Sometimes all you need is a bowl of Asian soup to make everything better. My soup making skills are non existent, so it is important to have a trusty Viet place to visit. Bang Bang is located in the heart of Northcote on High St, surrounded by many other restaurants so it definitely had to be of a high standard to survive.
We went on a Monday evening unsure of what to expect and were faced with a packed restaurant! There were people sitting outside but it was pretty warm, so we decided to stick with air conditioned comfort inside. There was a little table for two available, so we sidled our way through the patrons and made ourselves comfortable. There was Chinese tea on the table so we poured ourselves a couple of cups and set about deciding what to order from the menu. Like a typical Asian restaurants, like the ones I had often frequented in Springvale, the Bang Bang menu was long and very comprehensive. There was sections devoted to entrees, soups, rice and noodles, and then each kind of protein. There was over 250 dishes to choose from! I was extra excited to discover there was a separate vegetarian section which had stir fries, rice and noodle dishes, and the soup I was craving.
I decided on a tom yum soup. I felt that the hot and sour would work better in summer. Summer is a season where I love eating strong flavours, bitter, sour, spicy, so the tom yum seemed to fit this bill. The other half went for a combination cashew stir fry with steamed rice. We also ordered some vegetarian rice paper rolls as an entrée.
Bang Bang have a fridge of soft drinks, but no liquor license. Instead many of the diners had brought their own beer, cider or wine and were enjoying it with their meal. It seemed like a good option. We hadn’t brought any drinks with us, so instead stuck to our Chinese tea.
Our dishes arrived quite quickly. Two plump rice paper rolls were placed on our table with some hoisin dipping sauce. The rolls were packed tightly with noodles, vegetables and tofu, and when dipped into the sauce were very yummy. It was a good start to the meal.
Once our entrée was finished and the plate was cleared, our mains were brought out. I was very excited to see my big bowl of steaming soup. It was filled to the brim with lots of vegetables, noodles and plump cubes of bean curd. I dressed the soup with bean shoots, Asian herbs, and a squeeze of lime and proceeded to dig in. The soup was exactly what I wanted in a tom yum, full of flavour and lots of tang! It was a good sized serving too, with the ratio of liquid to other ingredients just right.
The other half’s dish came out, but it wasn’t quite what he expected. He had assumed that combination stir fry with cashews would mean that the cashews were mixed into the rest of the dish, but instead they were generously scattered over the top. Despite this, he did say the dish was very tasty.
Bang Bang is a no frills restaurant. The food is very good, the staff are friendly, and the prices are very reasonably. But don’t expect fancy décor and silver service, that’s not what Bang Bang focuses on. Instead, when you need to satisfy your craving for good Asian food, Bang Bang should definitely be on your list of places to try.
We went on a Monday evening unsure of what to expect and were faced with a packed restaurant! There were people sitting outside but it was pretty warm, so we decided to stick with air conditioned comfort inside. There was a little table for two available, so we sidled our way through the patrons and made ourselves comfortable. There was Chinese tea on the table so we poured ourselves a couple of cups and set about deciding what to order from the menu. Like a typical Asian restaurants, like the ones I had often frequented in Springvale, the Bang Bang menu was long and very comprehensive. There was sections devoted to entrees, soups, rice and noodles, and then each kind of protein. There was over 250 dishes to choose from! I was extra excited to discover there was a separate vegetarian section which had stir fries, rice and noodle dishes, and the soup I was craving.
I decided on a tom yum soup. I felt that the hot and sour would work better in summer. Summer is a season where I love eating strong flavours, bitter, sour, spicy, so the tom yum seemed to fit this bill. The other half went for a combination cashew stir fry with steamed rice. We also ordered some vegetarian rice paper rolls as an entrée.
Bang Bang have a fridge of soft drinks, but no liquor license. Instead many of the diners had brought their own beer, cider or wine and were enjoying it with their meal. It seemed like a good option. We hadn’t brought any drinks with us, so instead stuck to our Chinese tea.
Our dishes arrived quite quickly. Two plump rice paper rolls were placed on our table with some hoisin dipping sauce. The rolls were packed tightly with noodles, vegetables and tofu, and when dipped into the sauce were very yummy. It was a good start to the meal.
Once our entrée was finished and the plate was cleared, our mains were brought out. I was very excited to see my big bowl of steaming soup. It was filled to the brim with lots of vegetables, noodles and plump cubes of bean curd. I dressed the soup with bean shoots, Asian herbs, and a squeeze of lime and proceeded to dig in. The soup was exactly what I wanted in a tom yum, full of flavour and lots of tang! It was a good sized serving too, with the ratio of liquid to other ingredients just right.
The other half’s dish came out, but it wasn’t quite what he expected. He had assumed that combination stir fry with cashews would mean that the cashews were mixed into the rest of the dish, but instead they were generously scattered over the top. Despite this, he did say the dish was very tasty.
Bang Bang is a no frills restaurant. The food is very good, the staff are friendly, and the prices are very reasonably. But don’t expect fancy décor and silver service, that’s not what Bang Bang focuses on. Instead, when you need to satisfy your craving for good Asian food, Bang Bang should definitely be on your list of places to try.
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