The contents of this blog are matters of opinion formed over one more visits. There has been some artistry applied and metaphors and similes should not necessarily be taken literally.
I’m almost certain I had written something about Babylon Bakery already, but I couldn’t find anything in the drafts or in the scheduled posts, and I couldn’t even find any notes taken from the meal, so I guess I’ll just do it again from memory.
We visited Babylon Bakery after seeing it recommended on social media by someone who I hope wasn’t a paid influencer. We ordered a relatively large amount of food to eat in, and unfortunately had to wait a relatively large amount of time (21 minutes) for our food to arrive.
We had a one kilogram mixed skewer pack ($40) which consisted of chicken tawouk, lamb kofta, as well as lamb meat skewers for a total of eight skewers worth. This also came with some coleslaw consisting of lettuce and tomato, as well as some seasoned onion, garlic and hummus dips, and chilli coated bread.
This was a large dish and extremely good value for only $40 with an overall huge amount of food. The chicken was my favourite, being quite juicy and tender, followed by the lamb kofta. The the chunks of lamb meat were less to my liking with a bit of gaminess to them, and overall a bit less tenderness than the other two options.
We also had a fattoush salad (regular size – $8) although, and I didn’t know this at the time, we probably could have had fattoush instead of coleslaw on our kilogram of mixed skewers. This was fine, it was what fattoush iss.
Unbelievably, we also had a chicken shawarma roll ($10), originally intended to be for the following day, but then I wanted to try some. This was excellent with a large helping of garlic sauce, and quite juicy with the pickles – not dry at all like some that I’ve had, for example, from Shawarma Albeik.
Overall We ultimately packaged up the remainder of our kilogram of meat and took it home to eat the following day. Overall, the value proposition offered by Babylon Bakery was quite good, however I guess they’re not particularly well set up for dine-in eaters with only two small tables on premises. The majority of their orders were for takeaway, and perhaps if one is intending to dine there, it would be better to just order as takeaway, arrive 20 minutes later and then eat there, because sitting there waiting for twenty minutes was no fun. The food is all served in disposable stuff anyway.
I’ve walked past Chao Shan Dry Noodle 潮汕干面 in Burwood Plaza quite a few times, but have never eaten here before due to a general lack of desire, as well as a general sense of cultural inaccessibility, with a somewhat confusing menu (for an outsider) and a paucity of reports online.
We therefore present the first published English language full length case report of a Western person eating at Chao Shan Dry Noodle 潮汕干面.
I had this dry noodle with pork soup ($14) with an added tea/soy egg for $1. The noodle and the soup was served separately, and indeed available to order separately. Available at the counter are self-served jars of Chinese pickled chilli, and zhejiang vinegar ( visible in the top left hand corner of the photo above.)
The meal came with no instructions, and through a process of trial and error I took alternating mouthfuls of noodle and soup. The noodle was chewy but not overly tasty, with the majority of the scallion oil flavour settling at the bottom. This persisted despite some pretty vigorous mixing on my part.
The soup was a clear soup, with pieces of lean pork meat and lettuce, ladled from giant vats at the back of the restaurant. Though I wanted to enjoy this, there was a faint gamey taste to it, which put me off a bit.
At a point midway during my meal, a stranger came and sat directly opposite me and started chowing down his noodles. We neither spoke nor made eye contact, but we were in quite close proximity that I’m quite confident that others in the West would also see this as unusual behaviour. But of course, Burwood is not part of ‘Western Culture’. The experience of sitting face to face with this guy, though strange, was of net benefit to me as I was able to watch how he ate his meal and adjust my own strategy accordingly. It didn’t make the food much more appealing.
Overall thoughts Apart from a single comment on reddit, I have presented the only full English-language case report of a meal at Chaoshan Dry Noodle / Chao Shan Delights in Burwood. I did not love my meal and would not return.
We ate at New Kreta Ayer (not to be confused with the Old Kreta Ayer) following a long day engaging in the national pastime, directly after seeing the terrace of a former judo champion who had for some reason decided to fill his detached shower with the remnants of a small tree.
The beef brisket roti ($18.90) was alright, though the beef came a bit lukewarm. The roti, however, was fantastic, flaky, oily, and delicious. I’m a big roti fan, and I’m now wondering if I could potentially save some money by just keeping some frozen roti in my freezer at all times.
