Category: Vietnamese

Nu Bambu

Nu Bambu Review:

I saw a few pictures of food at Nu Bambu in Sydney Food Bloggers facebook group. Considering that the restaurant is quite close to where I live, we decided to give it a go one day.

The restaurant is located in Canterbury and Hurlstone Park RSL. The menu is quite a fusion of all things Asians, from the Thai salad to Indonesian Nasi Goreng. However, I think it is probably one of the pricier RSL food in Sydney. Is the price justified by the taste?

Beef Tartare – $16 – Cape Grim grass-fed, raw Steak with lemongrass, lime leaf, quail yolk, sesame crackers

It is quite an interesting display of beef tartare. I have never seen it served with sesame crackers and fried shallots. I love the extra crunchy dimension to the dish.

Thai Salmon Ceviche – $15 – Raw salmon, fresh coconut, coriander, mint, red nahm jim

The ceviche’s combo is also something you don’t see very often. This Asian version of ceviche came with fresh coconut and spicy Thai dipping sauce.

From these two dishes, we got a sense that it was going to be quite an exciting dinner.

Beef Short Rib – $24 – Twice-coocked with sweet fish sauce, cucumber relish

I won’t tell you anything but this: You must order the beef short rib.

Grilled Champagne Lobsters – $39 – Cooked over coconut charcoal with confit sambal butter

Due to my lack of knowledge of what ‘Champagne Lobster‘ is, I was kinda surprised when it came out as 2 small-ish lobsters. The lobsters were full of flavour. Don’t worry about the sambal butter, I am sure most people would be able to handle the heat.

Whole Crispy Fried Fish – $30 – Green mango, coriander, sweet chilli, tamarind

This dish might look a little bit challenging. It was a whole fish after all. The sweet, spicy and sour taste was in line with a mild Thai green salad. I love whole fish as I could eat pretty much everything but the bones.

Asian Greens – $8

You know they make a good bowl of vegetables when your kids couldn’t stop eating it. That’s exactly what happened with this Asian Greens dish.

Thai Tea Fondant – $15 – Ginger & cacao sorbet

Unfortunately, I made a rookie mistake for this dish: I did not take a picture when the yummy, gooey Thai tea seeped out of the cake. It was also interesting to know that the ginger sorbet worked perfectly with the cake.

Crispy Choux (4) – $14 – served with pandan custard or lychee lemongrass

Again another rookie mistake… no gooey pictures… but this time it’s because I wasn’t fast enough to stop people from devouring them!

Sorbet – $12 – charcoal coconut, mango lychee, yuzu passionfruit, strawberry & raspberry

There were four different choices for the sorbet, but since the majority would want to try mango lychee, we had two scoops of them. The other one was yuzu passionfruit.

Trung Nguyen Cold Drip Coffee – $6 – condensed milk over ice

Considering that Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk was usually super sweet, that giant ice sphere actually dumbed down the sweetness considerably.

The final verdict for Nu Bambu

Nu Bambu might be one of the most expensive RSL restaurants in Sydney. However, the price was justified by the quality of food they served.

Do you think I should go?
Definitely! However, please be prepared that if you expect your usual Asian dishes, you will be disappointed.

Rating for Nu Bambu:

8.5 / 10

Taste: 8.5 / 10

Price: $200 with drinks for four people

Place: 8.0 / 10

Details:

Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL
20-26 Canterbury Road, Hurlstone Park 2193

+61 2 9559 0088

https://nubambu.com.au/

Apr 4, 2018
Saigon Summer Street Food

Saigon Summer Street Food Review:

Our review this week is from a little shop in Summer Hill called Saigon Summer Street Food. You might be able to quickly figure the restaurant out as a Vietnamese restaurant. The restaurant is located in the shopping area of Summer Hill.

They have the usual suspects of Vietnamese street food: Vietnamese roll, pho soup and vermicelli or rice dishes.

Beef in Betel Leaf Vermicelli (Bun Bo La Lot) – $13.50

I like the vibrant colors of this vermicelli dish with beef in betel leaf. It is so refreshing!

Beef Pho (Pho Bo) – $12

Beef pho is the traditional Vietnamese soup. The beef is usually served rare and served on top of the bowl of soup.

The beef pho in Saigon Summer was quite clear and the beef was pre-cooked with the soup.

Lychee Lemonade – $3

I love lychee and I love lemonade. This drink is a no-brainer, right?

