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. All meals are independently paid for - the author has no conflicts of interest to disclose.
My partner and I visited the number one rated (by averages) Italian restaurant in Wollongong last night, with an average of 4.9 stars across 60 reviews. Despite this, we were the only customers at Dom on Bruelli during our meal, with a staff to customer ratio of 2:1, which was maintained by the arrival of another couple just as we were leaving.
Seated in one corner of the extremely narrow but long restaurant, we had our choice of two pizzas and nothing else.
The salsiccia pizza ($28) was the less enjoyable of the two – a very mildly flavoured white pizza with a topping of sliced potato, confit garlic, parsley, fennel sausage, and a mixture of cheeses – ricotta, fior di latte, and parmesan.
Though I’m usually not one to complain about food being untasty, I’m afraid I have to in this case. In what I would consider an unusual move, the sausage was sliced rather than presented as caseless clumps on the pizza, and though this in itself didn’t distract from their flavour, their sparseness as well as their generally mild taste did mean that the pizza overall was less tasty. The different cheeses also were minimally salted, with the ricotta disappeared into the molten amalgamation, further adding to this problem. The potato slices were semi-crispy and again minimally seasoned. Perhaps the saving grace of this pizza was the restaurant’s housemade chilli oil, which added a bit of flavour and complexity to both the pizza at large as well as its voluminous crust.
I found the diavola pizza ($28) much more enjoyable, with bold flavours from the San Marzano tomatoes, fermented chilli, sopressa, nduja, and the rare appearance of guindillas, which I’ve not had before on a diavola. The presence of these little pickled chillis was key to adding an interesting zest and freshness to the pizza, cutting through the fatty fior di latte and meats, and making this a special pizza overall.
Thoughts on the structure The base of this pizza was thin and floppy, meaning that we found that our slices were best eaten folded. Contrastingly, the crusts were voluminous, comprising a large percentage of the overall surface area of the pizza. Whilst my partner heretically discarded her crusts, I dutifully consumed all of mine with the help of chilli oil. But did there need to be so much?
I also just have no idea how they could possibly make money with 2 customers at a time during our 36 minute snapshot visit. Hopefully it got a bit businer for them as the night went on, but I suspect the huge patronage from the Wollongong Thursday night food market takes away from the local restaurants a bit.
Dom on Burelli 1/63 Burelli St, Wollongong NSW 2500
KINX was one of our favourite vaguely local cafes when we lived in the Canterbury-Bankstown area, and we were sad to hear of it changing hands at the start of this year.
I started seeing teasers of KINX ex-owners Duc and Tina’s new venture, Saigon Things, on social media a couple of weeks ago, but it was only when someone let slip an external shot with a photo of the phone number of the massage parlour next door that I was able to pinpoint the (conveniently very local) location and imbibe in a soft-opening feast.
First things first, that it was a soft opening can’t be stated enough. Apart from a couple of social media posts not mentioning the location, there was really not much to go on to know what to expect. There was no menu online, and not even a Google Maps entry for the business – how exciting.
The restaurant was a short walk from free parking in Strathfield Plaza, through a street lined with very active and bustling Korean and Vietnamese restaurants, that on any other day would’ve tempted us away from an as-yet unproven Saigon Things, but we had a destination and a plan and would not be swayed. We pushed through a door sign in Korean, a remnant from the restaurant’s previous tenants, into a restaurant with only one other group seated, but we given KINX’s track record, we knew that this was just due to it being undiscovered, rather than unpopular.
The first thing that we were told when we sat down was that no less than five of the menu options were unavailable that night. Such soft opening vibes! As we made our orders, we were told that one of the components of one of the dishes that was available was not available and would have to be substituted. Unpreparedness! Soft opening!
Our drink came rapidly, but food seemed to come table by table – the other table present had three or four things served by the time we had our first, but we’re going to take that as yet another soft opening thing. The yakult mocktail ($11), which I will attempt to describe without a copy of the drinks menu on hand (something I expect won’t be available online for some time), was good in some way but could’ve been better in others. First things first, it was very sweet, full of tropical flavours, strong on the pineapple and with hints of some mango as well. An element of interest were these salty (preserved?) white flowers, that were crunchy and provided a welcome and interesting contrast to the too-sweet drink. Given it was my wife’s order, I didn’t actually know it was meant to be yakult based, and could not pick this as a flavour or component that was meant to be presented – I think it would’ve been better described as a pineapple tropical mocktail.
