Banh Cuon Ba Oanh, Marrickville

Never had banh cuon? You need to. These silky rice noodle rolls are a traditional Vietnamese breakfast staple, usually cooked at little roadside stalls as swarms of scooters zoom past. The newly opened Banh Cuon Ba Oanh is about as close as Sydneysiders can get to the real deal. That includes a tiny kitchen cloaked in clouds of steam and squishy tables with ankle-high stools (no joke) that will test your flexibility.

The proof is in the banh cuon and Ba Oanh delivers - expect thin layers of house-fermented rice batter expertly ladled and steamed until soft and silky. Peer into the open kitchen and you’ll likely find Ba Oanh herself, family matriarch and restaurant mascot, in amongst the action.


Ba Oanh in the kitchen making her famous banh cuon


Banh cuon cha que $11
Steamed rice noodle rolls with cinnamon pork

Order the classic version ($11) of this Northern Vietnamese dish and your rice noodles will be rolled with a rubble of pork mince and flecks of crunchy black fungus mushroom. Dunk them in the sweet and salty nuoc cham fish sauce dressing and savour alongside slices of cha que (a pale baked pork sausage seasoned with cinnamon), soft herbs and deep-fried shallots.


Banh cuon thit nuong $11
Steamed rice noodle rolls with grilled pork

Alternatives include plain rice noodle rolls served with grilled pork ($11) or a soft set organic egg ($4).


Banh cuon truong $4
Steamed rice noodle rolls with egg


Banh cha quat $11
Grilled pork with vermicelli and salad

Bring a handful of mates and you could easily order everything on the one-page menu. Continue the nood-fest with bun cha quat ($11), cold vermicelli noodles eaten with grilled pork, salad, pickles and nuoc cham, or hit up the sticky rice combos.


Xoi trang hay xoi xeo ga chay bo $11
Yellow bean sticky rice with free range chicken

It involves glutinous rice either cooked plain or mixed with yellow beans and boosted with your choice of poached free range chicken or sweet braised pork with pork floss ($11 each).


Xoi trang hay xoi vang thit heo kho $11
Yellow bean sticky rice with braised pork, pork floss, onion and cucumber salad


Chao $11
Free range chicken congee with fried bread and pork floss

Free range chicken congee, a restorative rice porridge ($11) rounds out the menu. It’s a terrific version, savoury soul-reviving heartiness amped up with pork mince, pork floss, fresh shallots and crunchy slices of deep fried savoury donuts. Vietnamese locals are already loving this cheap eat addition to Marrickville. We reckon you will too.


Vintage metal chairs






Banh Cuon Ba Oanh
343 Illawarra Road, Marrickville Sydney
Tel: +61 (02)

Opening hours
Tuesday to Sunday 8am-3pm; 5pm-7.30pm

This article first appeared in Time Out Sydney. Read this article online or read more of my Time Out Sydney reviews.


Related Grab Your Fork posts
Marrickville - Cornersmith
Marrickville - Eat Fuh
Vietnamese - Banh Cuon Kim Thanh, Bankstown
Vietnamese - Hai Au Lang Nuong, Canley Vale
Vietnamese - Pho Tau Bay, Cabramatta
Vietnamese - Thy Vietnamese Eatery, Bankstown

All you can eat mu kratha Thai bbq hotpot at Capital Thai, Sydney Chinatown

What do you get when you cross Korean barbecue with Chinese hotpot? Meet mu kratha. It's a mash-up commonly found across Thailand, and guess what. You can get it in Sydney too. And it's all you can eat. Yeah, baby.

Get it at Capital Thai, the restaurant located next door to the Capitol Theatre. I bet you've walked past it a million times and never even realised. Sure they have a la carte options but head deeper into the dining room and you'll find the mu kratha buffet set-up. It's here you'll find groups of Thai uni students in the know. And now, you.


Banana prawns

The buffet is a veritable bargain. Just $29.80 for all you can eat meat, seafood, vegetables and desserts. It even includes a self-serve soft drink station, so you can pump all the post-mix soda you please.


Marinated beef

Stackable trays mean you can bring back the motherlode of ingredients for your table. Proteins include chicken, beef and pork - marinated and plain.


Tripe and intestines

If you love tripe, you're in luck here. Bible tripe and intestines are both available. Cook them in the soup for maximum deliciousness.


Fish tofu, fish balls and meatballs

Soup aficionados will want to load up on fish balls, meat balls and more.


Fishcake slices and meatballs


Green bean vermicelli noodles, egg noodles, enoki mushrooms and mussels

Grab all the noodles you want as well. We went nuts on the enoki mushrooms.


Water spinach, Chinese cabbage, baby bok choy, Thai basil and fresh corn

Don't forget your greens either. We ate tonnes of kang kong water spinach and baby bok choy. The corn cobbettes worked a treat on the grill.


Cooking pork on the mu kratha

The mu kratha is genius in design. Imagine a Korean barbecue grill surrounded by a trough filled with clear soup stock. The grill - greased with hunks of pork fat - is slightly domed so as your meat cooks, all the juices run down into the soup. That means grilled meat with a bonus of meaty vegetable broth. Nothing gets wasted here!


