Huong Xua - Canley Heights

It's been cold. It's been windy. It's been windy. Perfect weather to curl up in bed. And perfect weather for a hot bowl of pho. As I work in Bankstown, going to Pho An (in Bankstown) on a non-work day did not seem appealing. We were also already frequent flyers at our favourite Flemington pho joint. So for something a bit different, we trekked to Viet town Canley Heights in search for a delicious bowl of noodle and we ended up at Huong Xua.

Being early, we were seated quickly and service was relatively attentive. They order on a smart phone so it initially felt like the waitress was texting her friend whilst taking my order, but all was good as my delicious looking beef ball and beef tripe pho came out promptly. The soup tasted really really clean. Delicious aromas, not too sweet, not too overpoweringly herby, and did not leave me wanting to drink endless cups of water. To me - that's a pretty perfect bowl of pho :)

People all around seemed to be ordering this chicken thing, so we didn't want to be left out. Hubby ordered their steamed salty chicken noodle soup. The plate of chicken wasn't big but it sure looked tasty. You dip the steamed chicken in a salt and kaffir lime type mixture and it makes the chicken really tasty, tender and strangely addictive. The noodles and the soup base were also pretty good.

So I guess we were both pleased with our decision to trek to Viet-town, rain and all. Can't wait to go back for another bowl of super tasty noodle soup! (oh, and btw, we ordered the small bowl. They have this crazy massive bowl and a food challenge for all those big eaters - with the prize being a photo and the joyous pride of being able to keep the bowl)

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 7.5/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Value for money - 8.5/10
Overall - 30/40

Huong Xua 
4/219 Canley Vale Road
Canley Heights 
NSW 2166
Tel: (02) 8764 4117

Thanh Mai - Canley Heights

For dinner one night, our church friends decided to all venture out to our english pastor's "hood" - Canley Vale. Being Vietnamese, our pastor took care of all the ordering. Some of us had drinks - avocado shakes, durian shakes, custard apple shakes, and my awesome iced coffee. I only tried the avocado shake (and none of the others). It was creamy and sweet, apparently comprised of loads of avocado, ice and condensed milk. My iced coffee was strong and sweet - just the way I like it :)

avocado shake

iced coffee

Foodwise, we had to try some traditional Viet cuisine. There was the sour fish hot pot. This was really really yummy. Fresh live fish (tasted like Perch or Silver Bream) which was to be immersed in a sour soup made from pineapple, tamarind and tomato. The water spinach, bean sprouts and okra were thrown in with the mix. All up, the fish was super super yummily fresh - you take it out after it's done and dunk it into fish sauce to eat. The soup was an interesting mix of sweet, savoury and sour. The Viet way is to have the soup with your rice. I think I'm too honky for this... I like my soup by itself. The soup was strong, but in quite a nice way :)

sour fish hot pot

Another Viet traditional dish was the caramelised fish hot pot. Again, super fresh fish was chopped up and cooked in a bubbling caramelised sauce which was sweet sweet sweet. You can see the flame surrounding the pot... you let it sizzle until the flame goes and then the caramelisation just fills your whole mouth! A must have sauce!!! (and fish!!!) Deliciousness!

caramelised fish in clay pot

The other dishes, though under the guise of "Viet food" are pretty much found in your normal Asian repertoire. There was the salt and pepper squid which was crunchy and golden and chewy and tasty and everything! The garlicy chilli deep fried lemony seasoning made the dish very much appetising.

salt and pepper squid

There was also pork chops which was coated in some sweet marinade which was tender and tasty enough.

pork chops

We also had a plate of lemon grass chicken. The chicken was kind of dry but immersed in epic flavour. The meat was so chewy that our pastor questioned whether or not it was crocodile meat. It tasted like chicken though... but then again, crocodile probably tastes like chicken too LOL.

lemon grass chicken

The seafood tofu hotpot was average. A good mix of calamari, fish, prawn, mushrooms and veges. Twas average.

seafood hot pot

All up - the two fish dishes (the sour soup and caramelised fish) were definitely the winners. YUM!

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 6/10
Value for money - 7.5/10
Overall - 28.5/40

Thanh Mai
252 Canley Vale Road
Canley Heights
NSW 2166
Tel: (02) 9726 6883