Cay Tre Soho - Imitation doesn't always flatter - May 2010

Where: Cay Tre, Soho 

With Who: The Poker Shark

How much: £15 a head without drinks

Come here if: you can't get to Kingsland Road, Rosa's is full and you've got a real craving for South Asian food.

Owned by the same group behind Kingland Road's venerable Viet Grill and Old Street institution Cay Tre, both of which I'm a big fan of, to say I was looking forward to this would be an understatement.

Something felt different on walking in. The other two feel organic, a product of their local markets and clientele but Cay Tre Soho feels different somehow; clean and crisp design but more corporate, more manufactured and a little soulless somehow... It's almost as if someone has bought a franchise and is planning a Byron / Wahaca style roll out. I should clarify this is definitely not a bad thing if done well.

The premise is simple, authentic Vietnamese dishes. There's a huge amount of choice on a bright and attractive double sided menu, shorter than the other locations but still full of promise. It picks up favourites of mine from the East (End), such as the legendary Shaking Beef, a garlicky wok fried rib eye and the steamed whole roast Tiger Chicken. They also hit the obvious bases with a good selection of Pho noodle soups. We attempted to share a portion of crispy pork spring rolls and a Cha La Lot. The former, deepfried vermicelli noodles surrounded a spiced, minced pork sausage, had been a little too long in the fryer, they arrived over hard and with a slick of oil. The latter, ground pork in betel leaves, just didn't arrive.

The Poker Shark had a Dong Du lamb chop curry, a deep and complex sauce thickly coating a brace of juicy chops. This was what I was hoping for, solid honest fare with a real bite. Sadly I went for a less impressive Com Saigon, missing the grilled pork chop, effectively just a lukewarm pork fillet with rice and an egg. Some spice came from the chilli sauce side but this wasn't accomplished cooking.

The staff welcome warmly on arrival but elsewhere were as as brusque as I've come to expect at the other branches - I certainly don't believe that the customer is always right, but calling someone a liar when they query a none arriving item isn't going to win repeat business.

I'll be back I'm sure. For the area it's been an under represented cuisine and I do fearsome love a good pho. It succeeds for me by proximity and I'll give them a lot of leeway for the heritage and respect I've got for the owners and what they've achieved before. I'm just going to let them settle in and calm down a bit first before I'm back though.

Salaam Namaste - a quietly confident curryhouse in King's Cross - May 2011

Where: Salaam Namaste, Kings Cross
With Who: a whole heap of reprobates
How much: £30 a head for curry, rices and breads, (a lot of) lager and service
Come here if: you've run out of options in King's Cross and can't face the walk into town

So we needed a curry house. For ten people. Nothing too clever or too different but somewhere that would satisfy my foodie pretensions. And, at the request of Lebanese Al, over for a very short visit from Beirut, somewhere that served Chicken Tikka Masala... oh yeah, and we needed it in King's Cross.

Sometimes a total lack of options helps sharpen the focus. Once we'd ruled out the fantastic Eritrean restaurant Addis (for its lack of Tikka Masala) and veto'ed the shit in a tray merchants along Pentonville Road we were left with one choice, Salaam Namaste. I say only one choice, it had been checked out slightly. Telegraph critic Matthew Norman has rated it his favourite Indian restaurant in London and it's the only one in the area covered by Charles Campion's excellent local restaurant guide. Preparation prevents piss poor performance. Or so my teachers told me. And thankfully it's true in this case, preparation led us to a pot of gold.

It certainly doesn't look like much. Large open windows, bright generic decor and furnishings combine with the sub continental muzak to make the place timeless and placeless, and not in good ways. The food on the other hand is as lively, fresh and refined as you could want for. Poppadoms and zingy pickles took the edge off our hunger as we scanned the diverse menu. They don't seem to have any regional specialism, bouncing from West to East coast taking in

My lamb barra kebabs, an Afghan speciality, were small but perfectly formed. Cooked to a deep pink and charred on the outside by the heat of the tandoor, the spice kick came after a sweet and unusual taste of kachri or dried cucumber powder, a regional ingredient and not one i've tasted before. A 'tarragon' squid dish also stood out, partly because the predominant herb was a clean and (for sub continental cuisine) unusual shot of dill. The squid was soft and sweet, like al dente pasta of the sea.

The mains were similarly intriguing. They too zipped around the region, like a hyper-active Michael Palin, taking in treats from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan and every nook of India. Conventional curries lurked for the unadventurous. A dry beef curry came spicy with citrus sour kick and a wonderfully subtle Welsh lamb biriyani arrived authentically and theatrically with the bone protruding through a thin dough 'lid'. Other standouts included a refreshing and light Goan green curry with tangy tamarind and a clever vegetable side of mixed peppers and onions dry fried with a coconut crusting. The targeted Tikka Masala was pronounced perfection on a plate by Lebanese Al, but the sauce was too astringent for me. The chicken was well enough cooked but I didn't feel the love here.

It wasn't particularly busy but we didn't arrive till 9.30. At lunch, and earlier in the evening, I've a feeling it'll be packed with lawyers from the many nearby courts though it's cheap enough and authentic enough to garner an audience among the sub continental students around Russell Square.

Salaam indeed...