Battambang restaurant in Cabramatta is named after the second largest city in Cambodia, known as the leading rice producer of the country and a commercial hub attracting Thais, Laos, Chinese and of course Cambodian traders.
Battambang restaurant in Cabramatta is on the eastern side of town (sometimes even called Khmer side). It's much quieter and sleepier, most people don't even notice this side of town it's so discreet. Dong Vu, Won Kee (although it's Chinese-Cambodian), Dong Son and even the relatively new Bayon are all on the Western side of town and have much greater general community awareness. I hear there's a sister Battambang on John Street, but have yet to find it. Google battambang cabramatta and you'll find a few listings for it but I couldn't even find any recent food blogger reviews.
But that doesn't mean it's no good.
Sure, it's next to a hot bread shop and not much else at the bottom of the shopping strip and the outside is pretty plain. Once inside it's not particularly flash, but it is relatively large and less squeezy than other local eateries - rent is obviously cheaper on the eastern side of Cabramatta.
The menu is written in Khmer, Chinese and Vietnamese and staff are fluently in all three languages. There's a picture menu you should ask for if you don't speak any of these languages. It's pretty much standard fare offered at most Cambodian restaurants, hu tieu, fried noodles, fried rice etc.
Walter ordered fried hu tieu, Cambodian style; rice noodles fried with beef and vegetables (pic at the top of the post). Liking the dark soy sauce which colours the normally white noodles which also gives it great flavour.
I had 'dry' Cambodian hu tieu - the soup comes on the side. Again, the noodles are mixed with a soy, hoi sin sauce which is sweet and salty, and very delicious. My meat were a combination of pork, prawn, offal and congealed pig's blood (the black cube on the right of the pic above); it actually tastes much better than it sounds.
All the ingredients were fresh, lots of flavour but without being over powering. Interesting feel to eat dry noodles and then sip the soup that comes in a separate bowl to wash it down to preference. I found it delicious. Noodlies Sydney food blog will be back!
Battambang Cambodian Restaurant
Shop 4, 156-158 Cabramatta Rd, CABRAMATTA
Phone: (02) 9724 7307
Wow, sounds fantastic, noodlies. Will give this place a go, sounds like a fantastic adventure, thanks.
ReplyDeleteGlad to have helped, let me know what you think, James.
ReplyDeleteI'm loving reading about your adventures in Cabramatta, Footscray's unofficial sister suburb perhaps!? I feel I've found a kindred spirit. There's only one Cambodian place in Melbourne that I know of, and that is Bopha Devi, which is in both Yarraville and Docklands. It's delicious but quite upmarket though. I have had hu tieu in Vietnamese restaurants before but didn't know it was also a Cambodian thing.
ReplyDeleteHey Lauren, maybe we should do a sister city pact! Interesting there's an up market Cambodian, I'm much more used to the relaxed versions we have here. The hu tieu we have is our copy of the Cambodians, sometimes we call it phnom penh noodles, which I also think is a version of a chinese noodle dish.
ReplyDelete