We were lucky enough to visit SO9 in Waterloo for many reasons. The name might seem like an odd…read morecombination of letters and numbers, which had us curious about the meaning. We learn that SO9 translates to number 9 in Vietnamese. The number 9 is a lucky number and reflects the luck involved in the journey of the restauranteurs, from Vietnam go opening this restaurant. SO9 has an inspired existence, presenting some delicious Vietnamese street food and traditional dishes.Decor wise, the restaurant has an industrial modern feel that is common in many restaurants these days, with neon signage, polished concrete floors and exposed brick which is softened by lighter wooden toned furniture and a number of indoor plants. With an open kitchen allowing for the lovely aromas of the food to fill the restaurant. The staff are also friendly and attentive, we felt very welcome here.SO9 is also a licensed venue with their bar serving a range of beer, cider and wine. There's a range of popular Vietnamese non-alcoholic drinks including sugar cane juice, as well as coffee and milk tea. There are also a bunch of exotic slushies, making for a tough choice. Unfortunately they were out of the coconut, guava and lime. The consolation of coconut lychee and pineapple was very good, there is also the option of boozing these up with vodka or white rum.The assorted rice paper rolls at $15 were fantastic, sizeable, with fresh ingredients and plenty of flavour. In fact, the best we have come across, this was a great start to the meal.The salt and pepper cuttlefish at $15 is also a great snacking option, especially with the dipping sauce, very moreish and we polished this off in no time.The Vietnamese savoury crisp pancakes bahn xeo is always a favourite of ours. We were interested in the crab bahn xeo, but not to be this time, unfortunately this too a popular item that was sold out. In turn the pork and prawn Bahn Xeo was what we had in this visit and at a price of $17, it was certainly generous as it was huge, served in traditional manner with mint, and lettuce to wrap it up and a sweet dipping sauce for added flavour.
With their bahn mi baguettes at only $2 made fresh a serve of this a must and was well utilised mopping up the extremely tasty sauce that came with the roast duck $27. This roast duck was an absolute highlight, a beautiful sweet sauce and moist meat, served atop white rice.We also decided on an interesting and tasty stir fry rice noodle dish with Crab, pork, prawn roe. $25 Bahn pho xao cua rieu, flavoursome and very colourful.This is a high quality Vietnamese option in the Danks Street dining precinct of Waterloo, a definite option for a quck bahn mi lunch, to get a good Vietnamese meal or on cold winter nights, we will return to try some of the soup on the menu.
