Mints

Having lived most of my Brisbane life in the inner west, Mints is the absolute go to for a quality meal that’s reliably good. I’m not ashamed to admit that I order Mints Takeaway at least once a week. Even now living a 15 minute drive from the restaurant with other Vietnamese options available locally I am not willing to compromise my ever so good relationship with their phenomenal rice paper rolls.
Staff are attentive and service is speedy, the owner of the restaurant is an absolute Gem, always greets with a smile and exceptionally friendly. Tucked away inside rosalie village parking can be an issue but even parking two blocks over wont deter me from maintaining this good relationship. Prices aren’t heap but this is certainly a case of «you get what you paid for». Top pic!

Visited this restaurant last night, for the first time although I’ve been to the restaurants next door, I hadn’t given this a try.
So we went with a group of four for a birthday dinner, and shared a wonderful collection of roasted duck, prawns, hot beef pepper & fried crab, and I have to say that it was delicious and I was more than happy with our choice.
The service was fast, friendly, and there where no issues with that, they kept our water glasses filled up and where more than happy to answer questions. I give this a big thumbs up and recommend the great food for a reasonable price.

Hard one to review this place. If you’d asked me a year or two ago I would have given it a solid 5 star rating. But to be honest something has changed here… or maybe it’s us. Sure we have a 2yo and we eat early. But the service is totally random. It’s like there’s a bunch of young kids serving and they have no idea. Like another reviser posted, chopsticks have to be asked for. Seriously. We be even had out meal serviced and no eating utensils at all. And yes we actually had to ask for them! We often arrive at opening time (5pm) and order promptly as we know what we want (regardless of the working of the menu, it’s pretty easy to work out). But they’re not actually ready to open when they open. I mean the tables aren’t set and the staff seem pre occupied setting the numerous tables (which admittedly do often fill up) but neglect the customers who are already there (a bird in the hand as they say). Anyway the food is great, but with a young one it’s a shame that when they open, they not ready to open. The staff need to be paid to arrive earlier (the wait staff arrive at 5 usual– we’re all sitting out front at the same time!). Not sure when the kitchen staff arrive but it take a long time to receive your order when ur first cab off the rank. Much quicker later in the night when everything is running on all cylinders. So unfortunately for us, this place has dropped off our regulars radar. A shame. We actually go right next door to Sings Asian Kitchen. Who are open and serving (fast) early. Sorry Mints. We love the food and the «mum» who runs the till is lovely and remembers is when we do visit, but it needs to be consistent from the minute it opens.

This is such a well known Vietnamese restaurant in the Inner-​West and it is usually bustling with Rosalie and Paddington locals. It is known for its affordable menu and fresh authentic dishes.
I dined here recently with a group of friends and there we just small things lacking from the beginning that amounted to letting down the whole experience. For example, having a booking made for five and only four places set. Having to ask more than three times for some of the items ordered. The easiest of our groups mains taking the longest to arrive. A good 5−10mins after the rest of our meals had been delivered to our table.
Feeling like something light and healthy, I opted for the chicken vietnamese salad bowl which lived up to expectations of being fresh, cooling and filling. The vietnamese iced coffee I had was, as Gemma L mentioned, perfectly balanced. A word on ordering though, if you get the rice paper rolls, skip the vietnamese salad or vice versa. It’s too same-​same.
Perhaps it was just an off night or we were expecting far too much. I will keep this one up my sleeve for a cheap take-​away option when you just want the lightness of a few rice paper rolls for lunch or dinner.

The name «Mints» is just confusing. Why the ‘s’ on the end? Sounds like «mince» when you say it out loud… mmmm going to mince for dinner. Just sounds wrong.
Not sure I understand the hype about Mints either. Like, why on our pre booked table for 5 people were there 5 water glasses but only 4 plate settings? And why not have the actual real name for things on the menu instead of some vague english interpretation. You can have both, Mints. It would be the best of both worlds if you did! People could learn some vietnamese menu language, and people who are already fluent in vietnamese menu would be less confused about what they were actually ordering.
The food at Mints was pretty ok when we ate here. The salty spicy quail thing I had for entrée was indeed salty. It was just a bit concerning that this came out after my main of «hue’s spicy beef soup» (bun bo hue if you are viet menu fluent). Also confusing was why one person at our table’s meal had to be asked for about 3 times after everyone else had long received their food. And it was a DIY rice paper roll thing too, so surely that should have been one of the first things to come out… abd my whole thoughts on DIY’ing food at restaurants is a whole different matter for another time.
Props for the good vietnamese white iced coffee though. Just the right amount of condensed milk for me. And the prices are pretty good. But the service is pretty random. Having to ask for chopsticks several times is a bit ridic IMO, just chuck them on the table like they do in Inala. Also chuck on some condiments cause I want that spicy spicy sriracha all day long.
So Mints, just work on that and also drop the ‘s’ and we’ll be ok.

