Trang - West End, Brisbane. Trang is a place that is well known and revered amongst many denizens in Brisbane. It could arguably be the most popular and well known Vietnamese restaurant within the whole town. This place has survived many years in West End on Hardgrave Road. One weekend, my dining buddy was suggesting Vietnamese and there were a couple of options he was considering; after weighing them all up, I did note that this place was in the top 20 on Brisbane's Urbanspoon page - period. With that being the deciding factor, it was off to here.
Here is the real kicker when trying all sorts of restaurants. New is a relative term, and if you have not tried or seen something before - no matter how long it has been existing for - then to you it is more or less able to be considered new. Some places you would have heard about constantly and just have never gotten around to trying, especially when you have been meaning to from how good they are. This does sometimes lead from slight to major disappointment.
After all the hype that I heard about Trang, ultimately it was as every bit as good as I could hope for. How could it not be? When I went here with my dining buddy, the whole place was packed and pumping. Wait staff were constantly busy, which did not stop them from doing a great and attentive job. Whatever business model they are utilising, I will say that they should continue with it as it gets heaps of output and more great reception.
The biggest gripe about the place is that no human stomach could fit so much in, and there is a wide range of choices which is putting it mildly. You could come here several times a day for years and it would take a long time to get through all the choices. Most of the selection is Chinese, and if you are feeling more towards the Vietnamese options the selection is not as vast therefore not as daunting to make a selection. And to think I have not mentioned the size of the servings, they are massive.
This is no fine dining establishment, but why should it be? It does well enough with what it is, and with all the lauding it got - and this has had a truckload of it overtime - it proudly wore all of it on its sleeve; if it has done well enough, it deserves to do so. So many tables are put in, and somehow it does not yet feel like you are literally rubbing shoulders with other clients. When the food is this good, that should not matter in the least particularly when they are going for a homely, family friendly feel. The best and most important part is that the meals are freshly prepared and cooked to order; they are out very fast, so jot this down as a casual meeting place for a work lunch.
To begin, some Vietnamese iced coffees were ordered. These were the traditional kind, where a small glass of condensed milk was served with the coffee slowly dripping out of a filter placed on top. For a few minutes, these were left to finish before mixing them around with a spoon. As well, a glass filled with ice (hence the iced coffee) was put alongside it for the mixture to be poured in. These were pretty good, refreshing and sweet with the flavours of coffee coming from underneath.
One way I often utilise a way to decide what to order is by what the place is renowned for or by a specialties section on the menu. Trang has a small selection of that on their menu of about half a dozen different items. From these, I went with what was basically called "Vietnamese fish hot pot". The waiter was giving a couple of warnings, and from what I could deduce the fish was basted in fish sauce and had a lot of bones in it; this did not stop me, as give me a cut of meat and I will gnaw around the bones if need be.
Call it old fashioned, call it common, call it "traditional". Nevertheless, my dining buddy went for a sweet and sour pork. On a whim, I decided an entree would be nice. My dining buddy was fine with whatever was going to be ordered, and for something very different I went with the salt and pepper quail. All of this was served with a generous portion of steamed rice. There is less you can say about steamed rice than you can internalise how good a good steamed rice is when cooked. This was one of those times, fantastic notes of flavour and a brilliant side for any Chinese/Vietnamese dish.
All three dishes ordered were nothing short of brilliant. Starting with where the meal started, the quail was served in halves - one each. It had a garnish of onion on the side. From the sounds of it, salt and pepper are about as basic as it gets for seasonings; certainly close to every recipe will have those items mentioned to finish off cooking a meal. Without prior knowledge, who would have thought the combination would make a slightly tangy, somewhat spicy flavour? It works so well with squid, so why not other meats? The little bird was served with the skin on, allowing the flavours to be infused even more into the flesh. The meat was tender and delicious, just mind all the bones.
He has had plenty of dishes of sweet and sour pork in his life, so to say that this place does the best version of that dish is probably saying a lot. It was well battered, the sauce was an equilibrium of both titular tastes and the meat was not ignored. There is not all that much more that can be said about the dish, they did it correctly.
What was the highlight of the meal was the Vietnamese fish hot pot. This was a good cut of fish, one that would not appeal to those not familiar with fish. It had a deep flavour, with the sauce infused into the flesh and skin. It came served in a ramekin dish. In this case, it could be another one that is impossible to describe why it tasted so good and requires an actual sampling to see what makes it so tasty. Great fish, soft and tender. All the bones, skin and fat give it all the character it needs.
According to my dining buddy, this place is just as good as it was some years back and from those years back it was just as good as the same number of years. This is apparently pretty authentic as far as Vietnamese fare goes. I will take word of that, not being all that knowledgeable on the cuisine but gradually coming around to it. For what I can say, going to Trang was worth it. Hopefully it maintains its place for some time to come. It may be both a blessing and a curse that I do not live within walking distance to here. Curse, it takes some time to get to and blessing, I would be here almost weekly to sample all their delights. That is something to say about this well-known establishment. For once, the hype was justified.
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