Phuong

Anything that lasts 30 years in Crows Nest deserves a medal. Possibly one of those medals where it looks like a medal but you unwrap it and its actually chocolate.
Phuong has been around for donkeys and, on the strength of consistently good food, will be around for a long time to come. Sit outside on the patio unless its a cold night when inside is cosy and you can appreciate the unintentionally retro mint-​and-​green colour scheme.
Must tries:
— fresh rice paper rolls with peanuts sauce. These suckers are huge and packed full of fresh.
— sizzling beef. Lift your tablecloth up to cover your face when the beef hits the sizzling hotplate because this bad boy spits.
— the BYO policy. Worth it’s weight.

This place is an institution. My dad remembers going there 30 years ago.
I must say, I really don’t think that the décor or furniture have changed either.
DON’T BE PUT OFF BY THE DECOR or the plastic menus.
Sunday night, so much of Crows Nest is dead but this place, despite the green walls, tacky chairs and dusty lanterns was 75% full.
The menu is predominately Vietnamese, but there is a Thai section of the menu.
We had the rice paper rolls (prawn and pork, and vegie) — served with a traditional bean sauce (not satay) beautifully fresh and tasty. We had the crispy chicken with lemon and pepper (basic but yummy, oh and served retro-​style on a bed of prawn crackers) and the seafood in oyster sauce (Vietnamese oyster sauce, rather than the regular salty Chinese or Thai form. Squid and prawns were cooked perfectly.
The menu may be pretty basic, but has variety. Service was fantastic, even if the waiter was busy looking after most of the tables, with the occasional hand from the barman.
I would have really liked some S+P squid, but they have the more traditional pork stuffed squid tubes. NEXT time, I’ll be trying one of the sizzling dishes– I swear, every table in the place ordered one, but us– so I figure they must be worth a try.
Tip: Restaurant is licensed and BYO– but the wine they sell is cask (!)

Wow in contrast to the other review I love this place. The décor is very dated but the food is outstanding. I struggle to find Vietnamese food that I find tasty without going to Marrickville. I was introduced to this place by a colleague and we haven’t stopped coming here since. BYO and licensed, I find the food very tasty and in contrast to the décor. Sometimes I like finding genuine places that put the $ into their food rather than wasting it on a new paint job. I highly recommend this place. Try it and make up your own mind. Either way, pop a review here.

So it appears that Crows Nest os the polar opposite location you should go to if you want some Vietnamese food. But if you walk by Phuong, you would think you stumbled upon a hidden gem in The Nest (thats what I’m calling it now… it’ll catch on trust me). The outside is always packed and I finally convinced my wife we should try this place as the locals all seem to eat here.
The inside makes you feel like you entered some cheesy 1960’s lounge, but I’m going there for food not ambiance.
We started with some fresh spring rolls. The description sounded great. But the actual dish was lacking. For being a spring roll with pork and shrimp there was not much meat. There was also not much mint and othe flavours. It was full.
We ordered Bah Vi (some sizzling beef dish) and Muc Nhoi Thit (Pork stuffed into squid). The beef was supposed to be one of their ‘slightly spicey’ dishes. It was not spicey. Its flavour was alright, but the only veg in there was celery. The Muc Nhoi Thit was just plain bad. it was deep fried, it was oily, and the pork was some bad tasting pork sausage. It sounded like a dish with potential but instead fo being full of flavour and light, it was boring and heavy.
I did some research (google) to see how the pork squid is supposed to look:
Those both look amazing.
I would avoid this place like the plague. Go to a great Indian or Italian place in The Nest and leave the Vietnamese for Cabrametta or Hurstville.