Drinking soup from the moat filled with enoki mushrooms and water spinach

In Thailand the mu kratha vessel is much bigger and fueled by charcoal. Here you'll have to contend with a portable gas flame, and a significantly smaller moat, but it's still a heap of fun.


Moo kratha party

There's no limit to broth refills. And everyone gets two types of nam jim dipping sauces, providing a spicy, salty sweet and sour baptism for the protein of your choice.


Fried rice and fried chicken wings

Too hungry to wait for your food to cook? They have cooked dishes too. A massive tray of fried chicken wings was hard to resist, coated in a golden batter.


Fried prawn crackers and fried wonton crackers

The prawn crackers are particularly good too. They're the proper prawn cracker type with real prawns and extra crunchy.


Chicken skin crackling

But wait until you clap eyes on the chicken skin crackling. You read that right. And there's a mountain of it!

Self-serve nam kang sai shaved ice dessert station

Your 90-minute buffet time limit includes unlimited desserts. After the heaviness of grilled meat, you'll relish the relief of the self-serve shaved ice station. Here you'll find jackfruit, grass jelly, toddy palm seeds, basil seeds, palm seeds, sweet corn and soft white bread. They even have fruit salad mixed through with chilli salt.


Adding grass jelly to basil seeds and jackfruit

Choose whatever fruit you prefer...


Adding condensed milk to shaved ice

add a mountain of shaved ice and then drizzle with condensed milk or flavoured syrups.


Coconut jelly and fresh watermelon

Need more? They have banana and sago soup, fresh watermelon and rockmelon, and my favourite - coconut jelly.

Go with friends. Go hungry. Go now.






The all you can eat mu kratha hotpot buffet costs $29.80 for adults and $15 for children under 11 years old. A 90-minute time limit applies. Additional charges may be applied for excessive food wastage, so only take what you can eat. Bookings are highly recommended.

Capital Thai
21A Campbell Street, Haymarket, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9211 1130

Opening hours
Lunch daily 11am-3.30pm
Dinner daily 5.30pm-1am


Related Grab Your Fork posts
All You Can Eat - Chinese hot pot at Hotpot City, Bankstown
All You Can Eat - Japanese bbq at Suminoya, Sydney CBD
All You Can Eat - Korean bbq at Charcoal Mine, Parramatta
All You Can Eat - Korean bbq at Se Jong, Sydney CBD
All You Can Eat - Korean bbq at Yass, Strathfield
All You Can Eat - Thai crab and prawn at Mojo, Sydney CBD
All You Can Eat - Thai seafood at Talay's Thai, Chippendale

Niko's Kitchen, Dulwich Hill

Say yiasou to the cheeseburger gyro. What’s in a cheeseburger gyro? Take one beef patty and wrap it up in soft pita bread with American cheese and bacon. And because it’s Greek, add a load of crumbled feta. You’ll find it at Niko’s Kitchen in Dulwich Hill. Its reopening was rejoiced by locals after the first venue closed in Kingsgrove. And if the pork belly baklava sounds familiar, that’s because Niko’s Kitchen took over Kefi Kingsgrove, initially helmed by David Tsirekas (ex-Perama and Xanthi). It's like Greek musical chairs.


Pork, chicken and lamb gyros on the spit

Kefi’s signature pork belly baklava gyro lives on, a sweet and salty combo of crackling pork belly, flaky filo pastry, apple mastic mayonnaise and date and pistachio paste. So too does the soft shell crab gyro, the deep fried crustacean paired with Greekslaw and coriander in a round of warm pita.


Pork souvla pack $15.90
200g meat with salad, chips, pita bread and tzatziki

Relax. The traditional gyro still reigns superme. And better yet, there’s a choice of four proteins, each spinning slowly on a vertical spit. Take your pick from beef, pork, chicken or lamb, either piled into fluffy pita bread with salad, tzatziki and chips or served deconstructed as a souvla pack.

A thorough burger menu runs from a double beef burger through to pulled pork, crispy chicken, and barbecue lamb. Vegetarians don’t miss out either. The Dully Burger comes with a veggie patty, baby spinach, fried tofu, fried mushrooms and tomato relish. Gluten-free buns are available too.


Haloumi chips $7

Let’s not forget the all important side of chips. Get them plain or drenched in gravy, crumbled feta or molten cheese with bacon. Also on offer: sweet potato fries and strips of haloumi deep fried into chips.


Cheesy chips with bacon $6

Desserts include vanilla bougatsa – semolina custard in filo pastry – and loukoumades donuts. For maximum fun, get them with a syringe injector of white chocolate, chocolate, salted caramel or peanut butter.



You’ll find a happy hubbub of families and hungry blokes traipsing through this casual eatery all day. Much of the interior has been retained from former resident, Psari fish shop, including a very cool feature wall of original newspaper pages from the 1970s, but behind the grill it's all Greek now.


