Roll'd Vietnamese Food

I Have had the bun salad here a few times, always fresh and fast! I had the pork spring roll one, which was delish. Great for a quick lunch.

Behind a whole lot of messy scaffolding and construction work on Edward Street, a few businesses are managing to be operating just fine some with plenty of business happening. One of these is an outlet of the Vietnamese chain, Roll'd which is consistently popular with many of the nearby office workers.

After work one day, I was knocking off and heading to see a friend during her lunch break. She had a place in mind, one that had come up among her favourites which was this place - the outlet near Wintergarden - and that was what was taking her fancy that day. So, it was off to here with quite the beeline. This place ain't bad, more "it'll do" than anything else.

Interior is quite simple, going for a wooden feel and there is a whole lot of seating around outside. Going for this seating around the scaffolding is something a bit unusual around this nape of the woods; often there would be regulations aplenty to section it off. On some tables, condiments, cutlery and serviettes are placed for the customers to pick up.

Service is the kind where you are handed one of the buzzers, and when your order is ready it goes off and you head to the counter and get it. It is really like fast food, being served on a tray and wrapped up. That is all there really is aside from them taking the orders.

It serves Vietnamese street food, boiling it down to five different kinds of meals - albeit with multiple flavours of the said foods. There's their bowl (or the B as they call it) available on rice (bun) or noodles (com), pho, cuon (rice paper rolls), bahn mi and goi (salads). Breakfast versions of some of these items are also available. Several kinds of snacks are available for a few dollars more.

I went with on of the "B"s, on rice with crispy chicken ribs. Choosing the rice, it was a mixture of carrots, cucumber, mixed herbs, dried shallots and a vinegar-based dressing alongside the meat of choice on top of broken rice. It was all present to be mixed together (not really practical, but it does look good). This is a healthy, flavoursome mix that matches a number of tastes together, and tastes nice. The colours make it look likely, and the occasional bit of meat - in this case the chicken ribs - add some interest to it. The chicken was crumbed well, and there were a few of them in there. It was also a tad spicy, quite how I like it.

Of course, it was Vietnamese and they had the signature iced coffee - and I just get coffee to drink when I got out in general - therefore, to drink I ordered this on the side. The coffee that they use is from the Sensory Lab. The coffee was chock full of ice, making it really cold and refreshing, and had a sweet taste from the condensed milk. Through it all, the caffeine was quite strong with that one. As long as it tasted good, I was all good. They do also do the typical espresso blends, and iced tea as well.

Seeing as I had already ordered two of the three items needed for getting the value meal, all that was left was to order one of the sides. This was even suggested by the lady behind the counter and my friend, pointing out the deal on the counter. Sure, why not? After having a look on the menu, it was the sweet potato fries that took my liking. These were, adequate. The quality of the sweet potatoes used was good, but they were not really crispy. It was in a good snack size, and moreish - but maybe crisp them up a bit more instead of having them seem like steamed cigars.

The second time coming here, it was for a brief bite to eat between the end of work and having a personal training session in the afternoon. Going for the traditional variety, it was none other than a pork banh mi - being offered the crackling option, that is what I took. Next question was whether it was going to be with chili, and without a doubt!

And, this was still okay but a bit underwhelming compared to many other banh mis that I have had over the preceding months. Going with what works: as always is necessary, the bread roll was appropriately crusty and freshly baked from an oven out back, it was filled with all the needed fresh ingredients - carrot, cucumber, coriander and chili - which combine to create a unique taste, that is equally fresh and flavoursome, the cucumber being a coolant to the chili and the coriander giving its distinct taste plus the carrot for extra crunch, and the meat that was put on is delicious. However, it felt a bit dry. There was not a whole lot of sauce on it, not pate or any kind of dressing. This sort of is needed, as it makes the roll seem more excited. Decent, but not among the greats.

Considering that Roll'd is a franchise, and that the food is thus mass-produce, it is a lot better than you could do. Not for anyone who is particularly a fan of Vietnamese food, especially aficionados since it is made for a general audience. However, from a stand point of trying the authentic version and this they are a lot closer than others. It is fresh, full of vegetables and is quick and easy - so it has some good laurels to rest on.