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Dong Ba & Loc Ky Restaurant, Cabramatta

Look no further for authentic Vietnamese 

Lately, I have frequented Cafe Ish and La Gerbe d’Or for my weekend Brunch fix. I figured that it was perhaps time I paid a visit back to Cabramatta as it has now been a month or two since I had my regular dosage of authentic Vietnamese food. Most of us know the typical Vietnamese dishes of Pho, Spring rolls and Crispy Skin Chicken (which I have doubts over whether it’s even Vietnamese or not)

Over the weekend, I was fortunate enough to visit two of my favourite eateries in Cabramatta who both specialise in different ‘house’ dishes. These two restaurants being Dong Ba and Loc Ky. Dong Ba has actually been reported in the Register of penalty notices by the NSW Food Authority. News of this would of unlikely phased any of the regular patrons of Dong Ba as this place is always filled to the brim on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. The one thing I did notice was that the restaurant looked alot more clean and less cluttered, so maybe it was a good thing that they did get reported.

First stop on my Saturday was at Dong Ba. Dong Ba is reknown with the Cabramatta faithful for it’s Bun Bo Hue and Grilled satay chicken. Inside, it is larger than your average Cabramatta noodle house and the staff are friendly and attentive despite the hustle and bustle of patrons entering and exiting.

A firm favourite of mine is to start the meal with Vietnamese Iced coffee. Vietnamese black coffee is mixed with a generous amount of condensed milk and mixed with ice. The coffee is usually significantly stronger and bitter than most coffee. If you ever try this out, make sure to wait a few minutes to let the ice melt. The Iced Coffee at Dong Ba is just as good as any other in Cabramatta ; copiously rich with coffee and condensed milk.

Grilled Satay Chicken with Tomato rice and egg (Com Ga Sate)

One of the signature dishes at Dong Ba is it’s grilled satay chicken. It normally doesn’t come with tomato rice and egg so you have to request it for an extra $1 (totally worth it). The chicken is tender and juicy and is grilled over charcoal. The aromatic hint of charcoal is welcoming. Pickled radish and carrots also accompany the dish and balances well with the meat.

Ubiquitous Salads

A large plate of salad is accompanied with a bowl of fish sauce with pickled carrots. The colour and range is fantastic with no shortage of fresh herbs, bean sprouts, lettuce and purple cabbage.

Bun Bo Hue

Bun Bo Hue is a spicy thick rice noodle dish which is dictacted by the success of the broth. The broth can make or break this entire meal. As usual, Wikipedia have the best explanaton of this fantastic dish :

The noodle is most similar to the Japanese soba noodle in size and texture. The broth is prepared by cooking beef bones for a long period of time, as well as a large variety of different spices including lemon grass and chili. Shrimp paste is also a very important ingredient.

The soup is spot on this time. You can really taste the individual flavours of lemon grass, chilli and of course a hint of shrimp paste.

Next up was a visit to another favourite restaurant of mine called Loc Ly. It is tucked away in a small shopping alley off John St and is about a quarter of the size of Dong Ba. Loc Ly serves more traditional vietnamese dishes such as Bamboo rice noodle soup with duck salad, but also serves every other Vietnamese dish you can think of.

Ca Phe Sua Da

Once again, the iced coffee is consistently rich of coffee and condensed milk. Too many of these will leave you with a severe case of diabetes, but it’s worth it.

This rice noodle soup is flavoured by a bamboo shoot based stock. The content is simple, containing generous portions of shallots , bamboo and fried onions.

Broiled Duck with Pickled Cabbages

The duck is broiled with minimal seasoning and topped with a hint of a vinegar based sauce. It is finished with a garnish of fresh asian herbs and peanuts. At first glance this may look like a plain dish, but it excels when eaten with the dipping sauce and noodles.

The duck is dipped into a spicy and tangy sauce consisting of fish sauce , hot chillies, ginger and a host of other unidentifiable ingredients. The sauce is absolutely perfect in that it brings out the tenderness of the duck.

This is a dry noodle dish with a kaleidescope of flavour and content. This seafood version contains squid, prawns, fish fillets, shallots, coriander and fried onions. On the base is a sweet hoisin type sauce which is mixed together with the noodle, much like you do when you mix together a pack of Indo mi goreng (the Uni student’s food of choice).

Alot of Vietnamese restaurants don’t serve these type of dishes, which is a shame because there is more to Vietnamese food than what you see at a food court dwelling or a Vietnamese restaurant in the City. I encourage all lovers of Vietnamese food to pay a visit to Cabramatta, Canley Vale/Heights or even Bankstown and try a few dishes which go against the status quo. For the readers fortunate enough to have tried a variety of dishes, what is your favourite ?

Dong Ba Restaurant

40 Park Road
Cabramatta, NSW 2166
(02) 9755 0727

Loc Ky Restaurant

Details coming soon.