PROFILE BY BEST RESTAURANTS
I followed the dragon from left of the entrance of the Treasury Casino. The body of the dragon was lit up in multi-colour lights and led the way into Fat Noodle. Fat Noodle is the brain child of the celebrity chef Luke Nguyen who also owns the award winning restaurant Red Lantern in Sydney. The inside of the restaurant was brown and wooden and the ceiling was decorated with hanging chopsticks and woks reflecting the kitchen which was open to everyone looking in.
As we were the first ones to arrive at 11.30am, we were promptly shown to our table and were attended to. Our fresh meals came out promptly but one of our chopsticks were taken away and the attentive waitresses somehow disappeared and did not return to check up on our meals.
Luke’s signature dish was the Fat Pho Noodles which was a fragrant 20hr beef broth with sliced beef brisket and rice noodles with a side of basil, been sprouts and chilli. The beef was partially cooked which was then finished off as it hit the hot soup. The Pho was fresh because the basil and bean sprouts were added at the last minute and then it could be pimped up to what every heat I wanted with the addition of chillies. Even though the broth had been cooked for 20hrs, it lacked any depth of flavour, even to the point of a lack of salt. There was some salt on the salt and pepper tofu which was battered and deep fried and accompanied with fried shallots and chilli, but it could of had more as well as pepper.
There are many small little Vietnamese restaurants around Brisbane that don’t have awards but make exceptional Pho as good as the ones in Vietnam giving me no reason to return to Fat Noodle.
Kristin Hatherley