Rice Rice Baby
Tauranga has been pretty lucky in the past couple of years with the rise of various Pan-Asian, Asian-fusion and modern Asian restaurants. Given we're about 5 years behind the big centres (Auckland and Wellington have had a plethora of such places for years) it's nice to finally have a variety of options.
Rice Rice Baby was actually started by a Wellington restaurateur who specialises in such things, having had a hand in Wellington's Chow, Mt Maunganui's Bamboo (which he is no longer involved with) and others. From what I've seen, Rice Rice Baby is his finest creation yet, a garish neon-coloured home for funky modern Vietnamese street food, where the flavours pop as much as the colours do.
Cohen and I have been here before and are Big Fans, but it was before I started A Debt To Pleasure so I've been keen to get back and share the joys of their food with y'all. (Full disclosure - Cohen worked at Chow in Wellington a couple of years ago.)
Rice Rice Baby has a cool "light" cocktail list - neither heavily alcoholic or expensive - so we started there. I had Nashi's Just A Friend - pear, french sparkling wine & cinnamon sugar ($9) while Cohen had a Vietnamese Coffee ($7), one of those ones made with sweetened condensed milk (which I can't stand). Kudos to the restuarant for the coffee presentation which was very slick!
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| Nashi's Just A Friend |
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| Vietnamese Coffee |
Rice Rice Baby is also characterised by their very active social media presence. They are continually offering specials and all sorts of action through their Facebook page so I checked that out before we went and indeed there were a couple of "off menu" specials for September.
And that's what I ordered. Cohen went for the Beef Pho which we've both had before and reckon is the best in the Bay - a great sweet beef stock, good beef, good noodles and a good handful of herbs. We really like their pho.
(NOTE: People have dishes that "test"
restaurants. I know people who always order a Creme Brulee if it is on a
menu for just that reason and have another friend who always orders
Chicken Tikka Marsala at Indian restaurants. For a Vietnamese place I
always order the beef pho - do that well and I'll trust you with
everything else!).
NEM NÚÕNG - classic Vietnamese street side skewers made with pork & prawn mince, flavoured with garlic & lemongrass
BÙN BÒ HUÊ - spicy soup is made with chilli, pineapple, lemongrass & fermented shrimp paste, round rice noodles, beef, Vietnamese style ham, fresh herbs
PHỞ BÒ - traditional beef noodle soup, rice noodle, onion, spring onion, coriander, bean sprouts
Silly me, I didn't note down the prices but each item cost between $15 and $20.
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| NEM NÚÕNG |
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| BÙN BÒ HUÊ |
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PHỞ BÒ |
And the verdict? Well the pho was as good as always (you can also order it with extra meatballs for $3), the skewers - one of my favourite Vietnamese snacks - were fantastic, packed onto lemongrass sticks, big in flavour, great texture - YUM!
And the Bun Bo Hue (the name means "beef soup from Hue")? Well it was very good if a little timid. The chilli was pretty muted as was the shrimp paste. I was expecting a pool of red from chilli but it looked damn near the same as the pho. Don't get me wrong, it was delicious, but a little safer and less spicy than I was expecting.
Many little touches make Rice Rice Baby really stand out - the utensils, the walls, the chairs: everything is well-themed and well-judged. And I've never had anything other than extremely efficient friendly service.But it's mainly the food. The food is really top-notch. Perhaps the spicing has been adjusted a little to suit New Zealand tastes but for a host of well-priced zingy flavours you can't do better in the Bay. And they have excellent delivery and pick-up options if you live at The Mount. You lucky people.
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