The final verdict for Saigon Summer Street Food

Saigon Summer Street Food is a pretty decent restaurant for your daily dining needs.

Did you know?

Saigon Summer also has this nice bite-sized dishes. They all have the same price – 1 for $3, 3 for $8, 5 for $12.

Rating for Saigon Summer Street Food:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $6 – $14 per dish

Place: 6.5 / 10

Details:

12 Lackey Street, Summer Hill 2130

+61 2 8387 5621

http://saigonsummer.com.au/

Jul 5, 2017
Eat Fuh

Eat Fuh Review:

“That’s not how you spell ‘Eat Fuh‘”. That’s what my little one said the first time we visited this restaurant… Everyone burst into laughter!

We were interested in dining at Eat Fuh in Marrickville because of the gigantic stockpot that can be seen from the outside.

Their menu is quite simple with a few different noodle soups, salad noodles, and rice dishes.

Fuh Noodle Soup – $16 – bone broth cooked with star anise, cardamom, cloves cinnamon, ginger, onions, served with thick rice noodles and garnished with coriander, basil, shallot and sprouts

Obviously, when you are at Eat Fuh, you must order Pho (that’s how most Australians write it ^_^). We ordered the large one with rare beef and flank. The regular version is $2 less and you can also have the chicken option.

If you want to add more types of meat like tendons and/or tripe and/or meat balls, you will need to add an extra $1

Beef stew noodle soup – $17 – lean beef and beef shin stewed with seasonal vegetables, ginger, lemongrass, star anise, cinnamon and served with chewy rice noodles, garnished with coriander, basil, shallot and sprouts

Beef stew is the one that piqued my interest. The taste was pretty strong. However, in this cold weather, the soup really warmed me up!

Vanilla creme brulee with vanilla ice cream and strawberry – $10

They had quite a nice little theatrics when serving the creme brulee. They actually charred the brulee with blow torch in front of you!

You can have an option of Caramel or coconut pandan for brulee or sticky date pudding.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVGnqPmjcMj/?taken-by=aaf_blog

The final verdict for Eat Fuh

Big portion and hot soup are the perfect combination for this cold winter days. Eat Fuh delivered a nice dining experience.

Did you know?

I’m not sure whether it’s substantiated or not, but one comment on Zomato mentioned about the use of MSG in their soup at Eat Fuh. MSG has no adverse impacts on me, but if you do have the allergies, I guess you need to stay away from it (or ask not to have msg, if possible?)

Rating for Eat Fuh:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $14 – $17 per portion

Place: 8.5 / 10

Details:

274 Illawarra Road, Marrickville 2204, Sydney

+61 2 8385 3459

Eat Fuh on Facebook

Jun 23, 2017
Pho phd

Review:

PHD in Marrickville is named one of the best pho restaurants in Sydney by Noodlies.com and chopinandmysaucepan.com. This time we didn’t go to PHD, but rather its spinoff that is located just a few blocks away, called Pho phd restaurant. As the name stated, the restaurant specialises more on its pho.

Milk and Soda with egg yolk – $4.50

I must say that this drink is not for everyone… especially when thinking about egg yolk was dunked into your milk and soda! It is really an acquired taste.

There is a drink in Indonesia that is pretty similar to this called STMJ with milk, egg yolk, and honey and substituting soda for ginger.

Thai-style Fish Cake – $10 – Tasty marinated grilled fish paste on prawn crackers, served with sweet chilli sauce

I think $10 for four fish cakes and crackers is a bit steep. It tasted just like any other fish cakes.

Crispy Skin Chicken with Tomato Rice – $13 – Crispy skin chicken Maryland fired to crispy golden brown served with our special dipping fish sauce

Despite being the dish that I ordered, I failed to remember how it tasted. It wasn’t particularly bad and wasn’t particularly memorable either.

Pho with Medium rare beef and combination (Extra Large) – $19 – Pho dish served with tender medium rare thinly sliced premium beef in beef broth and combination of beef brisket, beef balls and beef tripe.

The regular-sized pho is actually the cheapest amongst other pho restaurants I have reviewed in this blog. However, I was more interested in the extra-large pho. It was seriously large!

The final verdict for Pho phd Restaurant

Despity being the younger sibling for the famous PHD, Pho phd restaurant failed to live up to our expectations. The exciting novelty of extra-large pho was quickly subdued by indifference.

