The place itself!Anyway! Because I was sick, I was limited to only noodle soup. I usually will have the Sliced Chicken Noodle (small $6.50) but I thought I'll try something different today and opted for Special Beef and Chicken Noodle (small $6.50).
Nice selection of dishes.They often serve the noodles with bean sprouts aka TAUGEH, something I absolutely cannot eat due to a past-life enemy encounter (εδΈζδ») I had with the vegetable. I very politely told him to forget about the taugeh, but the guy brought it over anyway. What a waste.
boooo Boooo BOOOOOO!!!My noodles came first and...
Urm...okay. Yellow floating thingies does not equal lifesavers.What a surprise. First of all, I didn't know that "Special" in this case equates to "hell lot of intestinal stuff". There's tripe, intestines, guts, bones, I don't even know what. I was literally horrified as I hate any kind of intestines that existed (although less than taugeh; under torture I would eat intestines, but taugeh can go hang itself). I picked out all the unrecognisable stuff i.e. stuff that's not beef/chicken meat before I ate my noodles. There were also some floating yellow bits in which I THOUGHT was little quail egg yolks, but upon eating them, they were not. They didn't taste BAD, but my sister jokingly said they were eyeballs and THAT gross me out. I mean, I doubt they were eyeballs, but I don't want to end up eating kidney or pancreas or whatever.
For the record, there were only two pieces of chicken. *SAD FACE* So no, I didn't enjoy the noodles, but the soup as usual was great. Full of flavours and a squeeze of lemon really made it tasted super. If I had gone with my normal sliced chicken, this would be a good review!! But nooo, I had to be adventurous (read: stupid). By the way, if you're a great intestines fan, you'll probably like this. And the soup. Honestly, if there's something I really love about this place, it's their soup with the soup noodles.
Both sis and San had the BBQ Grilled Chicken on Rice Vermicelli with Fish Sauce and Vegetables ($7.50).
This is what I really want and couldn't have.Glowing reviews from both girls. The BBQ chicken (in which I had in the past, and stole some today) was succulent and juicy and was flavoured just right. I've always loved their chicken, it's very yummy, and not the conventional BBQ chicken. Viet style, maybe? :D They also served the dish with quite a lot of chicken. It's a dry noodle dish, with the special sweet-sour sauce where you pour over your noodles to wet them a little. San found the sauce to be just right, Sis thought it could use more sauce. San also thought that the peanuts were a little stale-tasting, but she found the mix of vegetables, noodles and chicken a very refreshing and crunchy bite, and everything went well together. Sis was just stuffing her face, so I gathered she liked the noodles.
Sis also had a glass of Coconut Green Bean ($3.50).
Icy cold and nice.She thought it was really good, refreshing after the noodles, but also a bit too filling. It's not too sweet much to San's liking, but sis wouldn't have minded it sweeter.
Slight Mouse grouse here though - I find it ridiculous that the drinks are so expensive. I mean, it's almost half the price of a bowl of NOODLES. The standard pricing of drinks in Chinatown and the general cheap eats are always around $2.50 - $4.00 in which I found to be overpriced. Drinks should cost significantly less than a main dish, not half the price of a main dish.
But yes, I have been a frequent visitor of Melbourne Vietnam Noodle House and I don't see why I would stop in the future. When I first began going to the eatery, it was mainly Vietnamese food; now they've started serving Thai and Chinese-fusion style food. I find it to be a variety but it does take some of the little "Vietnamese-ness" of the initial place. Service's generally quite ok - nothing to shout about but mainly due to some communication problems, I feel. I do prefer this one to its biggest rival Mekong though, if more for environment's sake.
- Mousie
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Melbourne Vietnam Noodle House
251 Swanston Street
Melbourne 3000
Phone: (03) 9639 4911
7 comments:
I have to disagree, the environment at Mekong is heaps nicer. The way a pho joint should be. Mirror walls, laminex tables, etc.
The jazzed up decor and the expansion of the menu at MVNH is a tactic to make the restaurant more accessible. (Which is probably fair enough in a business sense). To me this only leads to dull generic food. I much prefer it when restaurants stick to there specialties and what they do best.
I must say that I have enjoyed a few good soups here.
Keep up the good work on your blog, although you need to try harder at being and iron eater, re: Offal bits in special Pho ga. You should try the congealed blood blocks in some Bun Bo Hue.
Hi noodle. thanks for stopping by and we of course welcome differing opinions here =)
Been to Mekong several times when we first came to Melbourne, back in 2002??? Love the soups, to be honest. but, after MVNH opened(& other Viet Rest near Mekong opened), we sort of never been there nemore as we think MVNH is cleaner *at least, from outside*. Also, heard from a couple of frens tt Mekong is not v clean *altho i understand tt we cant really c others' kitchens as well*. But,i actually gonna go back to Mekong in the v near future as one of my frens wanted to try Mekong's =)
for the guts bit, I actually do eat some guts *still, rarely* when i go back to malaysia where the guts are organic ones *my mum cooks the best soup!!*. For MVNH noodle soup, i did try the guts when i ordered that noodoup soup afew times... its ok cz it didnt hav the weird smell. i jt afraid guts will hav those weird smell, if u know wat i mean. for congealed blood blocks, i never try b4 and not sure i will try in the future..hahaa
cheers,
san
Hi there,
nice blog, but you should try to live up to your namesake. Those yellow floaty bits you mentioned are probably immature chicken eggs. They should kinda taste like a hard boiled egg white/yolk thats been mixed together.
Keep up the good work
hi son. the yellow thingy did taste abit like eggyolk, but im not sure whether it is as its v small.. but thanks for your information =)
San,
I'd like to try your mums soup!
Hi Noodle,
haha..i wanna drink the soup my mumm cooks as well but too bad she is not here...
San
I prefer Mekong which is a couple of doors down. I really don't mind the environment at Mekong.
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