There are Viet restaurants firmly in the Cabramatta/Canley Vale/Canley Heights/Bankstown/Marrickville Vietnamese heartland, then there are those that have taken the mainstream plunge, loud and proudly Vietnamese in the City, inner city, east and north shore.
Then there’s Pho 76, that’s somewhere in between, Wetherill Park is well within Viet heartland but also exposes them to a more diverse customer base. And they’re doing amazingly well. It’s a decent sized eatery that is generally bustling.
The Vietnamese fresh rolls are pillowy and fat, with a line of prawns that you can see through the rice paper – my litmus test of a good execution. Everything you would expect from vermicelli and a variety of mint are found in the filling. The sauce looks the part with grated carrot, chili jam and crushed peanut, however, I found the sauce a little heavy-handed in hoisin, which became too salty for me.
Com tam, anglicised to broken rice (which always makes me wince) was really very good. The pork chop in batter is definitely not traditional, but tasted quite good. The fried egg is an optional extra, it’s meant be runny but today it was over-cooked. I also found the fish sauce that came with this dish much too vinegar sour, here I would have preferred more fish sauce saltiness.
Ok, so fried ice cream is not traditional either, but was a delicious end to our meal. In fact, it probably demonstrates exactly what I mean about Pho 76 being somewhere in between: good, Viet food appealing to a broader range of customers.
Pho 76 is not perfect, but the quibbles I have a relatively minor. The food is good, combined with fast, efficient service – no wonder it’s doing so well.
PS: Some of you have asked about broken rice, according to Wikipedia:
Some rice grains break in the transport and processing of the rice from the field to the pot. Machinery is available to separate the broken grains from the whole grains. Broken rice may or may not have lower fibre and nutrient content, but generally has a similar energy content to intact rice.
The broken varieties are often less expensive, so are preferred by poorer consumers or used as raw material (such as in beer brewing).Due to the different size and shape of the grains, broken rice has a different texture from “unbroken” rice. Some chefs and consumers may prefer the qualities of broken rice for certain dishes.
Pho 76
C04 Stockland Shopping Centre
Polding St, Wetherill Park (Opposite the Hoyts Cinema)
(02) 9604 7776
This weather definitely calls for a bowl of pho or bun bo hue~
i love prawn rolls.. espcially the peanut sauce… i always ask for extra 🙂
I agree Lil, some nice hot soup would be perfect!
Hey Dolly, prawn rolls are so easy to eat!
That fried egg makes the com tam extra appealing… I don't care about the rice 🙂
It's funny, the egg is always an additional extra, but like you I always order it cause to me it's essential!
I often wonder why "broken rice" always tastes better than the normal stuff? If it's not really normal rice that's been slightly crushed then what is it?
ah I could do with some 'broken rice right about now. I just had Pho for lunch but I still have room!
Hey YaYa and Adrian, I've had to google 'broken rice' because frankly, I never knew why/how it was broken.. ta-dah, here's the explanation from Wikipedia:
Some rice grains break in the transport and processing of the rice from the field to the pot. Machinery is available to separate the broken grains from the whole grains. Broken rice may or may not have lower fibre and nutrient content, but generally has a similar energy content to intact rice.
The broken varieties are often less expensive, so are preferred by poorer consumers or used as raw material (such as in beer brewing).Due to the different size and shape of the grains, broken rice has a different texture from "unbroken" rice. Some chefs and consumers may prefer the qualities of broken rice for certain dishes.
It looks so delicious. cool recipes shared in the post. really great your idea and perfect video's. watering in my mouth. yum
your reviews are much appreciated…. i am the sort of guy that is willing to drive far away to try some food at a restaurant…. a few weekends ago i drive my friends to cabramatta… around 3am after a night out in the city… to get a pork roll….
after watching your video… and seeing the pics u posted… i very much want to take the time to visit this resturaunt!!!!
It's funny, the egg is always an additional extra, but like you I always order it cause to me it's essential!
The rolls looks so good! I am not so sure about the fried ice cream but I somehow see myself visiting this place soon. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Aust Politics: here's a list of my fav restaurants in Cabra you might want to try: https://noodlies.com/2010/11/best-restaurants-in-cabramatta-updated.html
B&B: completely agree with you about the egg!
Jenn: you were kinda right, did regret the fried ice cream after
Thang, I've wondered- what are the noodle-like strip things and the moulded noodle cake thing that comes w/ the pork chop?? I don't know what they are, let alone their names!! Haha.
Hey Shaun, it's pork skin, sliced and fried.
Oh and it's called 'bi'. The full name of the dish is com tam, bi, suon, cha, trung:
com tam (broken rice)
bi (pork skin)
suon (pork chop)
cha (omelette thing)
trung (egg)
I've never been back to this restaurant after I got food poisoning….It was either the meat dish OR the fried ice cream. This restaurant is truly not the best Vietnamese restaurant.
Oh, I'm sorrie to hear that Ellie, I've been a couple of times and was fine.. and they do seem to be generally pretty busy.