A further glamour shot of roti.
The combination laksa ($19.90) was big and flavourful, featuring two large prawns and an assortment of other fish balls and proteins. I don’t think it stood out to me as much as the laksa from Ngoodle (just up the road) did, but it was good nonetheless.
The crispy chicken bites in shrimp paste ($24.90) were as tasty as fried chicken can be expected to be, though the portion size really could’ve bene bigger for $25.
Our last choice was a vegetable dish, because we are adults who take care of ourselves sometimes. We had the FuYu KangKung (wok fried water spinach with fermented bean curd) ($19.90), a green dish that my partner said she had had before with her family, but was completely new to me. Though she enjoyed it, I personally did not like the stringy texture, which required many chewstrokes per mouthful to break down into pieces small enough to swallow. A sense of sliminess, possibly a combination of the vegetable itself and the sauce, made the mouthfeel all the less pleasant. That said, it seems likely this was more of a problem with me personally than the dish or the restaurant itself.
New Kreta Ayer 339 Liverpool Rd, Ashfield NSW 2131
Full disclosure, my friend’s partner’s parents own this bakery, but this is a seriously good beef and pea pie.
The sausage roll? Less memorable.
Photos taken in my Patagonia better sweater fleece which is embroidered with my full name and place of work which I have LOST AT WORK for the last 12 months and it has not been returned.
I’m alone at home in Sydney at the moment (partner being away in Wollongong without me) and with very little food in the fridge that I can actually bring myself to eat (the fourth beef burger patty in the pack is truly not something I want for the fourth day in a row) I took myself out for a late dinner at a recently opened local Vietnamese restaurant.
The Combination Pho – Pho Dac Biet (Medium – $21.90) is one of the better bowls I’ve had, and definitely the best I’ve had within a 5km radius, having tried multiple. This bowl is a true Northern style pho dac biet, with a clear though slightly salty soup, and a real combination of all the bits of the cow – rare beef, beef brisket, beef balls, beef tripe, and beef tendon. The majority of restaurants in Sydney miss out on one or more of the tripe or tendon, though I suspect the calculus was made that Burwood locals are likely to be less squeamish than most about non-meat parts of the animal. Either way, both components were enjoyable additions – with no weird aftertaste to the tendon like I experienced at Jacob’s in nearby Ashfield.
The pho was served with only a small serving of bean sprouts on the side, offered directly by the server as apparently not everyone likes them. Though the serving size was smaller than I expected visually, they ended up being enough, and more servings are available as a no-cost option on the menu.
The bowl was topped with a large serving of spring onions, which didn’t do anything special for me but also didn’t hurt me. The brisket was deliciously fatty and umami, though importantly not too fatty. I felt it was superior to the rare beef, a rare compliment from me. It’s interesting to note that the restaurant offers bowls of soup and meats without noodles as add ons – possibly an option for those lowcarbing among us. (Should be me).
The spring rollsCha Gio Chien (4 for $8.80) didn’t do anything for me. Though freshly fried and crispy, their filling of minced prawn and pork was hard to appreciate, with a very loose texture and a non-distinctive flavour. I wouldn’t get them again.
I never have sauce with my pho usually, but available tableside was quite a nice assortment of a tangy chilli sauce, a sate sauce, and thinly sliced pickled garlic, amongst other things. They were all delicious, and helped to save the spring rolls a little.
Thoughts Pho Hanoi 1979 is now my favourite source of pho in my local area, with truly top notch non-meat additions in their PDB, not available elsewhere. They offer a 30% discount between the hours of 9PM and 11PM, which means that the actual cost of the 2 dishes I had was a very reasonable $15.33 for the pho and $6.16 for the spring rolls.
Will be back.
SUBSEQUENT THOUGHTS I walked past the restaurant again one night (23rd July 2025) in Burwood. They’ve changed the discount percentage for night time, but now there are different discounts for other times of day. What kind of person would eat during their peak times?
VISIT 2: BANH MI I went back this morning to take advantage of the 50% off offer for banh mi between the hours of 7 and 10AM. It’s difficult to write this review and decide which price to base it on. As someone born without generational wealth, my feelings about food linked to both the quality of the food and the price paid. While some (mostly paid influencers, I suspect) might argue that good food is good food no matter the price, I think that as it’s something you pay for, the value proposition is inherent in the decision making process when you go out to get a meal.
