TL;DR: Banoi is one more solid effort that has several good aspects going for it. Solid as always, as Vietnamese keeps on proving itself to me, there really isn't anything else to elaborate upon beyond the food being substantial, and filling regardless of a whole meal or one of their tasty snacks.
One of the big eatery mainstays down the King Street lane-ways, Banoi is what happens with the culmmination of several generations of Vietnamese residents honing in their craft and showing just how good and reliable all the bites are. From a look at the photos online, it has a cute aesthetic that is simple and inviting, plus the service would definitely go well along with it. Best of all, the portions are substantial and each item tastes quite good.
Once and again, here come to lunch time at work and not just any kind of lunch-time. Most of us can agree there is something different in the air when it comes to Fridays, that feeling which hasn't worn off since the school years. For the most part though, I have been keeping it on the conservative side but sometimes the pieces fall in line to think "why not" to trying something a bit different.
The conservative aspect might have been a bit of a stretch, since often it defaults to the food court at work. Those options are pretty small, and get a bit stale after a while of trying them - as with anything. With the pieces falling into line, the boss was going St. Elsewhere from the work place, and the next most junior colleague had his usual venture out as well. With the rest out of commission or otherwise occupied, I was only one of two there - and it was off to the nearby bar - serves drinks and some peanuts, otherwise any food can be brought in. That was the time to strike.
Many previous attempts at getting the UberEats at the right location have sort of gone astray, and I hadn't used it at work for quite some time. I am always willing to give it another go, and that I did. The only problem was from where? Most of the time, I have the preference for the lunch delivered to be more finger-food friendly than not which usually has a few options left - one of them being the banh mi. There were two places that did Vietnamese, and I have not made it subtle that the best combination of banh mi and the signature coffee. One did one and not the other, the other was inverse - kind of at a bit of a tizzle. With it getting closer to the lunch hour, and having to arrange it without much suspicion from the boss. All of that landed here, and just a bit by bit it was getting a decent feed in. With an undisclosed anecdote occurring around now, it might well have been a good call - and the fact that the meal that I had was very filling, substantial, and tasty to boot.
Plugging in the order to get it here as soon as possible, the big meal possibly had it be about an hour or so before arriving at the destination, but what really matters is that it got here without much hassle or aimless wandering from the Uber driver's part. In fact, even if it wasn't exactly at the stated location he was good enough to stay in one spot (not too far away) and phone me ahead so I could meet him in the middle. This was good in thinking on the spot, keeping the client in the know, and efficiently delivering the goods.
The general theme here is street food, and in saying that the menu is still pretty big having a number of tasty options to select from. This starts off with various kinds of finger foods, which extends to the classic rice paper roll, and some more inventive concoctions including a steamed taco bun. The more substantial meals come out with some of the classics including pho, all sorts of noodles dishes, some rice dishes, salads, pancakes, the classical banh mi, and even a few kinds of dessert to boot. Drinks have not been abandoned, with the best foot being put forward in the form of coffee - both hot and cold, two different styles. As well as that, they offer all kinds of juices, smoothies, house-made sodas, and teas, along with the usual lot of sodas, and waters. Pork rules the roost on Fridays, with several dishes that are a-steal in stores. Not everything here was on the UberEats menu, and there was still a good selection to tempt a hungry stomach plus enough here to ensure a feast if need be.
What started off the order was the iced coffee, since the coffee itself doesn't need the bahn mi for me, and they are pretty hard to refuse regardless. Going on from that, the crux of the meal went down to some vermicelli noodles - the choice ended up being the chicken curry version.
From there, it simply expanded with a couple of extra snacks on the side in order to give more of a substantial review. The first one was a two-piece of rice paper rolls, in which the selected flavour was soft shell crab. A second lot that sounded too interesting to pass up were their banh no kep, which is a bit like a taco using steamed bun as the outside. With these suckers being relatively a-steal two varieties were gotten - one of soft shell crab, and the other was chicken.
Starting off with the coffee, it may not have been the best one around that I have had, though this is a case where it is still good especially given that it was a hot day. The unique combination of it being super strong from the concentration of the coffee, plus the excess sweetness from the base of the condensed milk. Whether it is hot or cold, this will always be going down a treat.
The vermicelli dish used a base of semi-cold noodles, plus a combination of lettuce, shredded cucumber, carrot, and daikon, plus a mixture of herbs and some scallion-based oil for good measure. With the chicken curry choice, this had a coconut cream base that was flavoured with yellow curry, and had bits of sweet potato in it along with a whole caramlised onion, plus big pieces of chicken to compliment it all. With all the soup sauce that there was, they provided a couple of bits of bread to soak it all up.
Both the snacks that were gotten in conjunction to the curry were just as good. Soft shell crab will always prove itself to be a reliable option, due to the lithe texture and the subtly sweet flavour that goes with it. In addition to that, it goes down easily with a little bit of a crunch assisting it all. Kudos will be given to the choice of sauce with it - a slightly spicy Sichuan seasoning, offset with some watercress and creamy crab sauce. The second one was chicken, that was accompanied with a sriacha mayonnaise that was pretty spicy, and some sprouts. The steamed bun they were served in was soft, and easily soaks up all kinds of sauces. These make for a quick little bite, and are definitely worth getting.
Last of all are the rice paper rolls, which we all know by now. These were big and thick, filled with a heap of vermicelli noodles, carrots, and coriander plus the choice of meat. I went with soft shell crab for a second round, and it was fresh and tasty. Two a piece come with an order, and these will be substantial snacks yet again.
Head's up to this place. More often than not, you can easily rely on a Vietnamese place to deliver a solid and quality meal, and here we are proving it once and again. I am pretty sure that this place is highly worth its salt in every aspect of the word when dining in, and that Banoi is going to become a local favourite if it has not already. Great food, good selection, a solid effort that is commendable - this is certainly recommended by-and-by.
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