Phuong Trinh Restaurant — Restaurant in Brisbane City

On our return trip back home from Brisbane, we stopped at the Inala Civic Centre for meat and produce. I was hungry and asked my wife where she'd like to eat and (full credit to her) chose somewhere we hadn't eaten before (she's normally a creature of habit and prefers familiar places).

Inala is an amazing place - especially when busy. The civic centre was heaving with humanity when we visited this time, many older gentlemen were playing checkers with a rhythmic clicking noise. OK, enough with my background - on to the food.

A friendly young lady of SE Asian descent greeted us with a flat Australian accent (often a red flag in our experience, but the Vietnamese diaspora has been entrenched here in Queensland for around half a century). My wife loves Vietnamese food but is incredibly averse to chilli. Northern cuisine is usually not a problem. Southern cuisine you take your chances and if she ever experienced genuine Central cuisine I think she'd pass out!

The waitress was more than happy to oblige, stating that their fish sauce contained chilli and that she could organise for this to be omitted. My wife then ordered a dish with shredded and fried pork. Which she absolutely loved (except for the pickled vegetables. Still working on that - apologies to the chef, it's her not you)

I noticed the incredibly busy menu with more than 100 options (often another red flag) and asked the waitress for her suggestion. Mentioned I like soup, chilli, and noodles. She suggested the Bún bò Huế. Great!

Sadly - this was the most westernised Bún bò Huế I've ever eaten. Watery, lacking seasoning and spice despite being sent from the kitchen well presented. The first sip of the broth sent me for the fish sauce to correct the seasoning. The fish sauce on offer was also weak - lacking punch and requiring a large amount to go anywhere near correcting the seasoning deficit.

The "ugh" moment came when the waitress approached me mid meal and asked "is the broth mild enough?". I said I liked chilli. Was it a translation problem? (despite her...

I always come here for bánh mì because the young man is nice and respectful. But today (Anzac Day, 25th April around 10:30 AM), I had a terrible experience. I bought 2 bánh mì thịt and was told the EFTPOS machine wasn’t working – no problem, I understand. But the older lady helping him was extremely rude. She snapped at me saying, “cash only, $16, why pay card?” in such an angry and disrespectful tone. I am Vietnamese, I support Vietnamese businesses, and I always pay for what I get. I’m not here begging for food. If you talk to customers like that, don’t expect them to come back. You’re lucky the young man runs the front because if it was just her, this place would lose all its customers. Terrible attitude. Learn how to...

Nice Vietnamese located just outside the Inala Shopping center (to the left as you walk past the reject store to go out). It looks like they've renovated since the last time we came which is nice. If you expect great service, this probably isn't the place for you, but they do good, filling and cheap meals. We ordered the Beef and beef ball Noodle soup and the Grilled Pork and Springroll Vermecilli salad. We've been here many times before and it does look like the portion size seems to have shrunk a bit (still quite filling though). Vermecilli salad was tasty but my noodles were a bit on the sweeter side today (usually very nice). I love that they have spicy chilli on the table (and it is spicy). A pretty cheap and...