Cafe Nho, Bankstown

Remember those mini tubs of creme caramel your Mum would buy you from the supermarket fridges? The ones with the plastic tabs you’d have to break off the bottom so the custard would slide out? You’ll get a flashback to childhood with the Vietnamese version, banh flan. It’s all about that sensation of slowly savouring chilled custard - sitting in a lake of caramel sauce of course - made even colder with a blizzard of chipped ice scattered across the top. Take that, tropical humidity.


Vietnamese creme caramel $6.90

At Cafe Nho, they kick things up a notch by adding a crown of red rubies. They’re those addictive nubbins of water chestnut jellies tinted red so they look like giant pomegranate seeds. Or rubies. Put it all together and you’ve got a multi-textured dessert of silky custard, bitter caramel and the refreshing crunch of water chestnuts encased in chewy tapioca jelly.

You’ll find a constant crowd of families, teens and couples at this Bankstown cafe, spilling across the footpath out the front or hidden in the booths at the back. Everyone has a drink or dessert in front of them. The constant whir of blenders doesn’t faze anyone.


Watermelon, lychee and strawberry frappe $6

Here you can design your own fruit juice, smoothie or frappe from a rainbow of tropical choices. We’re talking dragon fruit, soursop, jackfruit and, you guessed it, durian. And even though you keep forgetting that avocado is a fruit, the folks here haven’t. If you can’t make up your mind, pick a preset combo from the menu, like mango, coconut and whipped cream or watermelon, lychee and strawberry.


Pomelo rind, white seaweed and beans $6.90


Smashed durian $10

Otherwise the dessert menu revolves mostly around shaved iced concoctions. The shaved ice with candied pomelo rind and snow fungus will cool you right down, or get that ice blitzed up with smashed durian. They’re not stingy with the durian either. The crowd favourite is probably the homemade jelly combination, a parfait glass filled with grass jelly, basil seeds, red rubies, shaved ice and coconut milk.


Cafe sua da iced white coffee $4

Looking for a turbo-charged pick-me-up? Get the Vietnamese coffee. It’s super strong and just as sweet. Most locals have it with condensed milk and poured over ice but you can pull out all the stops and get it blended with Oreos, Tim Tams, Bounty or Snickers.






Cafe Nho
64 Bankstown City Plaza, Bankstown Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9709 6820

Opening hours
Daily 7am-6pm

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

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