Nam2 (Nam Squared) is a pan-south-east-Asian restaurant located in Green Square. A quick Google tells me that it is related in terms of ownership and management to Mr Nam, one of my favourite Vietnamese restaurants in the South Sydney area. Nam2 also happens to be co-owned by the husband of one of the people I work with, but rest assured this will be a fully objective review.
Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic this is a takeaway review.
The Rare Beef Saigon Pho ($14) is very good. The flavours are on point and the beef the perfect done-ness, which is rare for delivery pho. There is an ample provision of bean sprouts and leaves, which is again often lacking for delivered pho. According to my colleague this is a borrowed specialty from Mr Nam. I can recommend this dish.
I enjoyed most elements of The Lot Noodle Salad ($17). It features crispy pork belly (TBH only ok), BBQ chicken (also ok), lemongrass beef (good!) and a spring roll, and while some of these elements are not so strong by themselves, the combination of all four elements is synergistic and ensures one never gets bored. The vermicelli is soft and fresh, and the remaining salad elements – herbs, carrot, and daikon, really bring the dish together. Would recommend.
Nam’s fried rice ($19) was probably the most disappointing part of the meal. It is advertised to feature spanner crab, brown butter, egg roe, and salted egg shaving, however most of these elements (apart from the tobiko) seemed missing in action. It was difficult to identify any crab or salted egg shavings. The flavour overall was OK, and I did appreciate that it was not too salty, but as the most expensive dish that we tried it was really quite underwhelming.
The Saigon Spring Rolls (4 for $8) were good and I thought much more fairly priced than at Mr Nam. No complaints here.
The Nam’s Dry Suki Seafood ($19) with glass noodle, egg, mushroom, and “Chinese kale” was good. The flavours were quite nice, and I enjoyed the noodle and mix of seafoods. I didn’t enjoy the mussel but I don’t enjoy mussel in general.
The Chicken Nyonya Laksa ($14) is very good. Very similar to Mr Nam’s, if not identical. I liked this so much that I actually bought this for a mate and brought it to work for him for overnight dinner.
Overall I think Nam2 is worth a try. Their food is quite good, and they do have some $10 meal deal specials on weeknights for those who want to pick up the food themselves. I am also glad that there is no markup for DoorDash, which is a rare treat. I will order from here again.
UPDATE, DECEMBER 2020
We had the pleasure of having our work Christmas dinner at Nam2. I won’t go through all of the things we ate but it was a very extensive banquet menu with two courses of dessert that are not pictured here.
The highlights of the meal were the shrimp in betel leaf, scallop on XO sauce and vermicelli, deep fried barramundi, beef skewers, vegetarian stir fry (believe it or not), deep fried shrimp in dipping sauce, the spring rolls, and the egg atop the stir fried beef dish. If you have a chance to order any of these dishes a la carte I highly recommend it. I also take back my previous comment about Nam’s fried rice – I could definitely identify the spanner crab pieces this time.
Nam2
13 Ebsworth St, Zetland 2017
02 8003 3393