Ca Phe Mai

Vietnamese$$

Indulge me, for a second, and engage in some cultural and culinary tourism in Double Bay. Pack your puffy vest, catch an Uber Black, explore your own city with a day of spritzes and sunglasses. Start with the vibrant sights and sounds along Knox Street. Shop at Scanlan Theodore. Bite into the Cafe Margaret burger. Queue for croissants at Baker Bleu.

The history of food and travel journalism is littered with generalisations about whole countries, let alone suburbs. But let’s be real, the culinary diversity is limited in the heart of Australia’s wealthiest electorate. Upmarket restaurants venturing outside modern Australian tropes have to work hard for success. Just look at Sake or Songbird.

Somehow, this hasn’t deterred Cindy Mai and Ed Loveday, who in June opened 40-seat Ca Phe Mai in Kiaora Lane, the highest profile Vietnamese restaurant opening in Double Bay, well, ever. Partners in life and business, it’s a match that ties Viet Kieu identity and intergenerational restaurant experience to the pedigree of someone who’s had a hand in some of the city’s seminal openings.

Mai’s family have run Vietnamese restaurants for decades – from outside Ho Chi Minh City to Canley Vale – while Mai herself ran one in Strathfield for the past six years. Loveday, meanwhile, made his name as the “E” in ACME – an establishment that redefined the wine-bar genre in Sydney – and as co-owner of Bar Brosé and The Passage.

Here, their talents combine in a snack-led, drink-led cafe and bar where the broth in your bowl has as much depth and complexity as what’s in your glass. At lunch or dinner, that broth might be in the pho ga, a crystal clear concoction that’s sunny with spice, the fresh rice noodles and slices of chicken breast a fan deck of whites. That drink? Try the Occhipinti SP68 Bianco for size, offering subtle skinsy salinity from one of Sicily’s most progressive producers.

The pho, prepared daily in a wide-open kitchen, might be based on a 40-year-old family recipe, but it’s also an accessible anchor for the demographic. Even if there’s more funk and dusky heat in paint-thick laksa with vegetal undertones from chrysanthemum greens, it’s an outlier on a menu that prefers to apply a contemporary lens to the greatest hits rather than go deep on regional flavours.

This is the right move for the only place I’ve ever seen anyone eat a banh mi with a knife and fork. Outside of the starfruit-topped yoghurt bowl and the croissants piped with pandan creme, the darling of the breakfast menu is the sausage and steamed egg muffin, the patty fragrant with lemongrass, the egg topped with cheese, a herbaceous green sauce splotched underneath.

Paired with a hash brown (known hash-brown enthusiast and Ricos Tacos founder Toby Wilson consulted on the menu), it’s absolutely in the thick of brunch trends, a trait that carries through to the coffees; even if Vietnam’s ca phe muoi – here a superb glass of Single O coffee sweetened with condensed milk underneath a salted-cream float – was a precursor to all the cold foams around town, it fits with a list that’s green with matcha and purple with ube.

The “Fillet o’ Cha Ca” is one more Macca’s reference, the turmeric and dill reminiscent of Hanoi’s lauded grilled-fish dish, the soft bun, crumbed ling and dill-flecked tartare reminiscent of Drive Thru.

Things to pick at, things to pair with a dragonfruit margarita or a chilled red with a cult following – at these Ca Phe Mai excels. Perch at the red marble bar or one of a handful of tables, ask Mai for guidance and she’ll cheerily direct you to split a crudo of tuna in a coconut-water crush of cucumber and green chilli. Follow it with prawns crumbed in green-rice flakes to swipe through spiced mayonnaise, before dropping off bo la lot of wagyu beef grilled in betel leaves, plated to wrap with pickles and herbs and dunk into not-too-sweet nuoc cham.

We’re told the spring rolls are a must-order, but they never arrive. And despite the banh mi aiming to be more polished than a hot-bread version – at lunch it’s crispy pork, chicken or mushroom only – they’re somehow less generous and less complex for it.

One plus is that I haven’t yet heard any outrage over the price from the crowd who misguidedly maintain that a banh mi should cost half any other sandwich, but then again I don’t think the locals would even blink (“It’s a banh mi, Michael, what could it cost? Twenty-one dollars?”). Let’s call them a work in progress.

The rest? Exciting. Inspired. Flexible. Fun. With an expanded dinner menu to come. This is a place that’ll wake you up at the weekend, warm you up in winter, refresh you in summer and enliven your palate all year round. A restaurant built for the whims of 2026, quietly flipping the expectations of the east on its head, one bite and sip at a time.

The low-down

Atmosphere: Poky and informal fun with up, down and outdoor seating, soft light and immaculate finishes

Go-to dishes: Chicken laksa ($28); tuna crudo ($28); Bo la lot with herbs and pickles ($31)

Drinks: Colourful coffee, fruit-driven cocktails, plus forward-thinking wine, with the odd Vietnamese sparkling rice wine or amaro in the mix

Cost: About $150 for two, excluding drinks

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.

More:

  • Double Bay
  • For subscribers
  • Sydney
  • Accepts bookings
  • Breakfast
  • Good for business lunch
  • Gluten-free options
  • Good for groups
  • Licensed
  • Lunch specials
  • Outdoor dining
  • Date night
  • Vegetarian-friendly
  • Wheelchair access
  • Vietnamese
  • Separate bar
  • Reviews
  • Good for solo diners
  • Prix fixe
  • Vegan-friendly
  • Pet-friendly
  • Takeaway
  • Budget friendly
  • Critics’ Pick
  • Restaurant
  • Cafe
  • Wine bar
  • Good for a first date
  • Ca Phe Mai