Category: Vietnamese

Categories
Malaysian Vietnamese

Ngoodle – Ashfield NSW Restaurant Review

We had a really nice meal at Ngoodle, nice in the sense that the food and service were both very good, but not in the sense that it was overwhelmingly expensive with unnecessary flourishes. It was exactly the perfect kind of niceness for South East Asian cuisine.

We went on the recommendation of the crispy chicken laksa ($19.50), which some guy on the internet said was more expensive than but better than that of Hunter St’s (now relocated to Ashfield, actually) Malay Chinese Takeaway. The laksa was delicious, with such a complex and aromatic arrangement of herbs and spices, and perfect vermicelli. The laksa stood strongly alone without any additional protein, whilst the crispy chicken maryland was juicy and crispy and tender. The combination of the two was of unclear benefit to me, as putting it in the laksa kind of ruined the crispiness of it. I think perhaps a combination or seafood laksa might’ve been the way to go instead, but nonetheless this was a good bowl.

The Pork Chop Dry Noodles ($18) were excellent. The pork chop was a little bit sweet, super tasty with a crispy and melt-in-your-mouth quality. It reminded me of the marmite pork from Albee’s, but just better in most ways. The dry noodles were quite stiff, but pretty good with the sweet dressing and the vegetables – ultimately though the pork chop was the star of this show. It is probably the best fried Asian pork chop I’ve had.

These spring rolls (4 for $7) were super packed with meat and taro, not bad, and good with dipping sauce.

COMMENTS
My partner was really impressed with the main lady working at the front, we thought she might be the owner. She speaks multiple, multiple languages (Vietnamese, Mandarin, Cantonese, English – and those were just the ones we heard over the course of our 45 minute meal), was super attentive to us filling our carafe up with filtered water with a fresh leaf of mint, and seemed to have a really good relationship and even friendship with her regular customers.

Respect, and can definitely recommend.

Ngoodle
234 Liverpool Rd, Ashfield NSW 2131
0490 733 750

Categories
Bakery Vietnamese

Dulwich Hill Pork Roll – Dulwich Hill NSW Restaurant Review

The grilled chicken roll ($8.50) was ordered not on purpose but because the BBQ pork roll was unavailable. It turned out to be pretty good, though with an unexpected amount of shredded lettuce. The chicken meat was tasty with a little bit of sweetness, moist, and plentiful. The bread, and this goes for the bread used in all three rolls, was a little bit crispy but did not cut the mouth. Pretty good all round, and not a type of roll filling I’ve ever ordered before.

The roasted pork roll ($9) was your classic roast pork roll with diced roast pork and crispy pork skin. It was good, and again extra fresh from the lettuce, which I don’t think you see as a common filling in these rolls. I do wish that perhaps more pork could’ve been in this roll, especially as it is on the more expensive side of things (compared to XCel Roll’s well filled $8.50 roast pork roll).

What can I say about this classic Vietnamese pork roll ($7)? It was pretty good, but in no way did it stand out against any competitor. It was standard to a standard tee, happily lacking the shredded lettuce of the two rolls above. It just tasted completely normal, and I can think of no other words to describe it.

Overall thoughts
Dulwich Hill Pork Roll is a pretty standard pork roll place with banh mi of a reliable quality that do not really chart any new boundaries. The ladies who work there were really nice though, and I thought the bread was particularly good as it managed to be both crispy and not give me mouth pain.

Dulwich Hill Pork Roll
6/471 Marrickville Rd, Dulwich Hill NSW 2203
(02) 9518 1964

Categories
Vietnamese

Thuy Huong – Marrickville NSW Restaurant Review

At the recommendation of my learned friend BCSY (who had the same dish in the same restaurant twice in one week) I visited Thuy Huong to have their famous (to him) Fish Cake Noodle Soup (bún chả cá – $15). Sitting as a solo diner next to some kind of nurse and her friend who were kind enough to share their table with me, I had this giant piping hot bowl of noodle soup, dilled to the max with a topping of fish cake and a crispy fried battered fish fillet. I enjoyed a number of things about this bowl of noodle soup, including its excellent high temperature,w hich allowed it to heat the random salad ingredients that I had put in it, the melon, with its general lack of any strong personality, and the dill, the taste of which permeated my entire body. My only qualm as an outsider was that I did not know that the bun rieu also had fish cake, and that the real difference between the fish cake noodle soup and the crab noodle soup was not the fish cake but actually the piece of fried fish on top. Even though the fish fillet was yummy, I wonder if might’ve chosen the crabby alternative had I fully appreciated this subtle difference.

