouldn't suggest meeting a friend there for lunch in the winter in lunch 'rush hour' i.e. 12.30 > 2

Good food though, no complaints there. But they have recently put the prices up which has made it go from a slightly pricey lunch to a slightly too pricey lunch.

good find. I miss the cheap Vietnamese places back in Philly. I had spring rolls with rice vermicelli for £4 (small) - it was ok. was missing some sprigs of mint and bottles of fish sauce, hot sauce, an soy sauce on each table. but satisfying.

Caphe House is a small and friendly cafe in the midst of bustling Bermondsey Street, snadwiched between the greasy spoon authenticity of Al's Cafe and the myriad of chi chi boutiques and uptheirownarse coffee emporia. A Viet cafe feels very gentrified for this very white working class area, but in ethos at least, it's nearer in style to the old Bermondsey than the new. The furniture is more discount than designer and they're not winning any awards for their decor. That being said, I'm not here for the view. They serve a selection of pho (noodle soup w selected meats), summer rolls and the object of my affections, the banh mi roll.

I went for the roast pork roll, served as a standard pre made white flour (rather than the traditional rice flour) half baguette with shredded pork. The thin slivers of cucumber and red chilli in the roll cancel each other out nicely and balance with the grated carrots in this spicy Vietnamese street treat, but the chilli vinegar is heavily cut with soy and too saltily strong. For £3.50 it's difficult to complain. They also do a good range of Vietnamese treats, noodles and pleasingly sell a number of authentic ingredients, just like mamma used to use. If every street had a Caphe House, we'd be in a much better (and spicier) place.

Please also see
http://hungryinlondon.com/2010/05/caphe-house-bermondsey/

Have a mentioned that I love Vietnamese? So it’s a very good thing for me to have a decent and cheap Vietnamese Cafe in the neighborhood. I am talking about Caphe House in Bermondsey Street, which is a small and relaxed place offering Vietnamese baguette (Banh Mi), fresh spring roles, Pho and several rice and noodle dishes among others. And – as the name promises – Vietnamese coffee.

We went there for lunch and were pleasantly surprised:

We had chicken pho (5.20) – which is conveniently served in 2 different sizes and is ideal also for take away – and fresh summer roles (3) . Both dishes were nice and I enjoyed them, although they did not rock my world.

A slight disappointment was the vegetarian Bahn Mi – lovely filling with salad, carrot, coriander, tofu and soy sauce came in a baguette that might have been crispy three days ago. shame!

I was consoled by the Vietnamese iced coffee – I haven’t had Vietnamese coffee since I had been in Vietnam so the taste took me back to the buzzing streets of Saigon.

The staff is quite friendly, even if one of the waitresses was in a very bad mood, but she was only unfriendly to her colleagues and not to me, so that’s fine :)

I would not go out of my way to go there, but it definitely is a nice and cheap addition to Bermondsey Street. I am not so happy about their opening times though , they close at 5 during the week (4 on Saturday) which is just a couple of hours too early for me to have a pho on my home…