Categories
Bakery Vietnamese

Nguyen Hot Bread – Canley Vale NSW Restaurant Review

My junior/friend/colleague brought me these banh mi for lunch at work, not knowing that I am lowkey a banh mi influencer in the microsphere of Western Sydney. My thoughts, however brief, should be taken in the context of a approximately 5 hour dwell time within the enhanced post-operative care unit’s breakroom refrigerator.

Within limits of dwell-time, these were still only OK. The meat in the crackling pork roll ($7.50) was plentiful, especially for the price, but neither it nor the cold cut pork roll ($7) had adequate vegetable to carry moisture through the course of the meal. These rolls also lacked the deliciously unhealthy concotion of butter/Vietnamese mayo, instead featuring a rather more pedestrian and Western margarine-like spread instead.

I’m told there are a number of different hot bread stores in the area. Perhaps another, next time?

Nguyen Hot Bread
33 Canley Vale Rd, Canley Vale NSW 2166

Categories
Bakery Chinese

New Shanghai Workshop – Ashfield NSW Restaurant Review

PHOTOS TAKEN MOMENTS BEFORE DISASTER

We stopped at New Shanghai Workshop in Ashfield on our way to see a house that we ultimately locked ourselves into a $10,000/month mortgage on. Whether or not that was the right decision ultimately remains to be seen, but every day looking at my bank account and a series of consecutive interest rate rises I do wonder.

We had a number of pastries, that were all generally quite good.

Specific memories that I had include the egg yolk short cake with custard crisp ($5.50), which was rich, flaky, and not too sweet.

And the pan fried prawn bun ($5.80) which was only slightly above room temperature, didn’t have much flavour, and kind of sucked.

It’s just a shame we won’t be able to afford to eat here again for the next thirty years.

New Shanghai Workshop Ashfield
269 Liverpool Rd, Ashfield NSW 2131

Categories
Bakery Vietnamese

Bánh Mì Bảy Ngộ – Bankstown NSW Restaurant Review

I was on a banh mi kick recently, and Banh Mi Bay Ngo, very close to Nam Fong Hot Bread, was a natural option for a pre-work meal.

Like its nearby competitor, Banh Mi Bay Ngo’s traditional pork roll ($6.50) was packed with cold sliced meats at a very competitive price. I’d say that in comparison with Nam Fong, this particular roll had a greater and attractive crispiness to its pickled vegetables, which provide for nice intra-bite textural variation. Please note that the roll did not come wiht the grill marks – the bread was heated up in a sandwich press prior to consumption – a technique I learned from the SRMO who keeps making me feel jealous every time he has a banh mi at work.

The nem chua pork roll ($6.50) was less attractive to me, owing to the physically smaller quantity of meat, without much extra in terms of flavour. Still a good roll, but doesn’t beat the classic in my opinion.

Overall, both were good, and I can’t recommend either Banh Mi Bay Ngo or Nam Fong over the other.

Bánh Mì Bảy Ngộ
49 Bankstown City Plaza, Bankstown NSW 2200
(02) 9709 8106

Categories
Bakery Vietnamese

Nhu Y King’s Hot Bread – Ermington NSW Restaurant Review

Nhu Y King’s banh mis with double meat kept me going through never ending weekend ward rounds on the aged care inpatient team, and I thank them for that.

The size and price ratio was good, as was their 7-day opening schedule, something that XCel Roll could not compete with.

(I should note that as of 2024 the size and quality at XCel Roll Auburn has dropped off significantly, which is a shame, because they used to hold the crown. I don’t know if XCell Roll Parramatta has suffered the same drop in quality, as I’ve not been back in some time.)

Nhu Y King’s Hot Bread
23 Betty Cuthbert Ave, Ermington NSW 2115

Categories
Bakery Café

Bennett Street Dairy – Bondi NSW Restaurant Review

Look, this is really a review of a cookie that I had at Blair St Dairy, because that was closest to where we were and had to be again within a 45 minute window (some kind of magnesium sulfate floaty thing in Bondi Junction – my partner’s idea, but I agreed to go because she wanted me to, and magnesium sulfate is probably my most used drug). It really doesn’t matter though, because it’s only a cookie, and both places are run by the same people.

So what can I tell you about this chocolate chip cookie ($?6.50) that you can’t tell just from the photos? It was big, it was thick. It was warmed up for us before serving, which made it quite nice and soft. It was initially though to be not-too-sweet based on cookie, but opinion was changed to too-sweet once the taste of chocolate chip was established. The oiliness and sweetness of the cookie didn’t quite fit with the overall vibe of The Bondi Local, but these are probably the people who have some extra calories to spare anyway.

We had fun looking at all the Halloween displays outside the homes between our car and the café. You don’t get that as much when your house is worth less than $3 million of inter-generational wealth.

Anyway if you want the cookie and have an acceptable Trigs/HDL/LDL/HbA1c it’s probably more efficient to buy their cookie dough from the shops and bake your own.

Bennett St Bakery
(02) 8387 2149
73 Bondi Rd, Bondi NSW 2026