Bored with brekkie? Try the lemongrass sausage muffin at this cafe-bar unlike anywhere else

From banh mi filled with bacon and soft steamed egg, to brekkie muffins served with lemongrass pork sausage patties, Ca Phe Ma combines Vietnamese flavours with Australian cafe favourites to create a menu unlike anywhere else in Sydney.

The 30-seat cafe and wine bar has just opened in a small laneway off New South Head Road. It’s the first joint venture from Ed Loveday, who co-founded now-closed Sydney venues ACME and Bar Brose, and Cindy Mai, who owned and operated Strathfield restaurant VN City for the past six years.

“It’s a product of both of our experiences and upbringings,” Loveday said. “My background has always been more beverage focused, so wine, cocktails and coffee; while Cindy is looking at her food heritage through a contemporary lens.”

Together, they’ve created a singular day-to-night offering that feels both familiar and fresh. In the morning, diners can order ca phe muoi (Single O espresso served with condensed milk and salted coconut cream) and a thick slice of toasted banana bread, spread with Vietnamese coffee butter; at lunchtime, there are grab-and-go options including rice paper rolls and vermicelli noodle bowls.

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At knock-off, glasses of Chinese orange wine are served alongside miniature fish burgers, or “filet o’ cha ca”. The snack sums up what Ca Phe Mai is all about, said Mai.

“It takes the flavours of Hanoi’s cha ca, turmeric and dill with fried fish, and puts them in the format of the fast food we grew up with: a house-made snapper fish finger, iceberg, American cheese, yoghurt herb tartare.

“There’s a whole generation of viet kieu [Vietnamese diaspora] reinterpreting traditional food through the places and cultures they grew up in, and that’s this dish – deeply respectful of where the food comes from, but honest about who we are and how we actually eat.”

It also pairs well with wine, Loveday said: “Vietnamese food is so fresh, so we’ll have plenty of wines that naturally go well.”

It’s a tight wine list, around 80 bottles, featuring forward-thinking Australian producers such as Patrick Sullivan and Chateau Acid and a few wild cards, like a sparkling Vietnamese rice wine called Bong Bong.

But the heart of the operation is the chicken noodle soup, bubbling away in a 170-litre stock pot in the middle of the kitchen. It’s made using a 40-year-old secret family recipe, passed down from mother to daughter for four generations.

“It goes back to my great-grandmother, who ran a restaurant outside Ho Chi Minh City after the war, then to my grandmother, who arrived in Australia as a refugee and built the family’s bakeries and restaurants here, and then to my parents,” Mai said.

Since 2012, Mai’s parents have run Canley Heights restaurant Phuong Nam, which has become known for its crispy Vietnamese chicken. At Ca Phe Mai, they’ve stepped into the kitchen to get the broth rolling, and it forms the basis of three noodle soups: pho ga (with poached chicken and fresh rice noodles), chicken laksa (with house-made laksa paste and egg noodles), and sui gao (with handmade prawn and pork dumplings).

“The stock is clean and clear but intensely flavourful, simmered fresh every single day, and the discipline is in what you leave out. Nothing is there to mask anything, which is exactly how my family has always made it,” Mai said.

“It felt important that the thing underpinning the menu wasn’t a new idea but the oldest one we have.”

Open 7am-5pm Sun-Tue, 7am-10pm Wed-Sat

377 New South Head Road (enter via Kiaora Lane), Double Bay, caphemai.com.au