Our story began in 1978 when the Vu family were part of the refugee 'boat people' fortunate to come to the UK. We helped form a network of support for fellow refugees by founding a local Vietnamese community in London.

 

We catered weekly to the Vietnamese community at social events and organised larger cultural events to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival and Vietnamese New Year. Everyone loved our food as it was a taste of home in a foreign country- a comfort and reminder of our Vietnamese homeland and heritage. 

 

Our dream of sharing these flavours with others came true when we opened City Caphe in 2010 and started serving our traditional Vietnamese food right in the heart of the City of London to busy City workers.

 

The Vietnamese aunties in the kitchen at City Caphe met all those years ago in the Vietnamese community and are part of our extended family. They prepare all the food from scratch- taking care with our long simmered broths, marinating meats, pickling vegetables and chopping herbs. We have daily deliveries of all our ingredients fresh from the specialist Asian suppliers, greengrocers, butchers and bakery enabling us to freshly prepare and cook everything on our menu onsite. 

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Our recipes have been developed from a backbone of family recipes that have been passed along. Our flavours lean towards those in Southern Vietnam, with slightly sweeter and well-balanced notes than Northern style, not as chilli spicy as Central Vietnam and brought to life with subtle spicing and vibrant herbs. 

 

We look forward to welcoming you to try our food and I hope that you can feel the background of family and love that goes into everything we make at City Caphe.