Dinner @ Co Do, Victoria St Richmond, Melbourne

After having a few not so successful ventures to Footscray eateries, we're now firmly committed to sticking with Victoria Street in Richmond for our Vietnamese fix. This commitment took us to the highly regarded Co Do. I met my friend B here, while M also tagged along for the conversation after already having dinner earlier.

I had heard good things about their pho, so was very keen to try it. I got a small bowl ($9.50?) since we were also sharing a banh xeo. The pho was pretty nice; I loved that it came with plenty of onions, coriander and pepper. The broth was probably more aromatic than usual but still not as much as I like. Additionally, the beef was probably also not as thin and tender than the ideal. However, it was still a very tasty bowl of pho and due to my hunger at the late dinner, I wolfed it down.

B got the spicy lemongrass beef stirfry with rice, which he said was very tasty and had some nice heat. He ended up taking half of it home, though, because we wanted to save our stomach for the centrepiece of the meal.

It's always a bit of a spectacle when a good banh xeo arrives at the table, partially due its enormous size, the bright yellow colour (due to turmeric) and the aroma imparted by the coconut milk in the batter. I had actually never finished a banh xeo before this, even when sharing, but on this occasion we polished it off in about five minutes flat. Again, part of it was the hunger for me but it was also a very nice banh xeo. There was a very strong and aromatic coconut flavour in the batter of the pancake and it was cooked to a very nice degree crispiness. The mountain of a variety of herbs we got with the dish was also a big plus.