Dong Ba Restaurant, Vietnamese, Cabramatta

Dong Ba is spreading like wildfire, there's two branches specialising in Bun Bo Hue noodles and one in Bankstown. Now they've just opened a new restaurant, the third Dong Ba in Cabramatta.  This one claims to offer more general Vietnamese food.



When noodlies Sydney food blog tried it recently, we found the menu selection, well, very broad, they still have the single serve dishes like pho, com tam, mi, but added to that are mainly seafood dishes that you order for a family meal.

VietTUB, Cabramatta Tweet Up

A few noodlies Sydney food blog tweet conversations materialised into a tweet up in Cabramatta, at Pho Minh.  In fact, we ended up taking two tables so many people turned up. 

88 Steak House, Fairfield Hotel, Fairfield

It's a rainy Thursday night in a suburban hotel in Sydney's south west.  The Fairfield Hotel is relatively empty but for a table of middle aged Vietnamese.

One couple is singing karaoke, it's a love song, melodramatic in typical Vietnamese style.  My Vietnamese is not good enough to fully comprehend.  But I sense the raw, barely controlled emotion.  When he hits the high notes his voice gets louder as if to mask his feelings, she responds with a kind, feminine, considered croon.

Another couple are swaying slowly, close to each other, but their minds are somewhere else.  While others watch on... like the Pacific Islander barman with a greying beard.  He's bemused but he too, senses something tonight.

Even the pre-recorded karaoke track seem to ooze pathos tonight.

Que Huong Vietnamese, Cabramatta

Noodlies Sydney food blog has been going to Que Huong for over a decade, when they were a successful Vietnamese dessert eatery in a small Cabramatta shopping arcade. Today, they're a fully fledged Vietnamese restaurant offering uncompromising Vietnamese food.



They specialise in many home style Vietnamese dishes like banh xeo (pancake), banh hoi (vermicelli cakes) and a different type of Vietnamese fresh roll called nem cuon; instead of prawn and pork, the meat is nem, a cured pork mince that is bright red as you can see in the video above and the photos below.

Thien Truc Vegetarian, Vietnamese, Cabramatta

Vietnamese Buddhists eat vegetarian for 'ram' (the full and half moon cycles), which is roughly every fortnight. This regular demand explains why there are at least six vegetarian establishments in Cabramatta.  The Vietnamese love their food, so care is taken to make the food taste good as well as look good.



Today, we're at Thien Truc (heavenly bamboo) on Hughes street and we start off with bo bia (below), it's a different type of Vietnamese fresh rolls, made with pork skin rather than pork and prawns.  Of course, this is the vegetarian version.

Dong Ba Bun Bo Hue, Cabramatta

Bun bo hue is a fearsome, authentic and uncompromising Vietnamese soup. It demands more and it gives more. Where you would appreciate the subtle sweetness of Pho, you're whacked in the face with chili and lemongrass, as well as a congealed blood cube and a pig trotter or two.

Tan Hung Vuong, No 1 Cabramatta Centre, Cabramatta

Banh cuon has been a favourite dish of mine since I was around 7yo.  It was always such a treat for breakfast, the warm rice noodles enveloping pork mince and mushroom over a bed of lettuce, mints, bean sprouts and cha lua; a delicious Vietnamese pork devon.   Oh and the burnt onion on top gives it even more flavour.

I'd pour loads and loads of fish sauce on top of everything and devour it all in minutes.

Pho 76, Stocklands, Wetherill Park

There are Viet restaurants firmly in the Cabramatta/Canley Vale/Canley Heights/Bankstown/Marrickville Vietnamese heartland, then there are those that have taken the mainstream plunge, loud and proudly Vietnamese in the City, inner city, east and north shore.

Then there's Pho 76, that's somewhere in between, Wetherill Park is well within Viet heartland but also exposes them to a more diverse customer base.  And they're doing amazingly well.  It's a decent sized eatery that is generally bustling.

Annie's Vietnamese Noodle Soup

It's a hole in the wall Vietnamese restaurant in a suburban mall in Crows Nest, but this little beauty serves delicious and authentic food.

I ordered beef vermicelli noodles and surprisingly the beef had strong taste that wouldn't be out of place in the heart of Saigon.  Likewise the accompanying fish sauce was no wimpy Viet-Aussie compromise.  The ingredients including mint were fresh and tasty.

Noodlies Sydney food blog will be coming back here!

Annie's Vietnamese Noodle Soup
10/103 Willoughby Road, Crows Nest
(02) 9439 9388

Pho 54 Vietnamese Restaurant, Cabramatta

It's not Studio 54, but Pho 54 is as hip and almost as retro.  It's been around for at least 20 years and it has been continuously popular aided by a very loyal fan base that promote the restaurant through word of mouth.



Pho 54 gets its name in the usual Vietnamese convention of using the street number.  It's on 54 Park Road in the Cabramatta mall.  It's a small restaurant, but the owners have made the most of the space.

Video Guide: How to eat Pho?

The noodlies, mint and sprouts are clean and fresh, but as always, it's the soup that sets a good pho apart from the also-rans.  While Pho Tau Bay's soup is sweet and Pho Minh more salty from the fish sauce, Pho 54 is smooth and balanced and yet still very tasty.  And as you can see from the picture, extremely well presented, to the point of being mouth-watering!

