TL;DR: Something of a far cry from most Vietnamese places in town, most of them have that really casual atmosphere where you can saunter in at any moment. The food is often high quality, and in the realm of street food. Than Nuong goes the other direction, and sets something up where you rock up to be seen. It is on the backstreets of Woolloongabba, underneath the apartments and lights up the place at night. What is possibly the glue that binds it together is the food, which is an adventure in itself. Vietnamese cuisine often comes up as a winner, and this one is begging to go diamond in sales.
Once again, the WWE were flying over to Saudi Arabia for one of their big shows over there. Playing right on the WWE Network, it was like any old PPV event. That meant, for me at least, to get onto UberEats and arrange some delivery for lunch while watching it. For my hectic schedule, this meant putting it off for a couple of days and doing the darnedest to avoid spoilers. Nevertheless, I can always wait for a good and entertaining event - which this one it was - and couple it with some great food, and you have one happy camper before you.
Usually this process is more or less off the cuff, and what looks good at the time. As much I try to do a sort of theme with these events - Middle Eastern - often it winds up being the off the cuff process. It worked out well for a second time in a row, and possibly couldn't have been at a more opportune moment. This place had been blipping on and off the radar over the past few months, and it was one of the few untouched places that was open for business on a Sunday and did a good range of fare to be considered. They had just introduced a new menu, which included desserts, and several hot meals. It did sound good and tempting beforehand, now I was pushed over the edge.
From that, it was plugging them in a couple of days in advance and just letting it all take care of itself. When it comes to UberEats delivery, there are only so many ways to critique it went it all goes according to plan. The actual delivery process was much like that, where it went efficiently and the food was all pipping hot when it arrived. I even gave a generous cash-in-hand tip to the driver. What happened here, I have had occur several times beforehand. It is often a sizable order, with many items. On the odd occasion, the restaurant calls up if they are out of one of the items or it just went off the menu. Uber was the one that did the calling this time, where they offered to switch one starter I ordered with another due to this situation. That always shows they are prepared, they read the details at least twice, and know customer service - a simple ask and offer can do wonders.
It is into the enticing land that is Vietnamese cuisine, but it was as I have never seen it before. After so many banh mis, phos, noodle salads and the ilk, they uncovered so many other meals that usually get overlooked. This all starts with a vegan selection, which has a rich history from the deep-rooted Buddhist beliefs and celebrations. It is rare to find a Vietnamese place that does so well to vegetarians, much less vegans, hence that is a strong mark in their favour already.
The rest of the menu is just as enticing, and right out of the gate the entree menu shows that they are deviating from the stock standard menu while including an assortment of different tastes and aromas. Seafood features fairly heavily. They do have their phos here, fear not for the big fans of it reading. As well as that, they have a handful of stir fries, noodle dishes, salads, and more slowly cooked meat-based dishes.
Speaking of the meat, that leads us to the star vehicle of the whole place - that charcoal pit. This is where they cook the meats over a long period of time, on hot coals, and through it they slowly marinate each piece until it is as roughly soft as butter. If anything would be a carnivores delight this would be as close to it as you could imagine.
The menu is wound down with a small dessert selection. While not available via UberEats, what will be noted is the drinks selection. Available is a whole lot of wines, and beers/ciders, along with the usual array of cold drinks for those abstaining from alcohol. Coffee is available both with all the espressos, and in the traditional Vietnamese style.
As it usually goes, some starters kick it all off. Two choices this time, going for spicy chicken wings, and some spring rolls. Both of them were served on a fresh salad bed; even as someone who is not a fan of salad, I will give credit because of presentation, and there are people who do like salad - preferences always vary. With the chicken wings, the cooks were generous. There was at least half a dozen of them, even if they are small, when cooked as perfectly as they were here, you can find succulent meat between all the crevices of the bones. With the spring rolls, more or less they were spring rolls - at least they were hot from the fryer.
Choosing a mere couple of meals from the list is a real feat, since just reading each of the items has you feel the food right in your mouth as the words pass into your eyes. From there, the mouth merely waters and the decision needs to be quick - you want to protect your precious keyboard now, would I be right? In a way, it was easy with the first one - the betel leaf beef went in quickly, since that is just too good to pass up. Second one eventually went to the classical chicken curry, as there is always time for a chicken curry.
These two were absolutely delicious, and better than they sounded from a mere reading from the menu. The betel leaves are a mixture of beef and pork mince, plus heaps of spice, and wrapped in the said betel leaves. This was one of the several items in the charcoal section, and if that is an indication for what they are like - be prepared for hog heaven. The meat simply went like butter in my mouth, and the spices simply contributed further to the taste.
With the Vietnamese version of a curry, it is far simpler than some of its more well-known counterparts. That is part of the charm, like it can be made at home on a whim. The sauce was mild in flavour, and creamy in texture, and the chicken was exceptionally tender. A few vegetables got thrown into the mix for good measure, and it made a refreshing meal.
What made the choice for this to be the chosen one on this outing was possibly the dessert section. They had a few of them, many that sounded different to what I am accustomed to. Particularly one dessert that I was intrigued how they would make it. That was a coconut banana cake, based on gluttonous rice. You don't have to convince me much further upon the utterance of "banana" for me to be encouraged.
This was something very interesting, it was essentially an entire banana was wrapped in a whole lot of gluttonous rice, which was in turn wrapped in a banana leaf then char-grilled. That was then served with a small lot of coconut cream. My house mate had no idea what it was at the start, and it took me a while to figure out that it was the banana dessert The rice was plump, and appropriately so absorbs the sweet coconut cream when poured all over. Inside, the banana was possibly a variety I don't often see in stores, one that is a tad more tart than most. This entire concoction goes well-appreciated, as it is a nice dessert that doesn't overly on too much sweetness, is robust enough on its own as a snack, and finishes things off to a nice finish.
Being a gourmand, I love it when any cuisine is shown respect where a place goes off the beaten track and brings forth lesser known areas of the said cuisine. This happened right here, and I might have heard a whisper or two over time about the char-grilled barbecues in Vietnamese cuisine beforehand. If I hadn't tried it before now, then I certainly can tick it off the list. Each meal was absolutely great in its own way, and all-round unique. A great day was had by all.
I am almost tempted to be giving them perfect scores. It is at that cusp where they hovering so close that their toes could scrape the feel of what perfection is. Sometimes I feel that might put a place too much over, and ruin expectations. This is one of those times. Whether it be getting it delivered on a cold day, or taking a trip into this part of town, there was something absolutely special about Than Nuong. I've said it before, I'll say it again, one of the reasons I regard the Vietnamese so highly is their cuisine which can marry so many flavours into fresh ingredients, and have you feeling full and satisfied by the end of it all. I certainly was, and give it as many thumbs up as I can muster.
Or that having a Vietnamese style coffee would have rounded it off to a perfect finish, choose whichever sounds better.
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