Forty Licks

Caffee Cocktails: 5/5 stars. Love love this! Best cocktail I’ve ever tasted in my life! Tastes like Viet coffee and u can definitely taste the rum. So good! Love the coconut flake rim on glass. Best item of the night for me. I’m a light weight so I’m going to ask for less rum next time.

Ginger Pandan mojito mocktail: 5/5 stars. Tastes like Vietnamese preserves lemon drink to me. Very refreshing. Sour. Minty. its not sweet. Can’t really taste the ginger in it, tastes mostly like lemons and mint.

Food overall is delicious and high quality ingredients, like fine dining type place. I recommend. Everything we ate tasted great. But pricey and portion size is tiny. The portion size is like tapas size.

Pickled veggies: 5/5 stars. delicious! Portion tart level.

Beef skewers: 5/5 stars. Most tender beef skewers I’ve ever tasted, juicy and melts in my mouth. It comes cooked well done which I prefer, so had no idea how it’s so tender, just wow and perfect! For entree, one person can easily have 2-3 skewer orders cuz it’s quite small.

Prawn Banh Xeo: 5/5 stars. Taco size. Prawn is delicious on it. It’s one plump prawn per Banh Xeo. I like how it had lots of veggies in it, very refreshing tasting.

Rice in clay pot: 5/5 stars. Great flavors. Love how it’s in clay pot cuz that keeps it hot throughout the meal. Feeling spoiled with this dish :-) only complaint is that the bottom part of the rice is burnt black, but the rest of the rice is delicious and perfect.

Roast Ocean Trout Salad: 3/5 stars. If u like poke bowls then I think u will like this dish. I’m just not a poke bowl type person. The fish was not fried, it was bits of fishes throughout the salad and it tasted like medium rare cooked. I wasn’t a fan of this dish cuz I prefer big portions of fish rather than little bits sprinkled throughout the salad. Flavors were ok.

Banana sago with coconut milk dessert: 3/5 stars. Wasn’t anything special. The peanut brittle was too hard so it was difficult to eat cuz edges were too sharp and texture was too hard, but flavor of brittle was good. this dish tastes a little uninspiring in flavor. I wouldn’t order again. The highlight of this dish was the coconut ice cream which was delicious but scoop was too small. I would rather just order a big bowl of coconut ice cream cuz ice cream was very tasty.

Roast Chicken: 5/5 stars. So delicious. Very very tender and perfectly cooked.

Restrooms: 5/5 stars. Very nice, classy, and clean. There’s a nice hand dryer, but no paper towels. Located inside restaurant.

Location: 3/5 stars. restaurant is underground which I was concerned about , but turns out it had lots of lighting and the ceiling is high enough therefore it does not feel claustrophobic. Wish they had windows but the way they decorated made it ok. Temperature is cool. Decor is modern, trendy and hipster which I loved.

Conclusion: Great trendy vibe. Service was excellent and friendly. I would definitely come back esp for drinks!. For dinner, I suggest ordering a 7-10 course meal per person cuz portion size is small. No dress code required, but most people r dressed up. We had an excellent and happy dinner and food was delicious!

I was keen to try this newly opened joint especially as it's in my local. For a joint that's opened only in the last month, it is pretty impressive that the place is buzzing. Tried a few things on the menu and I can say this place offers good food, great atmosphere, yummy cocktails and a personal service 👌

Dish 1: Radish cake skewers
Dish 2: Shark bay blue swimmers crab tapioca crackers
Dish 3: King prawn crispy pancakes
Dish 4: Scallop and king prawn dumplings
Dish 5: Half a bbq chicken
Dish 6: Steamed whole pink snapper
Sided: Clay pot rice and wok tossed greens
Dessert: King bananas, coconut milk tapioca with coconut sorbet
Drink: Teq-Ting Cocktail

I really love this place. Food is great, atmosphere is great. But this time, i was little disappointed. The clay pot rice wasn’t as good as my first visit though. It was more dry and burnt this time. The tapioca dessert felt less flavourful and soggy this time too. It was almost like a different dish. I’m still giving this 5 stars because between my 2 visits, it has still been fantastic overall and I will return for a third visit. I hope it will be as good as my first.

This restaurant was AMAZING. I cannot rave enough about it. The staff was so kind. The waitresses had emotional connections to every piece on the menu and i feel as though a piece of their heart went into each item. I became part of their family for the time we spent there. The flavors were like nothing I've ever had. The chef, the owner, the bartender, and two waitresses all spoke with us, conversing about life and the food. I was genuinely overwhelmed by the quality of the food, but also the heart of the people

Great food and service. The mocktails were delicious, as well as the wagyu beef skewers. The vietnamese sausages were flavoured well and nicely complemented by the bean sprouts and glutinous rice. The baramundi was nicely cooked and the noodles were flavourful due to the banana leaves. Dumplings were moist with a good portion of fillings.

Interesting location, interesting layout and interesting menu. I was enticed to this restaurant for the cusine and the concept of good quality casual vietnamese food in a high end setting. Being in the cbd they had an extensive drinks menu and bar. Too early for me though. I got stuck straight into the food. I had chicken and rice meal with pickled vegetables and pippis soup. The chicken was tasty especially with the chilli and garlic paste. The pickled vegetable provided right acidic balance while the soup was a nice way to end the meal. The price is above the average Vietnamese joint but it provided enough character and individuality to make this a worthy addition to the vast array of new flavours near the Wynyard district.