Phu Quoc

Loved this place, Spring rolls are to die for phở pleasantly exceptional, large servings for a great price, travel from the northern beaches, definitely will be returning to try there fresh (make it yourself) rice paper rolls and pork chop and rice. Cash only no eftpos.

THERE seems to be a hundred eateries in Cabramatta from the glitzy (with neon-​flashing lights, gilt ornaments and blaring music), to the tiny (that have a few ageing tables and chairs with a nook crammed with a handful of cooks boiling, frying and grilling). What they all have in common is that they will almost certainly have phở available (and what seems to be hundreds of varieties of it).
The restaurant is clean, provides baby high chairs, has the ubiquitous long communal tables adorned with sauce bottles; tissue boxes; tea thermos and cutlery on hand; and the staff are welcoming of families (and put up with the odd spill). It gets popular from 9am when it opens with locals cramming into chairs.
Phu Quoc’s phở tai is generous and aromatic. It is accompanied by a plate of Asian basil, bean sprouts and lemon wedge (which is used to ‘dress’ the phở). The phở itself is full of thin slices of raw beef (which is slowly cooking in the steamy broth), with chopped spring onion, coriander and slices of onion. Underneath lie a pile of slippery white rice noodles. But what makes phở, well, phở, is the broth. Phu Quoc’s beef broth is dark brown but not murky (it has obviously been skimmed constantly during its hours of simmering), and wafts of star anise with hints of cinnamon. The broth is hearty with those blends of cinnamon and star anise flavours lingering in the mouth. The usual practice is to dress the phở with torn Asian basil and bean sprouts and depending on your constitution — chilli. The basil adds a ‘rawer’ fresh liquorice flavour to the broth. The freshly cooked slices of beef were tender with that milky raw beef flavour that fills the mouth while the rice noodles were not overdone and had just the right firmness to them (they do get a tad soft if wallowing in the soup for too long). If you want to eat phở the «Vietnamese way», the traditional practice is to dip the strips of beef into hoi sin or chilli sauce (and of course bottles of these are on the table), before chewing.
When finished off with a tall glass of café sua da (iced coffee) it’s the ultimate power breakfast to energize the body before crashing through the crowds of shoppers in Cabramatta’s maze of lanes.

Omg this place. I will get on the train and travel over an hour to cabramatta just to have their DIY rice paper rolls (banh hoi). The ingredients they serve are fresh and the banh hoi — some kind of woven rice paper noodles — is like a divine version of rice; so soft and the regular single strands of rice noodles you usually get in rice paper rolls are incomparable to these. One dish is enough to share between two people and the diy aspect is fun and not as difficult as I thought it would be! I have only had the lemongrass pork banh hoi and that was amazing. I will be back to try the other meats for this dish.
I also had phở and this other noodle soup on a previous occasion; the phở’s flavour is great and hard to beat, but unfortunately it was served out warm compared to the hot bun rieu soup we also ordered :\