Order at the tuckshop window
Click through to the MissChu website at your peril. It’s noisy, just like the restaurant, if you can call it that.
The vibe is exactly the same as the crowded chaos of a SE Asian city at this joint at the top end of Exhibition St, between Lonsdale and Latrobe. The walls are pasted with refugee-style imagery. The crowd at lunch is largely office with guys in shirtsleeves wearing lanyards, groovy Asian guys in beanies and women of a certain age overflowing the tables and chairs into the narrow aisle.
The main eating area is dwarfed by the kitchen which also offers delivery on electric bikes and party catering, designed to churn out a lot of food quickly.
What you need to do to order it’s Vietnamese-sty;e food is queue at the tuckshop window, pay then wither fight your way to a seat. Or hang around for takeaway food, which arrives quickly.
The duck rice paper rolls arrive immediately in a box. They are fine but lack some flavour. Soon after comes the Pho, a $13 Pho in a city where it usually costs $8 to $10. I’m guessing the pointless addition of the latest vogue meat, wagyu, is what is driving up the cost of this noodle soup. The broth lacks flavour and the usual additions of chilli, bean shoots and Vietnamese mint are pre-mixed.
It’s perfectly okay but a disappointment compared to what else is on offer, at a lower price.
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