Bun Ta Kitchen

108 Hopkins Street
Footscray
VIC 3011

We headed out looking for a lunchtime Vietnamese soup hit in Footscray and decided to give the fresh face of Bun Ta Kitchen a try.

Their Facebook page explains that Bun Ta Kitchen is re-launch of the former Huy Huy after the 12 year old business underwent a major renovation late last year. The new look is much more modern and the space is transformed with stylish, light and airy feel.

The menu is extensive, only a few excerpts are shown below, it seems similar to the previous version.

There are plenty of Bun Ta options.

Pho and other rice or egg noodle soups are available too.

We started with the combination spring rolls, which came with the usual lettuce, and thin sweet chilli dipping sauce. The rolls were crunchy and tasty.

The Pho Ga looked good as always, especially after being topped up with bean shoots and Vietnamese basil. There was a mix of types of pieces of poultry and the broth was fair, but not good enough to supplant the favoured local offering.

I had the Hu Tieu Rau Cai - rice noodles with vegetables, which had plenty of bok choy, broccoli and carrot. Unfortunately I had to wait at least 10 minutes after the Pho arrived before my dish came, and even that was after asking about it.

The dishes are still priced competitively for the area and the refurb has certainly brought it up to be at least the equal of any of it's competitors on looks. The food also was up there without quite excelling. Unfortunately the delay between the bowls of soup slightly disappointed on this visit for us.

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Sunshine Pho Fever part 3 - Nhi Nuong - 2 Sisters

255 Hampshire Road
Sunshine
Vic
3020

The third and final stop on the Sunshine Pho Fever tour was actually just a short hop next door to the Nhi Nuong - 2 Sisters restaurant, which relatively recently replaced a previous pho eatery on the same site. The décor was definitely Asian themed,

After a brief and passionate introduction to the restaurant we were treated to a couple of songs from our hosts, which was a welcome surprise.

I went for the beef pho on this occasion which also featured onion. The broth was darker and tasty and the thin slices of beef were tender.

We were also offered stuffed vine leaves, which lived up to expectations.

At the end of the evening we were each given commemorative Melbourne Food and Wine festival bowls and shows bags with more information about Sunshine. Overall the event was successful in getting us to try eating in the local dining establishments, as well as having an enjoyable and filling evening!

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Sunshine Pho Fever part 2 - Thuan An

253 Hampshire Road
Sunshine,
Vic
3020

Thuan An was the second stop on our Sunshine Pho Fever tour and it had the most modern fit out of the evening.

Again we were sat at a long table. We were all served some Jasmine tea in tiny espresso style cups. The speach about our food was made at the other end of the table to us, and it was hard to pick much of it up, I believe they said the pho contained both Northern and Southern Vietnamese elements.

Our entrées were brought out first, the chicken wings had a sweet coating.

The bean shoots and mint leaves were the most well presented that I'd ever seen, although isn't that pile of accompaniments on the side plate part of the pho experience?

The pho had sweet broth and this time the chicken was free of bones.

At the end of the meal the chef appeared.

While Thuan An was certainly the most well presented restaurant and the best looking food, the flavours weren't necessarily any better.

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Sunshine Pho Fever part 1 - Queen's Rose The Sun

229 Hampshire Road
Sunshine,
Vic
3020

After taking part in last years Food Festival in Footscray by helping out towing a Rickshaw, this year we headed to Sunshine to to take part in Sunshine Pho Fever! The event began at the Granary cafe where we had a soft drink in the courtyard.

Here some of hosts and organisers introduced us to the event from Brimbank Council and , which was new this year, we were divided up into two groups for the evening, we didn't see the other group again, so I'm not sire if they went tot eh same restaurants in a different order, or to a different group.

Our first stop was at the interestingly named Queen's Rose The Sun, which had the highest kitsch factor of the night, with several flashing LED signs. We were seated fairly tightly together at a long table.

At each stop there was a place mat specific to the restaurant with some information about it and pictures of the owners or chef.

The owner spoke to us in Vietnamese and her son translated, although in this case it was a fairly brief talk.

We had a choice of beef or chicken at each stop, I went for chicken on this occasion and this and our end seats meant we got a our slightly smaller custom event bowls more quickly. The broth was nicely flavour and came with chicken that had been sliced on the bone, which meant a slightly inelegant eating process ensued. Unusually the rice noodles were broken into short lengths.

