Bistro Nguyen's

In my early 20s I started my first post-university job in Victoria Street, Richmond, the home of Vietnamese food in Melbourne. Every lunch time was an excursion to the next noodle joint to test the $5 lunch - and every day was a revelation. The crisp, clean assertiveness of the flavours, the simplicity of the construction, the total un-Chineseness of it, was startling. For a while I didn't want to eat anything else, especially in summer. Sometimes I still don't, and so we embark on the everlasting search for the best Vietnamese joint in town. 

Bistro Nguyen's is the latest cab off the rank, opening around a month ago in the Alinga Street location that was Wasabi Japanese. The decent sized space has tables outside and a slightly funky look with coloured chairs and black and white cartoony walls. On a mid week night they are doing a good takeaway as well as sit down trade, and we are right to have booked.

A lengthy menu, with considerable variety greets us, and a very short, but decent wine list with prices in the slightly high zone (pretty much everyone BYOs here). Vasse Felix semillion sauvignon blanc ($10 a glass) does the job nicely with these clean and strident flavours.

We start with fried rice cake ($6.50) which leaps off the plate, lovely tender rice cake crisped with egg and pickled vegetables served with a lovely sweet soy sauce for dipping. The dish of the night, it is simple, relying on skilled preparation, absolute freshness and instant delivery from wok to plate. 

Fried chicken wings ($6.50) are fleshy little specimens, crisp and juicy, simple and good. Many others are having the "make your own'" rice paper rolls, dipping the huge rounds of rice paper into half moon dipping bowls to moisten, then stuffing them to order. 

Rare beef salad ($9.50) is good value arriving in a huge bowl. A simple, well executed version of this classic dish, is has the soft rare beef, the aromatic herbs and the tangy pungent sauce that make this dish hard to pass up.

Shaken beef rice ($13.50) is a tumble of cubed beef, very tender in a well flavoured sauce, and a bargain at the price. The home style calamari ($18.50) is not as good, but the tentacles have a nice flavour and bite to them and are simply stir fried with vegetables. 

The pho (rice noodle soup) is a favourite here, and a large range of vietnamese rolls (bread rolls)  stuffed with much more that the usual pork, coriander and cucumber, are a speciality for the lunch trade.

Bistro Nguyen's does a good takeaway trade and the extra traffic was proving a little too much on the night we visited, with staff preoccupied and some confusion and delays with our meals. By the time our mains were almost finished, two of the starters had not appeared. When we asked they came immediately and seemed as thought they had been sitting around for a while. Also after our initial order was taken getting any attention at the table was a problem. 

Despite some inconsistency there were high points here: staff were friendly, if a little overwhelmed, some of the food was terrific, some just okay. If they can iron out these issued Bistro Nguyen's could well become a reliable lunchtime haunt and a decent spot for a quick dinner.