Binh Minh – Richmond - Chinese/Malaysian/Thai

Restaurant – Binh Minh
Address – 40 Victoria St, Richmond
Telephone - 03 9421 3802
Price for two – About $40 for two (includes entrée and mains) BYO

My perennial favorite for a mid-week non-cooking evening meal – if you get there about 5pm the place is deserted save for the mother of the owner who can be seen babysitting her grand-daughter at one of the close-to-kitchen tables. If you get there at 6.30pm you’ll need to shout because it’s positively deafening in the place, people talking, dishes clattering and glasses toasting in cheerful clinks.

On the table you’ll find metal cutlery, chop-sticks, plastic soup spoons, paper napkins, the ever-present, always useful soy sauce and a truly alarming bottle of crushed chilies. One of the friendly waiters will come over and set a small bowl and a saucer in front of you – along with the menu. The lunch menu is included – and the kitchen is generally happy to make you whatever you want from the lunch menu, at dinner prices – but when you see the dinner items, you wouldn’t want lunch.

I have to recommend the chau-dum (steamed parcels of mince meat and vermicelli noodles wrapped in spinach leaves) which comes with chili soy and crisp lettuce leaves as an entrée for two to share. In winter I can’t go past a bowl of the delicious won-ton soup with the tenderest slippery dumplings swimming in clear, clean flavored chicken broth. For mains I have a few favorites – beef rendang (with a crunchy roti), Char Quay Teow ( oodles of noodles with fresh bean shoots, prawns, barbeque pork and chicken) and the Chili Lemongrass Combination.

There are always at least six ‘specials’ on the two blackboards skewered to the walls – I’ve tried a few things from that list and have always been delightfully impressed. If you don’t know what to order from the sheer number of possibilities, then ask your waiter – he’ll recommend something for you.

There is a pretty decent bottleshop across the road, venture over and pick up some beer or even a bottle – it’s worth it. Enjoy.