Three of Melbourne’s best Southeast Asian restaurants for a full-on flavour explosion
- Sunda, Rice Paper Sister and Noodle House by Lao-Luangprabang combine traditional and modern techniques in inventive, delicious dishes
- Chefs of Vietnamese, Filipino and Lao heritage draw on ingredients from Australia and across Southeast Asia to offer some memorable lunch moments
For such a famously laid-back city, Melbourne in Australia takes its food very seriously indeed. You only need see the stunning variety of local produce displayed at the city’s famed Victoria Market to understand that second best is not an option.
The same can be said for its restaurant scene: it offers every conceivable cuisine and at every price point, making the city one of the world’s great dining destinations.
Melbourne is one of Australia’s most ethnically diverse cities, and its Southeast Asian population includes not only migrants from Vietnam, and their descendants, but others from Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia and the Philippines, all of whom have made their mark on Melbourne cuisine.
Down one of its famed laneways dotted with excellent places to eat sits Sunda. Its bare brick walls and long wooden tables bring diners from all walks of life together, while seats at its concrete bar let a lucky few see its young team of chefs at work.
They are led by 27-year-old Khanh Nguyen, an Australian of Vietnamese heritage who previously worked in the kitchens of Sydney restaurants Mr. Wong and Bentley, as well as at Noma Australia when the Copenhagen-based restaurant operated a 10-week pop-up in the New South Wales state capital. Lunch is a blur of grey aprons as Nguyen and the crew work swiftly to prepare dishes from a four-part menu that offers a total of 16 choices.
Nguyen’s cuisine celebrates Vietnamese food and that of Southeast Asia generally, and uses native Australian ingredients to great effect. “What we do is take the flavours of Southeast Asia and create an experience with them. By using native Australian ingredients and techniques, it’s a taste of something familiar, but different at the same time,” he says.