Dong Ba 2

This Vietnamese restaurant is located in St Albans and has a good selection of drinks and food that will certainly satisfy your Vietnamese cravings. We ordered our usual:

Rice vermicelli with snails in sour crab soup - a very unique dish to try here. The snails are sliced thinly and the various ingredients you get in the noodles such as the sliced pork, crab meatball, pork blood cake and sliced pork sausage, all in the sourish soup make this a truly memorable dish and experience.

Beef in betel leaf with rice vermicelli - a plate of various herbs, pickles and lettuce to wrap everything up is served together with a plate of flat rice vermicelli cakes and betel leaf beef. There is also the obligatory bowl of dipping sauce and it is perfect if a little messy to eat. Simply delicious.

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Type of venue: Vietnamese

Worth a return visit? Yes.

Address: 302 Main Road East, St Albans VIC 3021

Hanoi Hannah

A walk-in only Vietnamese restaurant in Prahran, Hanoi Hannah offers some traditional offerings such as pho, spring rolls and salads,  as well as more modern interpretations such as chicken rib buckets and soft shell crab with chilli, lime and mayo. We ordered three dishes to share and two drinks and although still feeling a little peckish,  decided to get the bill and leave. Why? In short, because it was quite underwhelming.

Pork sliders - the actual pork belly was chewy and too fatty; 80% fat and 20% meat. Chewy skin is a big no no.

Coconut marinated pork ribs - slightly better than the pork sliders as the meat comes cleanly off the bone but the coconut sauce/marinade was not detectable.

Green mango salad with crispy fish - mango was a little too ripe and wasn't the crunchy texture that the green mango has. The fish was crispy but the salad dressing was a little too sour,  too one dimensional.

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Type of venue: Vietnamese, Asian 

Worth a return visit? No.  

Address: 180 High Street, Windsor VIC 3181