After what felt like a considerable wait (though as evidenced by timestamps really only 14 minutes from drink to food service), we received our first food item, the Bamboo Platter/ Cham Cuon – Bánh Ướt Chả & Thịt Nướng/beef, pork, noodle sheet ($50.80). The idea was to roll our own rice paper rolls, with the variety of ingredients presented – grilled Angus intercostal, steamed pork sausage, rice noodle sheets, rice noodle rolls, fresh and pickled vegetables, herbs, and toppings. The rice noodle rolls that we were told they had run out of (at 6PM – the restaurant’s opening time) made a miraculous appearance. Did having to go get these from a nearby Asian grocer delay service? Or did they just manage to find them in the fridge? Either way the whole concept of having rice within rice reminded me of that Xzibit meme – yo dawg, I heard you like rice so we put rice in your rice.
Some other guy’s wife made him a very beautiful looking roll, but mine neglected to, and this is the best that we got. Our complete inability to roll any semblance of a rice paper roll aside, this was a really good tasting dish. I’m one to load my pho up with all of the Vietnamese basil available, and have never said no to pickle carrots, so the variety of fresh and pickled flavours was excellent for me, though I thought the half full little bowl of chilli and garlic was a bit of a let down (was more on offer if we had asked?). The beef , though having some sinewy bits, was grilled to a good level of smokiness, though I thought that the steam pork roll could’ve been greater in quantity to match that of the beef.
This Cơm Chiên / Saigon Fried Rice ($22) is the second best fried rice I’ve had in the five years I’ve been writing this blog (the first goes to a great fried rice at Peko Peko in South Melbourne that you are likely to hear about next month.
The rice presents with a low to medium degree of wok hei scent, which could’ve been stronger but is still near the top of its class. Each individual grain of rice was coated in oil and well separated, evidence of a good quality stir frying technique. The chilli crisp added nice crunch but not much spice to the dish, and inspired us to get some non-lao gan ma chilli crisp from an Asian grocer (bridging the gap hopefully between a $4 jar and a $20 made in Australia jar) on the way home. Perhaps the best part was the little pieces of deep fried pork lard, crispy and melty, something that’s previously made an appearance in Hokkien Kia’s exemplary char kway teow, but not something I had seen elsewhere apart from that. The lap cheong was a little different to what I’ve had before, larger in diameter and sweeter than the usual, but different in a pleasant way that distinguished itself from being a stock standard Chinese fried rice. The pickled mustard greens mentioned on the menu were not identifiable, but there was the surprise inclusion of corn kernels, which did not detract from the experience.
I was getting quite full by the time the Sườn Heo Nướng Mắm Ruốc/ Fermented Shrimp Pork Ribs ($48), but managed to happily enjoy them. The flavour was prawny and interesting, though what separated this dish from the others was that I didn’t feel like it was miles ahead of what my wife makes at home on a regular basis. I would have significant difficulty trying to replicate the rice paper platter or even the perfection of the fried rice in my home kitchen, but my wife has gotten very good at putting pork ribs in the oven over the past few years, and I can imagine a world in which we’d get probably 80% of the way there with the cooking of the pork, and 70% of the way there with the fermented prawn flavour.
What I don’t think we could accomplish at home, however, was actually the salad that was served with the ribs. The julienned pieces of carrot, apple and onion were so bright and crunchy, with extra crunch from the peanut and fried shallot toppers, that I feel like the salad was more special than the pork itself. The acidity of the apple and the dressing cut through the (slight) fattiness of the pork ribs very well, and made for an excellent pairing overall.
Other thoughts Wow! Soft opening! We saw the owner hand beers to and hug a couple of of different people they knew throughout the night, and though they still have some kinx to iron out, it really did feel like we were experiencing the start of something special, for friends and family and random guys off the street who googled the number of the massage parlour next door.
I saw one such random guy eat a very tasty looking pho so that will be on my mind next time.
Saigon Things REDUX, MAY 2026
I was surprised to see Saigon Things pop up on one of those time-limited discounted dining apps for struggling restaurants I’ve been trying recently, as our memory from our visit eight months ago during their soft opening was overwhelmingly positive. Even though the discount was only about 20%, it didn’t make sense to us that SGT would need such a promotion to drive in customers – but both as a sucker for a discount and a sucker for pho we figured we’d check it out.
The place has changed a little in the eight months since their soft opening. The menu’s been focused down significantly, and neither the fried rice nor the pork ribs are available any more. Instead, in addition to the DIY rice paper roll platters, they remain focused on pho and other noodle soups (BBH, banh canh cua), vermicelli salads, and broken rice.
