Jimmy Wah's — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

Jimmy Wah's was recommended to by at least 3 people, and I knew I had to try it out. It was hard to pick out of all the awesome restaurants along this strip, but Jimmy Wah's was the winner of the lot. The vibe of the place was simple but still had an air of authenticity to it. I liked the simple decor and the design of the menus too - any Vietnamese place that features a street-food Granny gets a tick in my book. Here's a lowdown of everything we ordered and EVERYTHING was incredible: Tempura Barramundi & Betel Leaf: Insane! Such a simple couple of bites but the flavours were fantastic and teleported me back home. The textures were fantastic and I wanted to eat 14 more. Tempura Oyster & Black Tobiko: The waiter did suggest I ordering one more when I decided to order a single one and after eating it I would have to agree. I could have eaten so many more of these delicate bites. It was so delicious! Soft Shell Crab Banh Mi: Two of my favourite things combined, I couldn't say no to this dish. I am a sucker for Softshell Crab and Banh Mi at a relatively nice restaurant is always a fun twist. Grilled Eggplant: A classic. The flavours were perfect and the textures and sauces were amazing. A fantastic vegetarian dish! Caramelised Pork: Ridiculous, absurd. Flavours were insane and the crispiness of the pork whilst still being as tender as it was blew me away. This dish was perfect. Coconut Pandan & Mango Sorbet: Light, delicious and refreshing. Fried Bao, Peanut Ice Cream & Salted Caramel: Unreal. Arguably the best dessert I've had in a while. Everything about this dessert was a winner.

The food was far beyond my expectations and I loved the fusion of traditional Vietnamese ingredients with other cultures and the fusion of it all; especially with the cocktails too.

I cannot recommend this place enough and I cannot wait to...

Omg. I can’t believe it has taken us 3 years to finally discover to this place.

Being Vietnamese I was going to be critical of this place but overall I’m impressed.

First off, Vietnamese Iced Coffee, or in this case the Vietnamese Espresso Martini. Well made, not too sweet or overpowering. Loved it.

Baos. Personally I think open Baos are overrated but these we very well made with the marinated pork rib filling and the sauces to balance the taste. Very modern and very well done.

Vietnamese Pancake or Banh xeo. Traditionally, this is one of my favourite dishes. If I go to a Vietnamese restaurant and they have it on their menu, I would order it as an entree. I’ve been taught to make these from traditional family recipes and from high end cooking schools in Ho Chi Minh city so I was expecting a lot out of this dish and was pleasantly presented with a modern twist to a very traditional meal. Herbs and filling is what you would expect but the pancake itself was thick and hard compared to what I was use to but it made for a far more interesting texture to it. The sauce did soften it up but we at it as a dipping sauce rather than drenching it.

The dessert was also perfect. The green mango and ice cream was a perfect balance between the sweet and sour while the hardened dried ginger contrasted with the cold soft ice cream. It’s a perfect balance between opposing flavours and textures. Something that is common in a lot of well made Vietnamese dishes.

I’d highly recommend Jimmy Wah’s although I have a feeling my parents wouldn’t like the modern twist to all their traditional dishes.

We spent approximately $130 between two of us sharing 4 dishes...

4 of us had lunch there yesterday and we had the feed me menu for $79 each. The wine selection was okay and we started with 4 cocktails, I asked for a classic espresso martini which they couldn't do, and the menu one I couldn't finish. The service was good, wait staff were lovely, and we felt crammed into a small table which could only fit 1 plate at a time on it, disappointing as we had booked a week in advance and there were spare tables. The food I thought was undersized for $320 total of food felt like it was light servings and all felt underfed by the end. Cut portions of items were not even with some dishes barely getting 1 person enough. The curries were watery and we were provided a small spoon each, chopsticks and a plate. It all looked well presented but flavours were lacking, nothing really jumped out at us. We weren't asked how the food was by the staff to provide any feedback at the time. Some of the dishes that went to other tables looked amazing, but we didn't receive, so I'm sure there are some good dishes to try, but for a feedme menu, it lacked. We were served 8 dishes Beetlenut leaf fish 👍, oysters 👍, pork belly 👎, eggplant (ok), chicken wings (good), squid in broth with sprouts (broth was nice but flavour didn't transfer into the vegetables & squid seemed dry) 👎, chicken curry (good, but little protein), barramundi yellow curry (ok but watery). Considering the portions, quality and lack of food and $40 a dish I would expect a lot better. A LOT better. There are much better places on the coast for value, experience and taste. The bill came to $520 with 2 bottles of wine, 4 cocktails and the...