4/45 Francis Street, Northbridge
Ph: (08) 9228 9859
www.uandicafe.com.au

Go Get a Baguette

Right in the beating heart of Northbridge, you will find U&I Café, a great spot for a drink and a bite to eat at any time, day or night. Northbridge is a busy area. It is close to the city, easily accessible by train or bus, handy for students, tourists and shoppers by day, and for people enjoying the local pubs and clubs at night.

Scott Arnold-Eyers, publisher of Menu Magazine, drops in to the printers in Northbridge with every issue of the magazine and it has become a tradition for him to pick up one of their Pork Hoagie (Banh Mi Bi) baguettes on his way through, and having tried them, I can see why. The long Vietnamese style bread roll is really fresh, crusty on the outside and soft inside, and filled with tender roast pork, cucumber, julienned carrot, chilli slices, spring onion sauce and baguette sauce. It is really tasty. Traditionally this is accompanied by a Saigon Iced Coffee, strong espresso coffee mixed with sweet and creamy condensed milk over ice. For something different, try the Iced Avocado Coffee as a slightly less sweet option, or if you are a fan of durian, try the Iced Durian Coffee.

U&I Café originally opened in 2013, swiftly becoming a popular place to get a great feed at a reasonable price. After 11 years, the venue closed for renovations, re-opening in April 2025 after a major facelift. The result is fresh and modern, and now has a new delicatessen/café section on the William Street side where you can grab a fast lunch or take-away.

Family owned and run, U&I Café is part of a group of eateries including popular Asian fusion bars Koba in Subiaco and Bandem on Beaufort, as well as Ancom (Vietnamese) in Mt Lawley. The lovely bread they use for their Banh Mi (baguettes) comes from a local bakery which is also owned by a family member. We spoke to Paul Truong, one of the owners, who told us that the most requested dish at U&I Café is the Beef Pho. Pho is a delicious soup made from rich beef broth with noodles, slices of tender meat and Asian vegetables, usually served with a selection of chilli and other sauces/seasonings that you can add to suit your tastes.

We dropped in to U&I Café on a Friday evening when the place was buzzing with a typical Northbridge multi-cultural crowd all enjoying the food and drinks on offer. Cooking and eating play an extremely important role in Vietnamese culture.

According to the manager on duty that night Krista Pham, Vietnamese cuisine is very social food, best shared with a group of friends, accompanied by beer or other drinks. As this is my favourite way to dine, I knew I was in for a treat.

We started with a couple of salads. Goi Ngo Sen (Vietnamese lotus stem salad) was spicier than I expected, but very fresh and delicious once I got over the initial shock of the chilli burn. Thin slices of roasted pork, fresh prawns, delicate stems of crisp lotus, garnished with prawn crackers, thin slices of radish, mixed leaves, chopped peanuts, chilli, julienned carrot and bean sprouts. It was a terrific starter.

Next up, Beef with Asparagus & Mushrooms was a good warm salad for a cold night. Beef slices with mushrooms and fresh asparagus, plenty of garlic and a great flavour in the sauce. We enjoyed a glass of 2022 Wildflower Shiraz (Margaret River) with this, the typical vibrant flavours of cherry and plum offsetting the beef nicely.

The next two dishes were our favourites, the Nasi Goreng with Seafood was very tasty, with delicious slices of sweet tofu, squid, and prawns, and savoury, spicy rice, topped with a fried egg. But the Salt & Pepper Pork Spare Ribs was definitely the best dish of the night – a thin, crisp savoury batter on tender, flavoursome pork spare ribs, served with a salad of leaves, sprouts, tomatoes, capsicum and salad onion. A glass of 2020 Robert Oatley Sauvignon Blanc (Margaret River) went down very nicely with these dishes.

We thought we should try some of the cocktails on offer. There is a large menu with a huge range of both food and drinks. We sampled the June Bug (Coconut Rum, Midori, Banana Liqueur) which was fantastic, garnished with a chunk of fresh pineapple and a couple of pineapple leaves, it was very tropical and refreshing. Scott tried the Aviation (Gin, Cherry Liqueur, Creme de Violette) served in a martini glass and garnished with a couple of fresh blueberries. Not my cup of tea, but you can see where it got its name and Scott managed to down the lot.

We enjoyed a traditional Vietnamese dish – the Medium Rare Prawns with Lime Sauce and Chilli/Wasabi Specialty was a platter of flattened semi-raw prawns, tail on, covered with a tasty sauce, surrounded by a central salad and accompanied by prawn crackers with black sesame seeds. This is best enjoyed with beer, as a shared starter and the prawns were like a Vietnamese take on ceviche or sashimi.

The Crispy Noodles with Seafood showed the Chinese influence. Like a Chow Mein, it consisted of fresh broccoli and carrot slices, mushrooms, prawns, tofu, squid, sprouts and bok choy on top of crispy noodles in a savoury sauce. A couple more cocktails arrived with these – a Mohito (white rum, spiced rum, lime, mint, ice), and an Espresso Martini with its typical creamy, strong coffee flavour.

By Georgina Goss