Both pleasingly and unpleasantly we found ourselves waiting about 25 minutes for a table at 2PM on Sunday . Pleasingly – because I enjoy their food and want them to succeed as a restaurant – any fears of their lack of success by the simple presence on the discounted meals app evaporated when we were faced with a piece of paper with 5 names ahead of us – and unpleasantly because my wife was quite hungry.
We had a combination beef pho /Phở Thập Cẩm ($23.80) with angus topside, brisket, tendon, beef ball, and bible tripe – the Đặc Biệt title reserved for their special combination including beef marrow – a $38.80 bowl which we could not justify, even with a small discount.
This bowl of pho was positively huge, with a gigantic serving of soup providing a large thermal mass for the heating of all of the bean sprouts, which went in immediately at the start. The serving of rice noodles and beef and beef bits was actually a little bit more modest in relation to the size of the bowl, but still adequate for the enjoyment of our marriage.
The noodles in particular were bouncy, and not formidable in their quantity. I sometimes find myself working on eating the noodles of a bowl of pho as if it is my job rather than it is for enjoyment, and I actually enjoyed the noodle-light ratio of this bowl.
The soup was light and umami, avoiding being too oily or cloying. There was a stronger flavour of star anise than the pho most recent in my memory at Pho Song Huong – enjoyable and in no way a complaint, and it was similarly less sweet than their faraway competitor (also a good thing).
The ingredients were all of high quality – the rare beef, the particularly tasty, tender and juicy brisket, and the tripe, which is sadly rare to see, even in some Asian predominant suburbs of Sydney.
Parts of the tendon still had pieces close to the muscle, providing an enjoyable difference in texture, with no unusual aftertaste. It was overall an excellent bowl of pho, that I would enjoy having again in the future.
The pork tomahawk (350g) & fried egg broken rice Cơm Tấm Sườn Heo Tomahawk và Trứng ($26.80) was a slight upgrade over the standard grilled pork chop broken rice, and again, a huge serving. All of the components of this dish were good, ranging from the moist broken rice, the pickled julienned carrots, to the perfectly runny sunny side up fried egg, whose yolk, once broken, permeated the rice with golden richness.
SGT’s broken rice also featured the pieces of deep fried pork lard previously seen in their fried rice (RIP), which were again crispy, melty, and moreish, and not something I’ve had before with a broken rice.
The tomahawk pork chop, which we cut into little bite sized pieces with scissors (a hack that is new to us, something we learned by watching the woman on the table next to us. Every day at SGT is a school day), was perfectly juicy – both in the lean pieces and the pieces with some fat attached, with a slightly sweet taste of marinade and some charred flavour from the grill.
Finally came the cheesy salted plum sweet potato fries / Khoai Lang Lắc Phô Mai Xí Muội ($13.80). This main-sized entrée snack was ordered really as a hedge following a long wait outside for a table, and a hungry-on-her-way-to-hangry wife. The fact that our pho came about 2 minutes after we sat down and ordered was enough to satisfy us and tell me that we really didn’t need to order this entrée on top of our two mains, which actually both arrived before it.
As far as the actual food goes, I didn’t love it as much as some other online commentators. Many of the major textural components were good – the sweet potato was soft and moist, and the batter was light and crispy – but the flavouring was where it fell short for us. The sweet potato fries were dusted in two powders – a plum dust, and a snow cheese dust. Whilst we enjoyed the plum dust (which kind of reminded me of duck sauce), neither my wife nor I could particularly get around the snow cheese, which we referred to during our meal as cheeto dust. To be fair, we also don’t enjoy snow cheese when it comes atop Korean fried chicken, which is the only other place we’ve ever come across it. Is it Vietnamese?
Overall my second visit to Saigon Things, trying their staples pho and broken rice, was excellent. Whilst I would avoid the sweet potato fries (as cheese dust is not to our taste) in the future, I cannot hesitate to recommend a visit to this restaurant.
Saigon Things 28/45-47 The Boulevarde, Strathfield NSW 2135
We waited in line for about 20-30 minutes, after 8PM on a weeknight, for a couple of bowls of pretty good noodles. Luckily, our time in line was not wasted, with a supply of complimentary plum juice and an Anki MCQ deck of recent vintage. In retrospect, this line is also probably where I got a viral URTI just before my exam, leading to a practical learning point about the hypothalamic set point.
The Biang Biang Noodles, Four-in-One 四合一面 （宽面）($17.90) were pretty good, coming as a large portion with a perfect ratio of topping to noodle. The noodles were ultra broad and chewy, though could only be moderately coated by the sauce unlike some other highly-coated competitors. While this was a good bowl of noodles, and somewhat of a staple that can be eaten over and over again, I would hesitate to really elevate my praise of it to that of one of the greats.
