We needed a quick bite before our show at the Canberra theatre and there were a lot of places I wanted to try in Civic, one of them was Jimmy’s Saigon Vietnamese restaurant situated where Sammy’s used to be. We didn’t need a booking but the place was filling up as we were seated.
Vietnamese pork spring rolls (2 rolls $5.00). Served nice and hot, a promising start to the meal.
Fresh Vietnamese rice paper rolls with shredded pork (2 rolls $6.00). Shredded pork is so much better than prawns, you guys should try it!
Flaming beef with hoisin sauce ($16.00). Good theatrics with the flames around bowl, too bad they used a black bean sauce instead of hoisin which was really overwhelming and the beef was a little tough.
Lemon grass and chilli pork ($16.00). The pork wasn’t very tender, I could barely taste the lemon grass and it was intensely salty.
Steamed fish fillets with spicy ginger and vermicelli ($20.00). My favourite dish of the night by comparison. The fish fillet was light and tender with a nice amount of ginger on it and was better when you scraped away the black beans.
Ordering proved a little difficult with one of the waiters when he was struggling with the names of the dishes while we were ordering even when we tried to give him the dish number. They didn’t have our first preference of ‘crispy whole flounder fish with ginger and fish sauce’ so they suggested a close alternative which was nice.
Overall I found all the main dishes waaaay too salty and usually I can eat a lot of salt, so I won’t be coming back to eat their main dishes although I might try their pho or steam boats eventually.
Venue: Jimmy’s Saigon Vietnamese restaurant
Address: Ground Floor, Garema Centre, Bunda St, Canberra ACT 2601
Phone: (02) 6162 0033
TALES OF A CONFECTIONIST 