2010 noodlies Sydney's Best Pho restaurant

Pho 54 Vietnamese Restaurant
54 Park Rd, Cabramatta
(02) 9726 1992

Rise Cafe, Cabramatta

It's not all pho and som tum in Cabramatta, Aussie-style cafes are popping up including Rise Cafe.  Before Walter goes off for a month in Cambodia we thought we'd treat him to some aussie beef.  I had the house steak above, while he had the steak sandwich below.

Gia Hoi Vietnamese Restaurant, Canley Heights

We're back again for bun bo hue after re-acquainting ourselves at Dong Ba Vietnamese Restaurant in Cabramatta less than a week ago.  Bun bo hue contains several types of meat include pork; quite a fatty cut, beef and even a pig trotter or two.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, Gia Hoi is up there in Sydney for bun bo hue and I should mention they have a branch on George St, Chinatown, next to Pho Pasteur.  As for this original branch, the 20% opening special is still applicable, after many, many years of successful operation.

Fairfield Advance: Billy's Pho is souper

 
Billy's pho is souper - noodlies Sydney's best pho 2010
Fairfield Advance, p11
Wed, 25th August, 2010

Pho Minh Vietnamese Restaurant
42 Arthur St
Cabramatta NSW 2166
(02) 9726 5195

Hai Au Vietnamese Restaurant, Canley Vale

Hai Au has been consistently on my Best Restaurants in Cabramatta list.  We came back tonight because they have this new roast chicken which is done at the entrance to the restaurant (see above).  The chicken is wrapped in banana leaves and cooked over an enormous flame (below).

 

Bon Mua, Vietnamese Canley Heights

Bon Mua (four seasons) did pretty well in the recent noodlies Sydney's Best Pho poll so we decided to give it a try.  It's one of the newer restaurants in Canley Heights and Bon Mua is at the Cumberland Hwy end of the restaurant strip. 

Tan Ky Vietnamese Restaurant, Cabramatta

Vietnamese bun mang vit (duck, noodles and bamboo) consists of three parts:

• the cold duck salad that also contains offal and topped with Viet spearmint
• vermicelli in soup that was used to cook the duck and 
• the ginger chilli fish sauce

Duy Linh Vegetarian Restaurant, Cabramatta

Vegetarian duck and bamboo soup

Duy Linh is this Sydney food blog's favourite vegetarian restaurant in Cabramatta.  They make an effort to make the food taste good as well as look good.  They also tend to make vegetarian food taste and look like the meat equivalent, which isn't to everyone's taste.  Today I had the vegetarian version of duck and bamboo soup.

This one at least doesn't taste too much like meat.. I'm guessing it's hard to make something taste like duck.  But it was tasty.

Walter had the vegetarian version of bo kho tieu - beef cooked in fish sauce pepper.  This dish looked and tasted remarkably like the meat equivalent.

Duy Linh Vegetarian
117 John St (Entry via Hill St)
Cabramatta

Where did Pho An place in Noodlies Sydney's Best Pho?

Silver Medal treat for Noodlies (Sydney food blog)
The Canterbury-Bankstown Express, Tuesday 21st September 2010

Pho An
29 Greenfield Pde, Bankstown
02 9796 7826

Cabramatta Moon Festival 2010: Quick Eats

Vegetarian spring rolls etc, sweets, nem nuong, roasted corn (clockwise from top left)

While we did our own bit of progressive eating at Cabramatta Moon Festival today, there were lots and lots of other fantastic stalls of food. 

Some of my favourites were the vegetarian stalls where proceeds go to local temples, fresh rolls, spring rolls, goi...

Another favourite of mine is roasted corn.. I think you have to be Vietnamese to understand why it so tempting.

Cabramatta Moon Festival 2010: Progressive Eating!

Yummi Desserts

Cabramatta Moon Festival 2010 was on and we intended to eat our way through it.  Starting at 11am we eased ourselves in with coffee and sweets at Yummi on Park Road.  Walter had custard apple shake, while I had a Vietnamese iced coffee, which was sweeter than I'm used to, but very, very nice.

Banh Uot

Barely an hour later, lunch was at Que Huong in the Belverdere Arcade.  Walter had banh uot, which was thick rice noodles, with cha lua, nem, bean sprouts and other vegies topped with fish sauce.

Hu Tieu

The owner recommended hu tieu and that's what I had.  Glass noodles with a combination of meats, pork, prawns (quite a common mix).  The soup had a strong salty flavour which I really liked and the burnt garlic and onion really lifted for me.

Fruit salad

Only another hour later, we had dessert at a new place, Cafe The Duyen in a laneway off John Street. After so much eating I settled for a cleansing fruit salad.  It was fresh and tangy.  Washed it all down with Vietnamese hot coffee (made with a layer of condensed milk).

Vietnamese coffee

Yummi Sweets
Park Road
Cabramatta

Que Huong Restaurant
16/70 John St
Cabramatta NSW 2166
(02) 9723 9916

Cafe The Duyen
4/98 John St
Cabramatta NSW 2166
(02) 8764 8394