I’ve driven past Vietnam Gourmet on many occasions and their small sign board specifying that they have lunch specials has always kept me interested. Today, I thought I’d check them out. Upon arriving, I was pleased to find they have plenty of car parking at the rear of the building, although it is shared with other businesses.

With a place called Vietnam Gourmet, you would expect the menu to be entirely Vietnamese. While most of the menu is classic Vietnamese, there are other Asian dishes thrown into the mix such as Chinese, Thai and Japanese. Personally, I prefer places that offer limited dishes that are cooked well, rather than a place that has an extensive menu that offers dishes that may be hit or miss.

The decor is modern and well presented. There is good use of low hanging light fittings and the white table cloths add a touch of elegance. The indoor dining area seats about 24, while there is further seating in the outdoor undercover verandah. The unique building plan gives this place three frontages which allows plenty of natural light to come in from each direction.

For lunch, I ordered the Pad Thai. The dish came out 10 minutes after ordering and was nicely presented. The serving size was generous and it would easily satisfy the hungriest of appetites.

The trickiest part of making Pad Thai is cooking the noodles right. Well cooked rice noodles should be firm and flexible. The rice noodles in this dish were slightly over cooked and a bit on the mushy side.

The chicken was tender and succulent, and very well cooked. Catering for the health conscious, they used chicken breast pieces. It has it’s pros and cons, but the general consensus is that chicken thigh tastes better because of it’s higher fat content.

The bean sprouts and peanuts were cooked into the dish. I would have liked to have seen these ingredients added after the cooking so that the crunchiness is retained. They also added a lot of basil which seemed to over power the dish.

Tastewise, it was spot on, and even the reddish brownish colour of the dish was what I expected.

The staff were friendly and the service was fast and efficient. I wasn’t offered table water while I was there which was a bit disappointing. The atmosphere was relaxed and the lunch time pricing is very reasonable. My Pad Thai set me back $9.80 which was good value consider the serving size.

WHERE: Shop 1, 167 Goodwood Rd, Millswood