Luke Nyugen is to blame for the intense craving we had for Vietnamese cuisine on Saturday night. After watching his TV series where he travels around Vietnam tasting the local delicacies and cooking with the locals on the street we decided we NEEDED Vietnamese. A.S.A.P.
Heading out to Subiaco for a friends birthday drinks we Urbanspooned “Vietnamese Subiaco” and Viet Today came up as one of the three Vietnamese restaurants in Subi.
Sold.
We booked a table and were kindly greeted as we walked in this restaurant which I soon found out, has only been open three months!
They have ste the restaurant out quite nice, it sits facing a car park which didn’t exactly give the best atmosphere and we thought covering the windows looking out to the carpark may have given the place more atmosphere.
The friendly staff offered us drinks and we ordered the:
Wonton Soup ($8) and Vegetarian Rice Paper rolls ($8 for two rolls) for entrée.
The Wonton Soup was about 6 wontons in a beautiful chicken flavoured broth. This broth was simplistic and warming with a tiny kick from spices. The wontons were cooked well and obviously home made. A winner!
The Vegetarian rice paper rolls were fresh and simple. Bean shoots, vercimilli noodles, carrots, mint, coriander and cucumber. The dipping sauce was strong sweet soy with crushed peanuts and a mild chilli sauce. These were also obviously freshly made and were the perfect start to our meal.
For mains we ordered the ‘Fish steamed in a ginger soy sauce with bok choy’ ($20) and the ‘Sizzling prawns with vegetables’ ($24). The prawn dish didn’t describe the sauce flavour on the menu but this was dark soy with garlic and mild chilli. Very tasty and I counted about 8 prawns which were huge prawns but were slightly overcooked for my liking. I’m being very particular though because it was hard to fault this meal. The vegetables were fresh and cooked to perfection with that natural crunch I love in stir fried veggies.
The fish was cooked to perfection and fell apart at the touch of the fork. The gorgeous ginger soy broth was light yet tasty and complimented the delicate fish and wilted boy choy. This was my favourite meal of the night!
After mains we watched as the waitress brought out a fondue set with a tea light candle heating a bowl of colourful dumplings.
She then came and chatted to us and offered us a complimentary dessert which we excitedly accepted. She brought the “Viet Pearl Fondue” dessert out to our table with two bowls and served us at our table. She scooped the green, pink and yellow tiny balls into the bowls and then proceeded to spoon the sweet palm sugar, sesame and ginger sauce over the coloured dumplings. She added a few spoonfuls of coconut milk and this completed the dessert. The dumplings were apparently homemade out of sago and yams “fresh from the Subiaco Markets” which is where she told us they get all their produce from. She also mentioned the meals contained no msg and were all cooked fresh on the spot.
They were an unusual texture - very doughy and the balls themselves were slightly sweet. The palm sugar syrup was very sweet but the strips of fresh ginger were refreshing and surprised me. The coconut milk was needed to balance out the sweetness and the sesame seeds added a nice crunch.
The staff at Viet Today were extremely friendly and helpful and the food was wonderful and fresh. I had a lovely experience and would like to return as they mentioned, although they were busy on this Saturday night, they were finding it hard to get people in to their restaurant. Viet Today is off the main Hay/Rokeby rd strip of Subiaco and right near The Village Bar on Hay street.
Highs: Perfectly cooked fish and fresh ingredients
Lows: No authentic “Pho” which is what we wanted when choosing a Vietnamese restaurant. Viet Today is apparently “modern Vietnamese.”
Overall: Very impressed, please be encouraged to try to help this little family out with their new business!
Will I return? I would love to, just because of how lovely the staff were and how beautiful the meals were.
