Ca Phe Mai, four generations of Vietnamese hospitality lands in Double Bay
Ca Phe Mai is a modern Vietnamese cafe and wine bar at Forum Double Bay from engaged hospitality duo Cindy Mai and Ed Loveday. By day, it serves breakfast banh mi, Vietnamese coffee and pho. By night, Wednesday to Saturday, it becomes a neighbourhood wine bar with contemporary Vietnamese dishes and expressive wines.
The story behind Ca Phe Mai is worth knowing. Cindy Mai’s great-grandmother ran a restaurant outside Ho Chi Minh City after the war. Her grandmother arrived in Australia as a refugee and built a hospitality presence through bakeries and restaurants across Sydney and Melbourne. Her parents opened their own restaurant in Canley Heights. Mai opened her first restaurant in Strathfield at 24. Ca Phe Mai is the next chapter, and it shows in everything. The signature pho ga is built from a family chicken broth recipe passed down through generations, prepared daily from memory and restraint. The drinks program, led by Loveday, centres on lighter, low-intervention wines from small independent growers across France, Italy, Australia and Germany. The drink to order is the Ca Phe Muoi, their own salted Vietnamese coffee recipe inspired by a discovery in Vietnam. The kind of drink that stops you mid-sip.
Quick Bites
EAT: The pho ga. Family recipe, made daily, four generations in the making.
DRINK: Ca Phe Muoi. Salted Vietnamese coffee made to their own recipe. Order it first, then decide what else you want.
PLAY: Come back at night. The same room feels completely different from Wednesday to Saturday.
VIBE CHECK: Vietnamese canteen meets European wine bar
