Laminex Lost
The Age
Tuesday February 18, 2003
Restaurant review: SAIGON ROSE ON VICTORIA RICHMOND
Found a great place you'd like to share? Tell Matt Preston at mpreston@bigpond.net.au
THIS YEAR when The Age Cheap Eats Guide announces its 2003 inductee into their Hall of Fame, only one name should be on the cup/plaque/delicately engraved commemorative ocelot - or whatever it is they present.
He's a colossus who bestrides the Cheap Eats universe of not just Melbourne but of all Australia. Without his foresight, cheap eating would have been a very different experience over the past 40 years. And best of all, he's a local.
So, how much longer can The Age Cheap Eats Guide cruelly overlook Bob (R.M.) Sykes - the man who invented laminex?
This is something I ponder as I pound Victoria Street at 4pm looking for the right spring rolls for the pregnant wife. Once this strip was the veritable epicentre of the laminex cafe world - a sort of unofficial museum to three decades of laminex. Yet over the past couple of years, cafe after Victoria Street cafe has lost that laminex look and gone all funky with blond or dark-stained wood.
Take Saigon Rose on Victoria. The sharp lines, cream walls, trendy polished concrete floors and all that dark-coloured wood could fit many a smooth, modern cafe. Ashleigh Nygen, whose family owns Saigon Rose on Chapel Street, picked up this site two years back. She's toned down the original bright orange and green colour scheme with more muted colours and created a jazzy spot with relaxing, leafy views and prices that are still competitive. It's BYO, too.
The young floor staff match the mood of the room and the menu emphasises steamed dishes, such as prawns stuffed with scallops, alongside the trad range of Vietnamese wok and deep-fried dishes.
The pork and veg spring rolls - long, skinny fingers that have crunch and freshness - are good examples of frying. As is a plate of house-salted squid with a crunchy batter that's heavy on the sodium chloride. You'll also find the Chapel Street branch's signature chicken wings. They're delicate and fried golden but I still reckon the originals are better. Other favourites include their stuffed mushrooms or the almost Portuguese combination of ham rolled with prawn meat.
While Saigon Rose wasn't the first funky Victoria Street Vietnamese - that honour probably goes to Tho Tho - it certainly isn't the last. Back in June, even that laminex stalwart, Quan 88, got a makeover with trendy coloured lampshades, that wooden-cubbyhole shelving full of groceries and new designer wooden tables and chairs.
The good news is that here, too, the smarter new look has not affected price or quality - specifically of their excellent spicy quail. It still coats your fingers with sticky soy and leaves the lips ringing with chilli as you pull the meat from the little bird's bones. It's just a nicer room to eat in.
Now that's progress for you - and all the more reason to recognise Bob now before the next generation forgets the pivotal role his product once played in eating out.
WHERE: Saigon Rose on Victoria, 86 Victoria Street, Richmond, 9429 8328
OPEN: Sun-Fri 11am-11pm; Sat 5pm-11pm
PRICES: entrees $4.80-$10.70; mains $11-$19; desserts $3-$4
CARDS: AE BC DC MC V
Licensed and BYO wine. Corkage $1.50
© 2003 The Age