Either way, a solid bowl of noodles.

Thuy Huong
304 Illawarra Rd, Marrickville NSW 2204
(02) 9558 4023

Categories
Vietnamese

Pho Mom – Canterbury NSW Restaurant Review

One intrepid Google Maps reviewer proclaimed Pho Mom the best pho restaurant in all of Canterbury, if only by virtue of it being the only pho restaurant in Canterbury. While I don’t personally know this Johnny Wong gentleman after paying Pho Mom a visit this past week I can certainly echo his sentiments.

The beef special pho ($18.50) came with the standard assortment of rare beef beef balls, and beef tripe, but to be honest apart from this I did not find it to be very special. The ingredients are all fresh and of good quality, but I found the soup to be somewhat one-dimensional, watery and generally lacking in depth of flavour. Perhaps it is merely personal preference, and you can browse the rest of blog to find what kinds of pho I do enjoy, but this bowl just didn’t do it for me.

Though I was let down by the pho, the fried wonton ($13) were a surprise hit. These were incredibly meaty and juicy inside, with good flavour as well as a good sweet and sour sauce for dipping on the side. This was pretty much just a random order, without big expectations, but they truly did impress.

The rice paper rolls ($13) were of good quality with soft rice paper and fresh ingredients inside, but what was really stand-out about these was the great peanut sauce. I’m also happy that we weren’t locked into choosing 4 of the same roll as the menu might suggest, and they were able to give us 2 of 2 different fillings. We had the prawn as well as the pork.

OVERALL
I don’t think Pho Mom really lived up to the name of being the mother of all pho. I found their pho to be their weakest offering, but thought that they exhibited unexpected strength in other areas. Given that they’re just down the road from me, I wouldn’t hesitate to go back and try some of the other options on their menu, but given also our proximity to other high quality Vietnamese restaurants I don’t think I will go back just for pho.

Pho Mom
259 Canterbury Rd, Canterbury NSW 2193
(02) 9789 7284

Categories
Bakery Vietnamese

Phu Cuong King’s Hot Bread – Hurstville NSW Restaurant Review

These were some wildly good banh mi, recommended by KS and ACHT as their favourites some time in 2021 and finally put into my mouth in May 2022. This was a couple who would commute all the way from Parramatta, where they lived, to Hurstville just for a couple of pork rolls, and while I wouldn’t necessarily go that far (Xcel Roll & Bowl in Parramatta is also great), I can see why.

I could tell you all about the sliced pork roll ($6.50) and what makes it great, but the words would essentially be the same as every other review of a pork roll that I’ve liked. The bread is crispy but not cutting, the salad fillings are plentiful and fresh, and the roll is not oversauced. What really sets out Phu Cuong King’s offering is the fact that extra pate is offered right off the bat as a main menu item. Just an additional $1 will get you absolutely loaded up on that delicious extra pate and Vietnamese mayo and send your mouth to a whole other sphere of creaminess and umami. It’s not something secret that you need to ask for, that you’re worried they might not do. It’s right there on the menu. And it’s glorious.

The $10 crackling pork roll was similarly good, though I made the health-and-self conscious decision not to load it up with additional saturated fats. A friend and colleague commented that $10 was too much to pay for a pork roll, which I used to agree with looking at the prices charged elsewhere for a similar item, but no longer do. No one blinks twice at paying $10 for a hyper-processed sub at Subway or $8.60 for a double quarter pounder made on a production line by high school students so why should we be so miserly when it comes to culturally authentic food made from fresh ingredients by ethnic workers?

THOUGHTS
Big fan of the extra pate. Don’t care about the price. Don’t tell my healthcare team.

Phu Cuong King’s Hot Bread
273 Forest Rd, Hurstville NSW 2220
(02) 9585 1697