I've been a regular at this place for a few years, since it first opened at Ferryden Park and then…read moremoved to Woodville.
Since the move to Woodville, they have up the place to be more trendy and cafe like, and their signatures are on the bowls. It has better parking facilities then the old place as it is across from the train station and the place is more equipped to fit more customers in and disability friendly car parking. So you can either drive here or train it in from the city.
The staff are friendly and efficient and were greeted at the door immediately as we stepped in and we got seated without no hassles or bookings.
The place use to be a pub but now decorated with Vietnamese decorations of rickshaws, plants and feng shui items but still looks cafe, casual setting but trendy.
The meals here range from entrees of $12+, mains are $13+ and they do shared meals of grill it yourself $50 for 2 people, to $80 for 4 people. They have quite an extensive range of meals, from rice combos, vermicelli salads/soups, noodles soups/fried, vegetarian dishes and pho noodle soups. You won't be disappointed here.
Meals can be shared here, as the servings are big or to taste different types of meals. I ordered the:
Combination Vermicelli Salad (Bun Thap Cam): Sugar cane prawn, bbq pork, spring roll, preserved pork loaf, salads served on cold vermicelli noodles with side of fish sauce. This was delicious, the noodles were steamed instead of being boiled, so the texture was flavoursome as it absorbed the spring onions and meats instead of being watery. I really enjoyed the sugar cane prawn and the spring roll. Thumbs Up!
Combination Rice Noodle - Hu tieu Thap Cam (dry version): There is the soup or dry version. I chose the dry as I wanted the flavours of the sauces and meats to be mixed with the noodles as sometimes the soup can make the flavours disappear. With the dry version, it comes with a side of soup. It is pork flavoured soup and the meats are cooked sliced pork, cooked prawns, sautéed ground pork, squid rings, fried garlic and caramelized shallot. It is covered with chives, oil and garlic for the extra taste and garnished with lettuce, cashew nuts and coriander. Thumbs Up!
Hint 1: Ensure you mention to the staff if you want small or large serving, otherwise you will automatically be served/billed a large serving which is very filling. I had to get take-away.
Hint 2: You will be charged for anything extras here, for example hosin sauce for $2.00, take away containers are $0.50.
Overall, Thumbs up and I will be returning very soon to this place.