There are bountiful Vietnamese restaurants, groceries and exotic fruit and vegetables stores along Illawara Road and the cross street Marrickville. After checking out several online reviews and visually exploring the vicinity, we decided to settle on Nhat Tan noodle house.
This eatery has no frills and is well known for its noodles and one-dish meals though the dinner menu offers more stir fry dishes.
Beef Pho : the two criteria I look for in good pho are the soup must be flavoursome (boiled in bone marrow for more than 10 hours without the help of MSG and it must be piping hot to scald the noodle to a smooth but firm texture. They are generous with basil leaves, bean sprouts, spring onions, chilli slices and lemon.
The lady owner recommended the pork chop broken rice with egg combination. It certainly did not disappoint. However, the layered pork could have been sliced more finely. The crispy pork chop is coated with more batter than the typical fried pork chop dish but it was not greasy and contain mostly lean meat.
The rice rolls are thin and smooth with lean minced meat enveloped and steamed. The steamed bean sprout and mixed vegetables however were not properly prepared by the kitchen hand. The crispy shallot, batter and wanton skin goes well with the ham and steamed rolls. Unlike the dish served at one Cabramatta restaurant, this place does not include crispy cake. I can testify that the dipping fish sauce mixed with chilli is authentic. A Vietnamese teacher once confided that freshly pounded chilli and shredded carrot must be added to the fish sauce and sugar mixture that has not been diluted with too much water.
This was a delicious and filling lunch that cost us only $25 for three mains.
The dessert "three coloured ice" and "cheng poh leung" are from another restaurant down the street - Old Thanh Huong.
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