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Bau Truong

Bau Truong Article Lead - narrow
Bau Truong Article Lead - narrowSupplied

13.5/20

Vietnamese$$

Think Vietnamese, and you think wipe-clean tables, vinyl chairs and tissue boxes. Well, think again. This newbie from restaurant matriarch Bac Cang Nghieu and son Michael Thai feels more like a smart cocktail bar, with its moody vibe and bold Chinese opera-mask graphics. The southern-focused menu runs to out-of-the-ordinary dishes such as sea snails in spicy coconut sauce and a rustic goat hotpot, as well as variations on classics. These include nem nuong cuon - baby meatballs perched on mini ricepaper noodle rolls; and deeply delicious cuon diep - mustard leaf-wrapped rolls of prawn, pork and rice noodles. There's real snap in a salad of beef, green mango, apple and starfruit served with rice crackers, although stir-fried pumpkin with shrimp paste and sweet basil was shy on flavour, and the signature barbecue chicken felt a bit dry. It's worth ordering the baked egg and coconut custard, just for the amazing, granular, black sticky rice ice-cream that comes with it. Also at Canley Heights & Cabramatta

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