Greek salad in the pork souvla pack






Niko's Kitchen
237 Wardell Road, Dulwich Hill, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9558 9074

Opening hours
Sunday to Thursday 11am-9pm
Friday to Saturday 11am-10pm


This article first appeared in Time Out Sydney. Read this article online or read more of my Time Out Sydney reviews.

No. 1 BBQ House, Campsie

Want the best Chinese barbecue shop in Sydney? No 1 BBQ House in Campsie is the business, which is why you’ll find a queue of customers spilling out onto the footpath no matter what time of day. And while the shop does a roaring trade in takeaway – the Lunar New Year queues are legendary – eating in is much more fun.

Just five tables dot the interior, mostly filled with single diners smashing down a plate of glistening roast duck or caramelised barbecue pork with rice. You’ll pay more to dine in than takeaway but it still makes for a bargain meal, with no washing up.


Roast duck and roast pork with noodles $13

The menu is one A5 laminated sheet, but the best stuff is on the back – that’s the side starting with combination BBQ – a mixed meat platter of all the good stuff hanging in the front window. Pick what you want and then the man with the cleaver will chop it up with alarming speed and precision.


Roast pork with crackling

There are two dishes with no English translation. Intrigued? Ordering one will net you a platter of offal. The other scores you a soy sauce duck head. Both are a part of a Southern Chinese traditional dish known in Cantonese as lou mei, usually meat, offal or offcuts braised in an aromatic and slightly sweet soy-based master stock.


Lou mei offal platter with tendon, tripe, pigs ears and intestines

Go to town with duck tongues, pork liver or fatty pork intestines. Braised pigs ears are a wonder that deserve broader appreciation, contrasting a gelatinous outer layer against the gentle crunch of soft cartilage. And if you love tendon, you’ll be in heaven here. It's a never-ending pile of soft and sticky luxury.


Soy sauce cuttlefish $14.80 

Get the soy sauce cuttlefish too. The orange tint comes from an added food dye but it's the texture that wins on all fronts, somehow both tender and crunchy at the same time. It's a phenomenon the Cantonese call “song”.


Complimentary house soup

Free tea and complimentary house soup make this a perfect pit stop for a cheap and hearty feed. That's why it's number one.






No. 1 BBQ House
152 Beamish Street, Campsie, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9718 6147

Opening hours
Daily 10am-8pm


This article first appeared in Time Out Sydney. Read this article online or read more of my Time Out Sydney reviews.

Shanghai Dumpling, Ashfield

The secret to a great dumpling? Don’t ever underestimate the dumpling skin. Most diners prioritise the filling but if the wrapper is wrong, you’ll know about it. Too thin and your dumpling will break apart. Too thick and you’ll notice its rubbery doughiness immediately. We reckon that’s why Shanghai Dumpling in Ashfield – with its gossamer thin dumpling skins – has such a loyal following. It might be separated from the main hub of dumpling houses along Liverpool Road, but at any given time you’re bound to find the modest dining room – just 24 seats – filled with dumpling enthusiasts.


Preserved duck egg and pork dumplings with chilli bean sauce

You won’t find xiao long bao soup dumplings here. Nor pan-fried buns. The focus here is the classic wonton dumpling, folded almost tortellini-style, but bigger. Stick with the standard pork and chive; chicken and cabbage; or tofu with mixed mushroom, or level up with their daily specials, available in limited quantities. These include preserved duck egg (century egg) with pork; prawn with bamboo shoots; salted duck egg with pork; and a springy fish cake with shredded ginger and shallots. They all come in serving sizes of five or ten so you can mix and match as you please.


Shredded ginger, shallot and fish dumplings $9 for 5 / $15.80 for 10

Get them plain, with chilli sauce, with noodle soup or pan-fried. The latter three options will cost a little extra. On a budget? Here’s a tip: You can raid the condiment trolley and make up your own dipping sauce of vinegar, chilli sauce, lemon and soy.


Preserved duck egg and pork dumplings $7.50 for 5 / $12.80 for 10

It’s worth savouring your first dumpling unadorned. That’ll give you a chance to appreciate the subtle flavour of the filling, and the slippery elegance of the dumpling skins. The silky tail ends are almost the best bit.


Noodle soup with hot spicy beef and beef tendon $12.80

If you’re still hungry, there are two pages of noodle options. Warm up with a cavernous bowl of soup filled with thin wheat noodles, chunks of spicy beef and gelatinous beef tendon.


Shredded chicken with chilli and Sichuan pepper $8.80 

Or attack a mountain of stir-fried noodles with shredded chicken and chilli. All the noodle toppings are also available as sides.

Wish you could eat dumplings every night? You can get takeaway packs of fresh or frozen dumplings to cook at home. Sorted.






Shanghai Dumpling
337 Liverpool Road, Ashfield, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9797 6999

Opening hours
Wednesday to Sunday 11am-9pm


This article first appeared in Time Out Sydney. Read this article online or read more of my Time Out Sydney reviews.