The girls and I called brunch on Saturday, arriving at Cá Phê Mai in Double Bay to a thirty minute wait and I didn’t leave. 

I don’t queue for anything. Restaurants, coffee, sample sales. For me the line is never worth it, and yet I stayed. 

Cindy Mai is at the door, warm and bubbly which tells you something about the kind of place this is. I know Cindy through friends, well enough that Saturday felt like catching up as much as it did waiting for a table. 

Her family has been in hospitality for four generations. Her great-grandmother ran a restaurant outside Ho Chi Minh City. Her grandmother arrived in Australia as a refugee and built bakeries and restaurants across Sydney and Melbourne. Her parents opened their own place in Canley Heights. Cindy opened her first restaurant in Strathfield at twenty-four. Cà Phê Mai is what comes next.

By the time Madz and I sat down it was pushing 11. They’d run out of eggs. So it was obviously a pork banh mi from the lunch menu. I shared it with Madz and immediately regretted not ordering my own. 

But the coffee is what I actually need to talk about. Cà Phê Mai does a Cà Phê Muối, a salted Vietnamese coffee, their own recipe, inspired by something Cindy and Ed found in Vietnam, and it stops you mid-sip. Not kidding, I had a break mid chat with Madz, and pause. It needed a moment. Condensed milk, salted cream and Single O beans. Are you kidding me. Saturday mornings just got better.

Ed Loveday, Cindy’s partner, the other half of this has spent two decades across some of Sydney’s dining rooms. Bar Brosé, ACME, The Passage. He’s behind the wine list too, small growers, low intervention and a Vietnamese sparkling rice wine from Sông Cái thrown in if you want to commit.

I haven’t done dinner yet, but the room at night – candles, that marble counter overlooking the kitchen and the burgundy interior, it’s already telling you everything you need to know. I’d be at the bar, martini first, then whatever Ed pours. The pho ga, Cindy’s family chicken broth recipe, passed down through generations, and the Fillet o’ Cha Cá mini bun, because we all know how I feel about a fish burger. 

I’ll be back before the eggs run out next time.