I will try to assess these banh mi based on the price that I paid for them rather than the full price, however it’s very possible that some people might come and get their banh mi for lunch after 10AM and be charged twice what I paid.
I had a series of 3 half banhs mi, cut professionally so that readers don’t need to be subjected to photos of my teeth marks (as of this point I suspect I’m 100% identifiable based on my dental record alone).
The Classic Pork Roll – Banh Mi Thit Heo ($4.50 half price, $9 full price) will be the first to be discussed, even though it was the last to be eaten – the reason being is that it is the only roll that I have a representative side profile for showing the size of the banh mis on offer here.
This cold cut pork roll checked all the boxes. It had a good ratio of salad to meat to bread with each bite a mixture of salty umami meat, fresh crispy and tangy vegetables and soft yet crispy bread which both had a good crunch but also didn’t cut the mouth. I didn’t ask for extra pate but the amount of pate and Vietnamese mayo given was very good and probably equaled the amount of pate given when I ask for extra pate at most Vietnamese bakeries. An instant classic.
The first banh mi that I actually ate was the Crackling Pork Belly Roll – Banh Mi Heo Quay ($5.75 half price, $11.50 full price). This roll was absolutely loaded with crackling pork belly, pâté and Vietnamese mayonnaise, making it an extremely decadent pork roll. The pork crackling was actually extremely crispy, a far cry from some of the pork belly I’ve had recently in other settings. The only complaint I would have about this roll, apart from the fact that it felt like it was of a level of decadency that I didn’t deserve, was that there was the fact that the pork itself was a little bit too salty. This wouldn’t have been a problem had they just filled the roll up with a normal amount of pork, but the serving was so generous that the sheer volume of pork meant that the whole roll ended up leaning towards the more salty side. An odd problem to have. Still good.
The BBQ Pork Roll – Banh Mi Nem Nuong ($4.50 half price, $9 full price) was really good. Unfaultable. There was a generous amount of nem nuong which was a little bit sweet and a little bit salty but certainly not too salty, avoiding the problem that the crackling pork belly roll had. This was well balanced by the large amount of salad as well as the large amount of pate and Vietnamese mayonnaise. I literally couldn’t fault this roll, it was one of the best I’ve had, for $9, let alone $4.50
The lemongrass beef banh mi – Banh Mi Bo Xao Sa ($5.75 half price, $11.50 full price) I didn’t love so much. The lemongrass flavour was too strong for my personal liking, and caused it to be a bit bitter. Perhaps others would still enjoy it.
My palate is not so refined in the Vietnamese arts to really differentiate the MeatBall Roll – Banh Mi Xiu Mai ($4.50 half price, $9 full price) strongly from other pork based rolls. The pork meatballs were soft and warm and fell apart, producing an almost pate like consistency that permeated the entire roll.
THOUGHTS of BANH MI All things considered, the banh mi at Pho Hanoi 1979 are very good. They’re a clear winner in terms of being my top banh mi in the area, and will likely likely usurp Thuan Thien Bakery in North Strathfield for my go-to banh mi on the way to work, as long as I’m able to find street parking nearby in the morning.
Whilst $4.50-$5.75 for one of these banh mi is an absolute steal, I think they’re so good that I honestly wouldn’t be in opposition to paying the full $9 for the nem nuong banh mi, for example, especially as local competitors are selling their inferior version for $10.
FURTHER VISIT, LATE 2025
I don’t know why I thought that a bun bo hue ($15.30 with 30% off in the morning, $21.90 full price) was the right thing to eat whilst feeling generally unwell, but this is where fate led me.
What struck me about this meal was just the huge quantities and chunks of protein in it. The cinnamon pork loaf, blood jelly, pork hock, beef, pork sausage and other meat products was absolutely insane in terms of quantity – a full meat meal with a side of noodles and soup. Speaking of the soup, the flavour was OK but again, like almost every other time I’ve had bun bo hue, it didn’t astound me. I think it’s very possible that I’ve stopped enjoying it, and this could be the last bun bo hue review you see on this site.
Probably not a reflection on the quality of this bowl, more just a reflection of my personal preferences.
