314 Victoria St, Darlinghurst
Grilled Pork and Noodle Soup
Vietnamese restaurants are hard to find in Sydney. With Manuka in Canberra being my fondest, local memories of the cuisine, I’ve been dying to find a restaurant that’s a little closer to home. So it was with great delight when on the prowl for a night of taste sensations that we happened upon Q Vietnamese Restaurant.
Sitting down to a very wobbly table, we soon learnt Q was BYO. No biggy on Victoria St with Camperdown Cellars only a short walk away.
A large restaurant with wooden floors, Q can be rather noisy. And with white walls, white, plastic tables and bright lights, the restaurant seems rather out of place for it’s Darlinghurst/Kings Cross address; in not following Sydney restaurant decorating 101, the restaurant is far from a sumptuous, aromatic cavern that have been cropping up in the area. But we weren’t there for the decor. The staff were surprisingly busy for a restaurant with several, large tables empty. I can only imagine it being madly chaotic with a full house. Our waitress took ages to take our order, but was wonderfully quick in bringing out the food.
First dish for the evening was the crispy calamari. Decidedly uncrispy and altogether oily, it is surprisingly tasty. But be warned, you may feel a little wrong afterward.
Pork and prawn fresh spring rolls (rice paper rolls) with a peanut sauce then followed. Before tonight, the only rice paper rolls I had ever tried were of the $3.30 kind from the Hunter Arcade. Q‘s were quite different. With the rolls being dry and thick and the sauce coagulated nuts, the dish would have better with different textures and ingredients. Perhaps a sauce that had more of a sweet chili, soy or fish sauce base. All in all a pretty tasteless entrée.
Next up was the chili and lemongrass chicken stirfry. A solid effort taste wise, it’s just a shame about the bland presentation.
Last was the dish I had been waiting for all evening, the grilled pork and noodle soup. Served separately, the pork was soon swimming the broth. Q‘s is a satisfactory version of a Vietnamese favourite dish, however, I would have preferred it with more bite, namely lemongrass, coriander and chili. Curiously, the meat was quite sweet, but the lumps of charcoal that came off in the soup were far from appetising.
Q offered an pleasant night out, but I won’t be in a hurry to go back. One of the good things to come out of the meal is that I realised that I need a new camera. I get to go shopping.
