On my most recent trip to Adelaide, I stayed at the Adelaide Rockford Hotel. The location was selected due to its proximity to the Adelaide Convention Centre, but it seemed a short walk only to the main shopping and food area that I had starred in Google Maps from my previous visit. Due to the 30+ degree heat, I found myself often not really wanting to walk too far away so started looking at food options closeby. There was the restaurant located at the hotel (Asian, decent sounding menu, rather ordinary reviews for the prices), an Indian curry place across the road (didn't look too interesting from the outside, decent reviews online), a souvlaki place further away from town and a nearby highly rated cafe. It wasn't until my last night staying at the hotel that I noticed from the window of my hotel a girl standing outside the restaurant across the road advertising to people walking past.
Usually that's not a great sign of things - I specifically can mention Lygon Street and the restaurant street Rue de Bouchers in Brussels for this. Additionally I have to admit I found it unusual that pho was being touted by a non-Vietnamese (and more specifically non-Asian) person. Funnily enough the relative health safety of Vietnamese food (with the exclusion of banh mi that's been sitting in the sun), the minimal amount of distance to cover, and quite simply I had a hankering for decent Asian noodles brought me in.
I found out that this was day 10 of the restaurant's opening, and the owners/management were Vietnamese and very friendly. The fit out was modern and slightly edgy with a flair of traditional, similar to the new-age Asian restaurants that are the rage in various cities.
- 3 Colour Drink - if I had any particular recommendation for improvement, it would be on this. The best 3 Colour Drinks are made with finely shaved ice that melts easily when stirred into the coconut milk. Unfortunately this had thick chunks of ice that mean you spend a lot of time crunching through, with dilute flavours and having difficulty finding the elements;
- Wagyu Beef Pho - given the restaurant name, my pho craving that evening and the delicious wagyu pho from Bistro Nguyen, this was an easy choice. The noodles are well cooked and slightly uneven (this probably means they are fresh not dried, possibly handmade but you'd expect this to be advertised, or just unevenly machine cut). The meat was nicely soft and tender. The broth is very strong and full of the flavour of pho spices.
I was impressed that evening by the atmosphere, setting and general friendly vibe from the staff. Considering the location I ended up back the next day to try the other classic Vietnamese noodle soup. Actually I particularly wanted banh xeo, but they told me that was only on the dinner menu.
- Bun Bo Hue - the broth was flavoursome and not overly spicy and lightened with lemon. The large size is quite hefty such that I had difficulty finishing it along with my jackfruit smoothie (maybe too much liquid overall). The thick rice noodle was unfortunately slightly overcooked and so was quite soft rather than the characteristic slight firmness of this noodle.
- Jackfruit smoothie - not sure why I ordered this since it usually is made from canned jackfruit marinated in sugar syrup. However this one wasn't very sweet and a little dilute of jackfruit flavour.
Overall the food was very tasty with strongly flavoured stocks and I would be happy to eat either the pho or bun bo hue again. To my taste I think the drinks could use a bit of improvement. Perhaps I'll try the freshly squeezed sugar cane juice or avocado smoothie next time.