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Canberra Today 15°/16° | Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Dining / Seduced by water spinach

THE décor at Bistro Nguyen’s is eclectic. Padded 1950s kitchen chairs sit comfortably alongside fluro-coloured, metal ones. Tables of various shapes and sizes.

Wendy Johnson
Wendy Johnson.

An eye-catching, massive, hand-drawn, black and white mural consumes one wall and large, pumpkin-shaped, copper lamps above the bar add a touch of class. So does the soothing jazz music.

It was our first time at this Vietnamese restaurant. It smelled amazing when we entered and we went quiet while reading the menu, remarking on how most dishes sounded delish.

We didn’t notice the warning that food is delivered to your table as soon as it’s ready and not in any order. This wouldn’t make everyone chirpy, but it is what it is.

We changed our mind three times on what to share for entrée, deciding on what the next table had because it looked amazing. The deep-fried chicken wings and drums were crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside, but didn’t offer “wow-factor” flavour (five for $6.50). We wished we’d ordered the make-your-own rice-paper rolls, which would have been fun and no doubt fresher tasting than the chicken.

The winning dish was stir-fried water spinach with fresh chilli, chilli jam and garlic. It was out of this world – one of those dishes you crave ($14.50).

We’re big fans of rock-salt prawns. These came with fried onion and coriander ($26.50). They were good, but not fabulous. We were looking for more salt.

It was obvious during our lunch that Pho is the specialty, massive bowls of piping hot, traditional beef noodle soup, slow cooked with a Nguyen’s secret family recipe ($12.90 to $16.90).

The wine list isn’t extensive but features a couple of decent drops. The Vasse Felix classic dry white went well with the style of food ($10 a glass/$40 a bottle). You can BYO.

The service at Bistro Nguyen’s was hardly chop-chop even though it wasn’t bursting at the seams and no one was sitting outdoors (cold, windy day). It took a while to order and once the dishes arrived, we were more or less ignored. Still, we’ll be back dragging some friends along, to see how our second experience goes, and to have more of that yummy spinach.

It was a long weekend and we appreciated that Bistro Nguyen’s was open, one of only a couple of places in this part of Canberra that was (we were in the area and starving). The interstate visitors next to us were baffled by so many closed eateries, remarking that Canberra still has a small country town mentality. It’s a shame ‘cause we don’t. I guess you still just need to know where to go.

Bistro Nguyen’s. 70-80 Alinga Street, Civic. Call 6262 8888.

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Wendy Johnson

Wendy Johnson

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