Bau Truong - what a gem!

Decided to take a drive to Cabramatta yesterday and thought I'd try a new restaurant which my friend had told me about, Bau Truong.  It was packed considering it was already 1.30pm.  Had a brief glance at the menu and must say, it looked really good.  There were a lot of varieties and I must say the menu looks different from the usual Vietnamese restaurant.

I must be really hungry and my eyes were bigger than my tummy and as the menu looked so good, I ordered 2 dishes tooo many!  Could not even finish them and had to takeaway!  The Banh Xeo (Vietnamese pancake) went down very well for dinner and their special mixed rice paper rolls were nice too!

Managed to finish my seafood soup with salted fish broth and the broken rice with grilled pork was really yummy!

This restaurant has a nice decor and is a lot more upmarket than the rest of the restaurants along the main strip.  Don't expect too much from the service but the food makes up for it!

As you can tell, I really enjoyed the food, tasty but more so, that the menu is quite different.  Need to go back to try some of the other dishes on the menu!  Maybe... this next time should try their original outlet in Canley Vale for their oyster omelette and goat curry?

Read Joanna Saville's review here: http://www.smh.com.au/news/restaurant-reviews/bau-truong/2007/05/23/1179601479602.html

My rice paper rolls filling... yum!

Il Tratto....Ra Ro...

Hmm... what a mouthful, trying to pronounce the name of this Italian pizzeria.  Il Tratto Ra Ro apparently means a place for family get together is located along the median strip of Majors Bay Road, Concord.  It is a bit hard to spot if you are driving along the main strip as it is "hidden" by the silver gum trees.

I was looking for my other dinner companions upon arriving and could not see them until I was told to go "upstairs".  Glancing up, I could see my dinner companion waving at me from the arched balcony... resembling a scene from Romeo and Juliet only..."Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou...?"

The place was bustling but the service was very good and friendly.  In addition to their usual menu, they also had a list of "specials" for the day written in a white board.  Too hard to decide as everything sounded really good.

Anyway, we decided to share our entrees, and we ordered the Nannata (New Zealand whitebait fritters) which was very nice and crisp, served with rocket leaves and the Polpi Piccanti o alla Griglia (octopus in cherry tomato, chilli and capers).  The octopus was tender and succulent and served in a nice and rich cherry tomato and chilli sauce - wished we had some bread to soak up the sauce.

For mains, we each ordered a pasta: Special of the day, Tubular pasta in a rich pork ragu, Linguine Gambaretti (prawns, radicchio, cherry tomato, olive oil, chilli and garlic), Risotto of the day (risotto served with scallops) and the Farfalle Salsicce (Italian sausage, mushrooms, onion, tomato with a touch of cream).  I think they could tell it was good as we finished every bit of it....

It's hard to imagine how we could still have room for desserts but how could we go past the gelato to wash the food down? The lemon and hazelnut gelato was yum and the Affogato (coffee smothered with ice cream) looked divine.  Again, the dessert cups were all clean.

Majors Bay Road is definitely a good alternative to Leichardt, much easier to find parking and has a really village-y feel about it... Oh... There are also a lot of fish and chips outlets.. for next time.

From top: Tubular Pasta with pork ragu, Linguine Gambaretti, Risotto with scallops, Farfalle with Italian sausage