With our mains we were also offered an entrée in this case we got some great fresh and crispy pork spring rolls!

Some of the other dinners waited quite a while for their beef pho, but other than that the service was good, given a sudden if planned influx of guests. I'd happily return for pho on another occasion.

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Pho Dzung

234 Russell Street 

Melbourne,
VIC 3000

Another lunch with a friend in the city and they suggested Pho Dzung, not far from the office... I must have walked past it before, but hadn't noticed it. It's on the corner of Russell and Lonsdale street, and while not huge has plenty of signage on the window!

Inside it was very busy on a Friday lunchtime, packed in fact. The fit out featured photo's of the dishes from the menu on the wall and a TV thankfully turned off, but was otherwise fairly plain and modern.

We ended up sharing a table with another group and one other diner right by the counter and under the sign. We got copies of the double sided single sheet menu with photo's of some of the dishes. It also had the addresses of sister restaurants in Richmond and Footscray. I haven't been to either before, the Footscray branch is apparently on Nicholson street near little Saigon market.

We both ordered pho and the herbs, chillies and bean shoots arrived soon, looking pretty fresh... I was warned that the chilli slices were hot, and it turned out to be true, just two slices in the broth was noticeable!

Linda had the beef and tendon pho, apparently the tendon is good for you! The thinly sliced beef was pink and the dish looked great.

I stuck with the tried and tested sliced chicken pho, which contained plenty of tender slices of poultry in the tasty stock. The medium sized bowl which I polished off satisfied my lunch time hunger on its own.

It was easy to understand why Pho Dzung was so popular, good food and reasonable prices - $9.50 for a medium bowl! The only downsides being the level of crowding and having to share tables. The service was pretty efficient, but there wasn't any time for chit chat.... It may have knocked Meekong off top spot for
pho in the city!

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Dong Que

102 Hopkins St
Footscray,
VIC 3011

Dong Que was the one restaurant spot on the Rickshaw Run I hadn't visited before. So it went on to my must visit local restaurant list, which seems to be growing faster than I can chip away at it at the moment, with all the recent Footscray openings... Nestled amongst the string of restaurants lining Hopkins Street, opposite Footscray market, the small frontage doesn't jump out, but does feature enticing photo's of the food on offer inside.

The interior isn't as modern as some of the local competition, featuring a TV showing singing and dancing while we were there and some neon, with older but very clean tables. It was pretty busy when we were there on a Sunday evening, and once we had a table we began perusing the menu, which again displayed photo's of the dishes in the first few pages before listing a wide variety of soups, noodle and rice dishes with some other options too.

We shared the house speciality of the traditional vietnamese spring rolls, served with herbs and iceberg lettuce and a bowl of dipping sauce each, which meant no worries about double dipping! The roll casings were crunchy and a bit more textured than the normal versions, and the contents was probably a bit more meaty.

 The Pho Ga looked good, but the flavour of the broth veered away from our preferences and the chicken wasn't particularly plentiful and was of variable quality.

The stir fried seafood with veggies and rice featured 2 pieces each of fish, squid prawns and scallops, along with some fresh vegetables.

The service was very friendly and pretty speedy given the number of people there, the main dishes did come out at different times though. The bill came in around $30-35. the spring rolls are worth going back for more of, and I'd be tempted to try some other dishes too...

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Saigon Pho

73 Nicholson St,
Footscray, VIC 3011

We may have been to Saigon Pho before, but certainly not for a while. Across the road from Sen and around the corner from the Little Saigon market, this is the bit of Footscray where apart from a few signs you could almost be in South East Asia...

Inside Saigon Pho is modern and clean with an orange theme to the decor.

As would be expected from the name they specialise in noodle soups along with a few rice dishes.

We both went for varieties of Pho and the bean shoots, basil lemon and chilli arrived promptly.

The vegetarian rice noodle soup, pho chay, was a slight variation from my normal selection, the stock and rice noodles were served with plenty of tofu, broccoli, shredded carrot and some fried shallot. The broth was mild but pleasantly flavored, and the other components well prepared.

The Pho Ga was loaded with plenty of tender chicken breast in a rich stock, and was rated as up with the best on offer in Footscray.

The service was friendly and pretty efficient, and our 2 bowls cost us $17. Definitely a good choice if you are looking for pho!




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