Ribs
Famous for their ribs. Too soft for my liking but still had me coming back for more.    [10 Nov 2006 12:46:54]

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Recommended Dishes: Ribs

     ­Jon Wright, Saigon   

Famous Ribs
This restaurant is famous for their ribs. I'm not a huge fan of eating pork, in fact, I have never enjoyed eating pork except from the times Ive eaten these ribs at Alfrescos. Its a good alternative if you had 'enough' asian food.Besides,the owner is Australian and the service is very good.    [05 Aug 2007 12:29:02]

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     ­Anonymous   

nice lite lunch
Representations of mystique surround such ideas as international and export quality. In food we seem to think it sets things apart for them to have come from somewhere else. And indeed sometimes it does. I was intrigued to see the menu for this place stressing Australian steak and Australian barramundi.

Australia is of course, rightfully famous for both. However, when I lived in the Top End of Australia, where our famous barramundi hail from, they were basically an export crop because their flesh was too weak to hold up under the rigours of filleting and frying. It has the texture of tinned tuna, mushy and easily broken down. Aussies love their fish filleted and fried.

So the eateries in Darwin used to quietly import Thai barramundi, which for some reason has a much firmer flesh and presents in the mouth with a much nicer texture. Tourists flocked to eat Top End barra without a clue that they were actually eating Thai barra. The Top End barra gets offloaded to places like Dong Du, and there we boast about it being Australian, as if that's something special.

So I tried some for my lunch. Sure enough, soggy mushy flesh once I cracked through the bakelite crust of beer batter. OK, but not good quality.

Aussie barra should not be filleted, but cooked whole as the VNese like their fish prepared. Say: roasted whole over hot coals. Then, Top End barra is delicious.

The menu said fish and chips, but I got French fries not chips. Representations of mistake, to accompany the representations of mystique. Typical French fries at that: crunchy, like thick blunt toothpicks, way overcooked, flavourless. Why are there so few trendy eateries whose cooks know how to prepare and serve good chips?

The side salad was cucumber (two thin slices), one slice of tomato and two rings of white onion, on a bed of lettuce leaves. Straight out of the VNese salad textbook - small and disappointing.

I had one of their lunch deals whereby you get two courses for 100,000 VND. I chose a clear vege soup as my first course. Not bad, fresh crunchy little tiny bits of vege, served in a very small bowl, with two thin slices of VNese baguette on the side.

A nice lite lunch, but nothing to write home about. In fact, one could write home, and say Aussie barra is just like we know it to be.

Ambience pleasant and service likewise.    [15 Aug 2007 04:05:51]

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Recommended Dishes: clear vege soup

     ­ian   

worst pizza
On the occasion that resulted in the above review, as I paid the bill, I got sent off with a bundle of items, like the goodies in a kid's showbag: namecard, frequent diner card, home delivery menu.

Some evenings later, in need of a pizza, I decided to give their home delivery service a try. Nothing wrong with the service, prompt, free as advertised, a new easy delivery card number for me and my address. But the pizza was something else.

Now, I got bagged on this site a while back for advocating pizzas from Chez Guido, with other reviewers joining in to offer their tuppence worth about that. But the four or five delivery pizzas I have had from Guido have been so much better than this one, it isn't funny.

In fact, it's isn't funny at all. This was the worst pizza I have had in my entire life. Soggy bread, ingredients swamped in a sauce that looked like a patch of vomit. Thankfully it didn't smell that way, but it tasted bland and mulchy.

OK, it's a sample size of one. Let's hear from some other diners who've had better experiences with home delivery at this place.    [20 Aug 2007 01:40:56]

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     ­ian