Thanh Binh Asian Fusion — Restaurant in Sydney

(A serious and seriously detailed review) I take friends to this restaurant a lot because it's just so good. It's the gem of Ed Square!

Service and Atmosphere: Service is fantastic. They may not have many staff but their attentiveness makes up for that - even the newbies give great service. Massive props to the boss, he's a real one 😎

The waiting time for food is reasonable - not fast food, and not too long either, and this applies both in peak hours and calmer hours. It's perfect and adds to the atmosphere. Restaurant is very clean with a truly pleasing aesthetic, and tables are cleaned very efficiently so it doesn't take long to get a seat if it's packed.

Recommendations: You'll never go wrong with: the cơm đặc biệt (broken rice with fried egg, porkchop and meatloaf) any of their crispy chicken dishes (but especially the crispy skin chicken with tomato rice), the dry or soup egg noodle options (can't pick? Go for the combo with crispy noodles), bún chả (meatball soup with vermicelli and salad on the side - contains coriander but you can probably ask it to be removed. It's easy to remove yourself as well).

If you're looking for a spicy soup, the bún bò Huế is worth trying.

Their vermicelli bowls are also fantastic on warmer days (⁠ ⁠˘⁠ ⁠³⁠˘⁠)⁠♥ just beware of the vegetable spring roll one if you're prone to heartburn/acid reflux as well, as it's quite oily. It was 100% worth it though, because it tasted so good!! Please don't change the way you make it just because of this review - it's seriously perfect as is, I'm just weak (lol)

Putting in another note for the crispy skin chicken: they make it very moist. If it's ever dry, that's not the norm.

NG (dishes with caveats): Stay away from the rice noodle with pick-your-own meat option - it was only salty with not much other flavour. The fried rice should only be ordered when they're not too busy so you can get the maximum "wok air" possible, otherwise it's a rather underwhelming dish (but many may think otherwise, especially if they've never had Viet fried rice before). Their bánh xèo (crispy egg pancake) was also so oily that the pancake was basically sitting in a puddle of oil, and every bean sprout shone like a diamond. I ended up with heartburn afterwards, and unfortunately the flavour profile was also kinda boring - not recommended, although to be fair to them, this one is hard to make good without loads of oil.

Their phở is on the clearer, less flavoursome side, and some people prefer it this way. I would not say it's NG in particular but it's something to keep in mind if you like it more intense. However, because of this I would not recommend it if it's your first time trying this restaurant. It's definitely not their speciality (sorry chef).

I hope they can find ways to improve these dishes.

Prices: If you only eat one dish and drink water, you can easily stay in the $1-20 bracket. However, if you add in a drink, then you'll enter the $20-40 bracket. I find the drinks to be too sweet, plus I'm lactose intolerant so I'm too scared to try them unless someone else does haha.

I've been a faithful regular of this place, hence why I know so many dishes. I thought I posted a review like this before but apparently not...

I hope this was helpful to potential customers, current regulars and the owner. (⁠✿⁠^⁠‿⁠^⁠) Anyways, stop reading my review and just go try it out! The only thing you'll regret is that you didn't know about this...

I finally tried this place out today! I was very much looking forward to it all week! I ordered three dishes to try 😋 (takeaway)

The 'Pho tai' was flavoursome, it packed a punch of flavour, it was just lacking some condiments like herbs ( that I'm used to having with Pho🤷‍♀️) but the flavor....WOW! 👌 and the soup was still piping hot when I got home 😲

The Hu tieu soup w BBQ chicken, was also flavoursome😁 but I guess I wanted the actual 'hu tieu noodle' it is the chewy, clear and somewhat sticky kind that is made of tapioca, not rice, which is what makes it that "hu tieu" dish for me. Also missing for this dish was the chinese celery, sauteed garlic and shallots, to maintain hu tieu's distinctive bite and taste🙏. ( I know there are a few variations of hu tieu, but for me, its gotta have the right 'hu tieu noode'!) The BBQ chicken was tasty though! 👌

The Vermicelli salad bowl wirh crispy chicken, was kinda a let down 😩I was looking forward to a vibrant dish with salad and herbs (coz i love salad!!🥬🥬🥬) but mine had no cucumber, no salad leaves, no bean sprouts, 🤷‍♀️ just pickled carrots/noodle/meat/sauce. I thought to myself🤔 "this looks really plain...to what I thought I ordered" so I double checked their menu and instagram feed!😅 And yeah...it was missing that salad aspect of it haha. Maybe they just forgot 😑 The crispy chicken was YUM though, I can have a whole plate of that on its own!! Lol😉

All in all, I would like to visit this place again, and give it another go and try other dishes. 😋 fingers crossed, i won't...

If there was one thing lacking in Edmondson park previously, there wasn’t any good Vietnamese restaurants in the area. The closest authentic Vietnamese restaurant would be in Cabramatta, but ED has two Asian fusion restaurants now.

Thanh’s interior is decorated nicely which shows the artist work throughout all the restaurants at ED with different murals for each culture. There’s plenty of tables, no reservation required just walk-ins.

Thanh binh serves traditional and authentic Vietnamese street food and dishes do impress. Some of my favourite dishes include beef pho, bun dac biet with crispy spring roll and bbq pork with rice dishes. Their rice paper deep fried spring rolls are the best, the crunch and mouth watering flavours will have you eating one after another. As for drinks, Vietnamese iced coffee is very disappointing because it uses instant coffee plus condensed milk. For nice Viet coffee, go to Cabramatta and ‘14 north 108 east’ restaurant. The 3 bean.

I’ve been to Thanh Binh a few times ever since it opened at ED. During the first year prices were reasonably priced but still higher than Cabramatta. The prices have now increased a few dollars making all main dishes that were previously under $20 dishes to above $20, while some of the entrees remain below $20. The portions are a lot smaller than restaurants at Cabramatta also. If for convenience Thanh Binh is still a great option, but for price stick...