The Lamb stir fried shredded noodle cakes 羊肉炒饼丝 ($20.90) was an absolute mountain of a plate. Loaded with shredded noodle, lamb, egg, and a bit of vegetables, it was all stir fried together to achieve a level of yellow-brown normally confined to UK cuisine. The flavour was subtle on first bite, but as I began to eat more and more mouthfuls it seemed to build upon itself, like amiodarone inhibiting its own metabolism, until a high tier of umami enjoyment was achieved. For those wondering, the lamb was not very ‘lamby’, and game-hesitants need not avoid.
The lamb stir fried noodles were only made better through the addition of the bonus toppings, chilli oil (which was delicious, and not very spicy) and evil green garlic (known to me for many years from the short videos of recipes involving water specifically from the Mississippi River, but not tasted until now), which added a nice tang and cut through the oiliness of the dish.
A bean curd side was also included, though it was not fantastic nor something I would’ve paid for.
Overall I had a pretty good meal, although again I have to wonder why a restaurant would offer a 5% discount for cash payments. Has this always been happening or have I only begun to notice it recently?
Straight off the heels of having tried the Chive and Egg Dumplings from Ruyee, here are my brief thoughts on their Golden Potstickers with Chives Egg and Dried Shrimp (黃金鍋貼 韭菜鸡蛋虾皮). Dedicated readers do not have to fear, for these quickly jotted down thoughts will not interrupt the usual posting schedule.
These are clearly smaller than the previously reviewed egg and chive pockets. The photo on the packet has them being cooked still stuck together as a batch, though they did not come this stuck together in the packaging.
Though the supermarket I brought them from advertised them as chive, egg, and prawn, I could not appreciate any prawn whilst eating them, and a subsequent a close reading of the packaging revealed that the prawn was only dried prawn.
I’m open to any suggestions about how to de-carbonise the sides of my stainless steel cookware. Barkeeper’s friend doesn’t get rid of all of it, so often I find it’s less drama to just use carbon steel.
All faffing aside, these were only fine. The wrapper to filling ratio I felt was weaker than that of the ‘pockets’, and given the choice of the two I would choose those instead.
Ruyee Golden Potstickers with Chives Egg and Dried Shrimp (黃金鍋貼 韭菜鸡蛋虾皮) 9369999096892
I’ve been getting a lot of char kway teow content on my Instagram feed recently. This meal is the result not of any specific paid advertising for the restaurant in particular, but possibly influenced by the Sydney Malaysian food cabal.
The Penang Famous Char Koey Teow 著名炒果条 ($18.50) was pretty good. I guess there are a number of ways to romanise the same Chinese words, and this is what it’s listed as on the menu. The dish was savoury, and not too salty. It featured quite a few large prawns, though not much char siu or other meats. There was a reasonable degree of smokey wok hei flavour, though probably less than that of nearby competitor Hokkein Kia. There was a degree of crispiness, but again less pronounced than Hokkein Kia, which had quite prominent pieces of fried lard. As a trade-off it felt less oily overall, which I guess is a plus.
The Loh Bak 卤肉条 ($5.50) was pretty good, well priced for a quick snack. Crispy on the outside and moist on the inside, served with a brown slurry that wasn’t pictured on the electronic menu. The lady explained to us (after I had tried drinking it) that it is a soup base that they use for one of their noodle dishes, designed for dipping.
I didn’t love the Bak Kut Teh (Dry) 肉骨茶(干) ($26.50), rice included. It was meaty, full of pork and fish balls, and having a mild bak kut teh aroma and taste, but in comparison with the CKT just didn’t wow or astound.
The 槟岛式茶冰 Penang-Style Iced Teh Tarik ($7.50) was pretty good, however tasted pretty close to the green can of Mesona grass jelly herbal tea drink. It was just around the right level of sweetness, which is not something that I can say for all iterations of this drink. It seemed quite overpriced to me though, probably not worth more than a nasi lemak or half a CKT.
The Bungkus Nasi Lemak 椰浆饭 ($6.50) we had for take-away, because we obviously ordered too much food to eat in one go. I liked it. It was fragrant, the rice was moist, even after a stint in the fridge and another stint in the microwave, and the flavours were umami and well balanced. Note that only half the serving is pictured, because my girlfriend ate her half without me.
Overall The char kway teow was pretty good – a slightly different approach to that of Hokkein Kia across the road, but just as valid.
