And so I continue on my quest to try all the restaurants in Flemington. Having stuck on my favourite, Ta Fong, for ages, I recently ventured to Can Thang without much success. Saigon Pho always seem to be quite popular with the diners, so I went in with great expectations.
Food
The first dish is our gauge, used to compare the quality of other restaurants. Beef Noodle Soup (pho) ($7). Well, the soup as certainly very hot because the beef was very very well cooked. There wasn't a lot of bean sprouts, onions or shallots. The only thing that was kinda generous was the noodles. The accompanying plate of basil was small and looked dead, the lemon slice was really dry, and there were no chillies or nuoc chu sauce to be seen. The real test for good pho is of course in the stock. This one was ok, if a bit one-dimensional. They probably skim on the ingredients that's why.
I ordered the special fish with rice hot pot ($8.70) just so I can compare it with Ta Fong, the fish being one of my favourite dishes there. This one was not too bad. The sauce was more complex and flavoured with chilli. I would like it to be slightly hotter, but it went with the broken rice very well. The soup that came with it was pretty tasty.
seafood combination in fried noodles ($9) was typical, nothing to get excited about. The noodles didn't really have the wok's breath (I wonder if they just microwave?), but there was a good amount of seafood (not a lot mind you, but enough to justify it as "seafood" noodles.
All in all, this one is not as good as Ta Fong, but is miles ahead of Can Thang.
Rating - 6
Atmosphere
Certainly on different to any other restaurants there - laminated table, a tray with utensils, condiments and a box of tissues, the pour yourself teapot at the ready, specials stuck on the wall...This place is actually a bit less frantic than the usual, and there were quite a few Westerners there (enjoying spring rolls and crispy skinned chicken no less).
Rating - 1
Service
They came around straight away to take our order, but we'd only just sat down. I can actually understand, most people have a favourite which they order without having to look at the menu. We on the other hand, only had one thing we knew we wanted, so we needed more time. Once we had decided though, they came around quickly to take our order. Again, before we could even settle down, the beef noodle soup arrived.
Service is your typical Asian aloofness. They asked us if we wanted small bowls, and bought out and cleared away our dishes quickly. The only hiccup of the night came when they tried to deliver us another noodle, immediately after the first one was delivered...
Rating - 3.5
C-factor
The prices are about the same as the other restaurants in Flemington. The quality of the products are not as good, but it's not too bad at all for a quick feed.
Rating - 0.5
Brownie Points - 11
Info
8/90 The Crescent
Flemington
NSW 2131
Phone (02) 9746 1692
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