Weekday Pho Lunch on Old Street: Cây Tre Shoreditch

Most of London's Vietnamese restaurant boom can be traced to a handful of East End kitchens, and Cây Tre Shoreditch is one of the oldest still trading. Cây Tre Shoreditch, at 301 Old Street, London EC1V 9LA, opened in 2003 and has stayed at the same address for more than 20 years. For anyone working around Old Street and searching for pho near me at lunchtime, its weekday deal is hard to beat: two courses for £19.95, with original beef pho as one of the mains.

This is the flagship, the restaurant that started the group. Its founder, Hieu, came to London as a student in 1999 and could not find the Vietnamese cooking he remembered, so he opened his own place on Old Street four years later. The site sits on the edge of Hoxton, close to Kingsland Road, which was already home to Vietnamese cafés. Cây Tre later added a Soho branch in 2011, as well as Viet Grill and the bánh mì shop Kêu, but the Old Street dining room is where the 24-hour broth was first served.

From Monday to Friday between 11am and 3pm, the Shoreditch menu offers two courses for £19.95. Starters include summer rolls, imperial spring rolls, vegetable spring rolls, piggy grilled aubergine, smoky grilled aubergine and salt 'n' pepper tofu. The mains list includes original beef phở, chicken breast phở, mushroom phở, wok-fried phở and rice dishes such as lemongrass chicken or braised pork belly. A spring roll followed by a bowl of beef pho is a quick, filling lunch for a reasonable price.

The à la carte pho list uses the same recipes as Soho, at slightly lower prices. The Original Phở with rare steak and slow-braised brisket is £18, while the Saigon Phở, which adds fatty flank, and the Hanoi Garlicky Phở, made with wok-seared steak, are both £18.50. The Special Large Combo Phở (tô xe lửa), with meatballs, tendon and tripe, is £26.25. The beef broth is simmered for 24 hours with marrowbones and 18 aromatic herbs and spices and served with flat rice noodles.

The chicken pho uses a lighter broth made from slow-simmered free-range chicken. Chicken Breast Phở is £17.50, Thigh and Drumstick Phở is £18.50, and the Special Chicken Phở with all three cuts is £20.25. In the regional section, the Beef Brisket Stew Phở, seasoned with lemongrass and cinnamon, is £19.75, and the Seafood Phở with king prawns, squid and crab cake is £19. The Assorted Mushroom Phở with tofu and kai choy is £17 and can be made vegetarian. Wonton noodles with shrimp and pork dumplings and char siu are £17.50.

Order a few small plates alongside the soup. Summer rolls with prawn or tofu are £9, served with the house peanut sauce, and the Hanoi crispy crab parcel (nem cua) with crab, pork neck and prawns is £11. If you want noodles without broth, the bún chả Hanoi at £19 brings chargrilled lemongrass pork shoulder, pork belly meatballs and a crispy spring roll. For a bigger group dinner, the set menu is £41.50 a head for at least two people, with starters to share, a main such as campfire steak or claypot Mekong catfish, and banana fritters to finish.

Diners who find a clear pho too gentle should look at the bún bò Huế list. Cây Tre describes it as a spicy take on phở from the imperial city of Huế, made with a slow-cooked bone broth infused with lemongrass, shrimp paste and chilli oil and served with round rice vermicelli. The beef and pork hock version is £19, the chicken breast version is £18, and a tofu bowl with crispy and soft tofu in beef broth is £17. Each comes with the kitchen's homemade sa tế chilli paste, so taste before you add more heat.

Pho fills you up, but the dessert list is short and worth a look if you have room. Banana fritters with ice cream are £9.50, and the menu also carries Gelupo ice cream, a premium gelato made fresh in London, for £5.25. Shaking beef (bò lúc lắc), wok-tossed sirloin with Phú Quốc black pepper, oyster sauce and a fried egg, is £19.50 if someone at the table would rather have a main course with rice than another bowl of soup.

Cây Tre Shoreditch opens Monday to Thursday from 11am to 3pm and 5pm to 10:30pm. On Friday it opens 11am to 3pm and 5pm to 11pm. Saturday runs all day from 11am to 11pm, and Sunday from 11am to 10pm. Arrive before 12:30pm for the weekday lunch deal, as the tech offices around Old Street fill the room soon after. The restaurant welcomes walk-ins but advises booking at busy times, which here means Friday nights and weekend evenings.

Old Street station, on the Northern line and Great Northern rail services, is about a five-minute walk west. Hoxton station on the Overground Windrush line is a little further to the north-east. Shoreditch High Street station is around 10 minutes away on foot, which makes this an easy stop on an evening out in Shoreditch. Buses along Old Street stop almost outside the door.

After lunch, walk north into Hoxton Square, a small leafy square ringed by galleries, bars and studios. If you prefer something quieter, head west past Old Street station to Bunhill Fields, the historic burial ground where William Blake, John Bunyan and Daniel Defoe are buried. Wesley's Chapel, the Methodist church founded by John Wesley, faces it across City Road. Both are free to visit and make a peaceful contrast to the busy roundabout.

Cây Tre Shoreditch, 301 Old Street, London EC1V 9LA. Opening hours: Monday to Thursday 11am to 3pm and 5pm to 10:30pm, Friday 11am to 3pm and 5pm to 11pm, Saturday 11am to 11pm, Sunday 11am to 10pm. The weekday lunch deal runs Monday to Friday, 11am to 3pm. A discretionary 12.5% service charge is added. Prices are from the June 2026 Shoreditch menu on caytrerestaurant.co.uk.