I really enjoyed our last visit to MINTS. Its a fresh trendy eatery right in the center of the up market inner city suburb of Rosalie in Brisbane.
The café specializes in Vietnamese and Asian Cuisine and is BYO. It is open Tuesday to Sunday and opens fro lunch (11am to 2.30pm) and Dinner from 5pm to 10pm. It caters for EFTPOS with a minimum spend of $ 20. It also allows Take Outs!
We enjoyed the Fish Cakes for $ 12.90 a plate and had Grilled Pork Chop with Salad for $ 14.90. You have various dishes to chose from ranging from Entrees, Soups, Rice Vermicelli Salad Bowl, Rice Paper And Salad Wrap (wrap your own), Rice Dishes, Salad Dishes, Chef Recommendations, Sizzling Dishes, Sweet and Sour Dishes.
You got to try it when you are next around Rosalie or Paddington.

I can’t decide between 3 and 4 stars. I have eaten at Mints a few times over the past year and most times I would rate it 4 stars, good flavours, fresh vegetables and great sauces for the stir fries.
Last night we got take away and while it was good it was not up to the same standard as most other visits. The lemon grass and chili chicken was good but just missing that little bit extra goodness that has been there in the past. I am pregnant so maybe my taste buds are a bit off right now.
All in all I would recommend this place to eat but make sure you make reservation it is packed on the weekends and most week nights.

Four out of five stars!
I really enjoyed myself at this restaurant. We had spring rolls and quail for starters and a sizzling beef and chicken stir fry style dish for mains. The food wasn’t too pricey and I thought it was very decent for what we ordered. I have also had the salt and spicey calimari from here before, which is unfortunately one of the dishes I would not recommend as it is definitely calimari rather than fresh squid.
I would definitely recommend asking for an outside table. They have quite a lot of seating on the deck area out the front. It gets really loud if you seat inside. There is parking available but if you are going on a Friday or Saturday night be prepared to fight as there is not enough parks for the number of restaurants in the block. I always just park down the street and then walk for a few minutes.
Overall, a great local Vietnamese restaurant.
Cheers.

In my personal opinion, Vietnamese food is the underdog of asian cuisine. It is constantly being overlooked over its big sister «Thai» and «Chinese». What people need to realise is that Vietnamese is one of the best options to go for when after something fresh and non-​greasy. Mints in Rosalie is a perfect restaurant to visit to dine on authentic (or at least what I believe to be authentic) Vietnamese food.
I have tried a number of dishes from this place and have not ever been dissapointed. My favourite would be the Chicken Tom Yum Soup which incorporates the most devine mixture of herbs and spices. The lemongrass, mint and chilli gives this dish a nice kick without being too spicy. If your taste palette is more inclined towards the hot and spicy, I have been informed their spicy beef noodle soup is excellent.
I can’t say I am 100% happy with this place though as every time I have eaten in, the service as been lackluster. I do not blame the staff as I feel the reason for this is that there is simply not enough staff for the number of customers. Because I am in love with the food and am not a complete «service snob», this does not bother me too much but I am sure others would be less understanding. I would recommend the owners put on more wait staff during their busiest hours to avoid any complaints.
Overall, I do love going to this restaurant whether it is to dine in or to take-​away. The lack of service is not a huge issue for me but if you are the kind of person who enjoys impecable table service, I would recommend going on a weeknight, for lunch or order take-​away.

While a little on the pricey side the food here is okay. I don’t know why everyone boasts about this place. Is it because it’s in trendy Rosalie? I just don’t get it. The shop is pretty but small, the tables are very close together (don’t try and fit a pram in, it just doesn’t work) and even though you can sit outside as well on the verandah, it gets packed. Locals come for take-​away, the line was literally out the door, not because there were lots of people in it, that’s literally how small the place is. The tables were so close together if I moved my chair back, my back and the other person’s back would be able to have an intimate conversation about how close they were and how sweaty they were getting… you get the picture.
The food does come out rather fast, even on a busy night, I just can’t drag myself away from the vietnamese food in Darra. It’s better and it’s cheaper too. Sorry guys, this one is a two star, the only reason why I gave it three is because it’s a lot cleaner than the places in Darra. I like clean.