Mrs Luu's Vietnamese Canteen (southpoint)

I would give this restaurant a rating of PBD, pretty damn delicious. I usually stick to traditional banh mi with pâté, mayo, and pork loaf, but this time I tried the crispy chicken banh mi. I did not regret it at all, although I will say you might need a few napkins to clean up the drool and delicious bits that come with it.

TL;DR: Vietnamese street food which is still good, but maybe not quite up to scratch of many other places doing the same thing. <br/ <br/ With the new South Point apartments opening up, backing right onto the South Bank train station, at the bottom entrance level they have opened up a small food court that is complete with a few favourites from around Brisbane looking to make another successful shot. Looking at the vantage point, this is a pretty good location as far as a residency goes with potentially great views of the parklands and it is just a short stroll away from them and not to mention everything else within the vicinity. However, this is not about the apartments but one of the places which one can get a bite to eat at now and that is the fourth operation under the name 'Mrs. Luu 's '. Ever since passing by the original Milton branch several years ago and hearing the high scores that it has been given still over 4.0 on this site as we speak going there is and has been a matter of time. Well, when it gets to other locations that is another shot at trying it out and that is the case right here. <br/ <br/ It was lunchtime at work again, and I have gotten quite used to trying out UberEats there recently (believe me, it is addictive like crack) and that meant going back through the options again and choosing something to eat. With only so much time for the lunch break, and a preference for keeping it simple and avoiding messy items. With that being said, ever since hearing about Mrs. Luu 's being so good especially the Milton one which I will get to at one stage and it expanding the operations to a few other suburbs nearby it was possibly time to give it a go. <br/ <br/ What that entailed if it weren 't so obvious by now was to fire up the app, plug is some orders and then just sit and wait for it to arrive. It still is not too bad the service with delivery, though cracks might have started appearing now. The delivery was a bit slower this time, that is more on Uber than anything, and I will give them this it was a bit of an odd choice of where to meet so nothing on them either. At least with this app you can see where they are on the map, then go and meet them if need be. By the time I got the food, it was still fresh and ready to be eaten. <br/ <br/ They certainly keep it simple right here. That is with the decor and with the menu. The whole look of it can be summed up by saying it is either the canteen or an outlet in the food court. Counter only and pure takeaway, it still has a clean look to it that should be acknowledged that goes well with the minimalism that has been in vogue in recent years. The menu is also one that is simple, not extending beyond mere street food and the majority of it can easily be eaten with the fingers. <br/ <br/ With what they offer here, it boils down to some goi con, buns, coms, and banh mis each with a solid variety of flavours, followed up by a few other snacks on the side. To anyone wanting a cold drink on the side, full apologies on behalf of everyone but that is only available at the original location. In many ways, this is a big pity to me since the equivalent of a burger and fries to me is getting the banh mi with a Vietnamese iced coffee on the side. That might have been what overall felt incomplete, and while it is no knock against them the coffee is often part and parcel to getting the said sandwich to me. <br/ <br/ Whether it is Bowen Hills, Milton or anywhere else, the one sandwich that had my interest from the moment I read the menu for the first time just had to be the three little pigs banh mi. This was a mixture of sliced porchetta, barbecue pork and Vietnamese style ham. The three combined were all pretty tasty, and had their slight differences in texture and flavour, and combined it was quite good with a rich, and smokey aroma. However, it should have been much better than it was, given the freshness of the vegetable items in the middle, and just how crusty and fresh the bread roll itself was with a slightly butter texture and whatnot. Upon hearing that there were three meats in it, there is that tinge of disappointment where you have to open up the sandwich to see the meat inside; this baby should be having the meats poke out the edges of the roll. It is still on one streak that is successful and not broken which is that the banh mi still satisfies. <br/ <br/ So in place of the coffee, since only getting a lone item seems counter intuitive to me when reviewing a place, the option was to go low and it landed on getting a couple of rice paper rolls. The flavour of choice ended up being a simple barbecue pork. Two of these came in a pack, and I might have actually preferred these guys overall. They were filled to the brim with the fillings, a mixture of carrot, rice noodles, coriander et al plus the meat of choice, they were just as fresh and wholesome as they sound. The carrot had a nice crunch to it, the herbs and the ilk flavoured it in their subtle way and the meat was tender. What tied it all together was the sauce that came with it, which was thick, and dark possibly being either hoi sin sauce or the char sui marinade as per the menu description. Combined as a mid day eat, this will do just fine. <br/ <br/ Here is the strange thing here, I am a bit on the conflicted side of how to truly give this place a fair rating and opinion. To put it up with some of the best Vietnamese in town and that definitely includes the mothership Trang does not hold water as it is a smaller scale place, so it would easily lead to overstating. That being said, there was little that was technically wrong with the quality of the food, it being Vietnamese street food that is often quite the winner. However, it didn 't quite grab me as much as it was expected from hearing everything about the hype and how it expanded its operations around town. With that being said though, it was not without somewhat of a let down considering how much I built it up in my head and the idea of 'three piggies ' on a sandwich was lacking; it is hard to shake off previous banh mis having so much meat regardless of the number of meats on it. Preferences always come into it, and this little black duck here is admittedly one who often thinks 'more better ' if it had to be simplified like that. <br/ <br/ So to put it another way, it is not an awful place and there is little that is objectively wrong with it. That gives it the benefit of the doubt making it decent, but nothing much about it made it stand out to me and it is yet another place I have ticked off the list although that original location is still on the books.