I went to Bobby Chinn's restaurant in Hanoi back in 2011 (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/restaurant-bobby-chinn-hanoi-01-2011). It was the one splurge meal in Vietnam and the glowing red lights, the quirky magnifying glasses and my partner being told "you are beautiful" throughout the night made it memorable in addition to the food which was a definite different Western take on Vietnamese food.
I read Bobby closed that restaurant to open in London and for whatever reason has now left House of Ho but left behind a similar Vietnamese legacy to continue.
For the quiet Christmas/January winter months, Timeout had a special £12 cocktail + 2 tapas offer to lure in customers. Considering a cocktail is about £10 alone, the deal isn't bad. I the serving size of each tapas is probably about half what the full sized dish is. Therefore the retail price of the deal is probably around £18. The tapas alone wasn't enough of a meal and so generous bowls of pho were ordered additionally.
The shining light is that all cocktails in the menu are available to choose from and there's a few nice options - Pandan Ho-Lada had a mild alcohol taste with a good amount of pineapple and an aftertaste of coconut. The pandan wasn't overly discernible. Saigon Lantern was a stronger drink with sour notes.
- Crispy squid with chilli & sea salt - tasty but very salty. The coriander and sweet chilli sauce helped to balance it out (as did the cocktails);
- Duck bun bao - a little disappointing to have one small bao. The flavour was similar to the standard char siu and it wasn't obvious by flavour or texture that it was upgraded from pork to duck;
- Sea bass & prawn dumplings - definite strong fish and prawn flavours within the dumpling;
- Hanoi duck spring roll - lots of shredded duck fried in a soft pastry with a light hoisin sauce;
- Beef pho £11 and Chicken pho £9.5 - identical mildly spiced soups topped with beef brisket (no sirloin) or chicken breast. The meats were ok without being outstandingly tender and it was nice to have beanshoots and mint (but no Thai basil). It was served with fish sauce and soy sauce (oddly) and also the standard chilli sauce.
It was a decent flavoured meal and I'd be happy to eat there again. It is on the more expensive side particularly for what looks like the signature dishes in shaking beef £23.5 or Chilean sea bass £32. I may wait until a deal is on again...
Cay Tre probably has a stronger flavour pho in my opinion but that may be due to some MSG.