Rating for Pho phd Restaurant:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $12 – $19 for the pho

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

260 Marrickville Road, Marrickville NSW 2204

02 9090 2869

http://phophd.com.au/

Oct 20, 2015
Minh

Review:

Minh Vietnamese Restaurant is located in Dulwich Hill. We drive past this restaurant almost every day (and night).

There was a warm and homey greeting when we entered the restaurant. There are quite a lot of things on the menu, but one item stood out for me: bonfire.

Cua L?t Rang Mu?i Tiêu (4 pieces) – $14.00 – Salt and pepper soft-shell crab

Let’s look at the fact: 4 soft-shell crabs for the price of $14. That’s a good bargain any ways I see it. It tasted like the salt and pepper dish in a Chinese restaurant, but with soft-shell crab.

Bonfire – Quanh L?a H?ng – $22.00 – Premium beef cooked at your table, the meat are marinated with lemongrass, five spices and sesame seed, served with fresh herbs, salad, cucumber, pickles and rice paper.

The dish started off as a boring plate of raw beef, dry rice papers, and a plate of other condiments.

After they finished the preparation bit, the attendant lit up the bottom of the raw beef’s plate. We were already pretty amazed with this surprise. As the fire grew larger, he started stirring the beef – and told us they had already calculated that the fire would die down at precisely the time the meat was perfectly cooked.

He then dipped the rice paper into the water to make it edible and a tad sticky. He also asked us to add any amount of vegetables and meat onto the rice paper. The end result was pretty similar to the rice paper roll that you might find in a Vietnamese restaurant. The difference was of course in the way you made the rice paper roll yourself!

You can see a little video we made about the beef bonfire on YouTube.

I actually did not expect this kind of excitement from a Vietnamese restaurant. This is the dish that you should go to Minh for.

Pho Bo Dac Biet – $15.00 – Combination beef (including Tendon, Tripe, beef balls) noodle soup

The pho at Minh Vietnamese restaurant is actually not bad. However, it was overshadowed by the bonfire theatrical.

Vit Nau Ca ri Do – $16.00 – Roasted duck with curry and pineapple

The red curry duck is pretty similar to a Thai dish. I can’t really find the differences between the two. I originally ordered this dish because the four of us would still be hungry after the three dishes above. As it stands, it was a surplus to our requirements and had to be taken away for our lunch the next day.

Hot Vietnamese Coffee – $4.00 – with condensed milk

The final verdict for Minh

The beef bonfire was a pleasant surprise when dining at Minh. The dishes were also good value for money.

Did you know?

Apparently, Minh is also famous for its Noodle in Tomato Sauce (courtesy of The Hungry FoodTech). We tried it on our second visit to Minh in as many week and loved it!

Vietnamese restaurants are known in Sydney mostly for pork rolls and Pho, especially in the suburbs like Cabramatta, Marrickville and Bankstown.

Rating for Minh:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $10 – $18 per main dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

506 Marrickville Road, Dulwich Hill 2203

02 9560 0465

Sep 1, 2015
Pho by An Restaurant

Review:

A friend of mine took us here the first time to enjoy one of the best pho in Sydney, we referred to it as Pho An. An restaurant (this is the entry listed on Urbanspoon/Zomato) only sells pho, with variants of beef and chicken. Despite this limited menu, people are still willing to queue for it.

When I was there, I usually ordered Pho topped with beef combination. It is the most complete combination that includes rare beef, cooked beef, beef tendon and tripe. I also usually order the large portion. The large bowl option is only $1 more expensive than the medium.

The portion is quite big and I usually cannot finish the soup. Personally, I think the taste is not so different than any other good pho restaurants in Sydney.

Pho topped with cooked beef – $14

I guess the good thing about having limited items on the menu is that they can serve the dishes incredibly quickly. But then, you are also expected to leave relatively quickly!

They give you the beansprouts and loads of chilli for free. You could also add a few other side dishes. The one that I usually order is additional meat or rare beef on the side. You can also try its beef tea.

Additional Meat – $4

The final verdict for Pho by An Restaurant

The price of Pho in An Restaurant can be considered pretty high. However, people don’t seem to mind paying that much.

Did you know?

They have quite ‘funny’ charges such as $3.50 for spare bowl to share or $1 take away surcharge. I must say that the take away surcharge is quite funny as you generally pay less money for take away food.

Rating for Pho by An Restaurant:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $14 – $15 for pho

Place: 6.5 / 10

Details:

27 Greenfield Parade, Bankstown, NSW 2200

+61 2 9796 7826

Home

May 26, 2015