Phamish - Darlinghurst

A fantastic place to come for a casual lunch where the focus is less about dining comforts and more about intense Vietnamese flavours! Started with rice paper rolls...both vegetarian and prawn and chicken! Fresh and full of goodness! Then on to a chicken stir fry with lemon grass and chilli..... good quality chook and not too spicy! Also a vegetarian stir fry of seasonal vegetables which was full of flavour, intensity and a wide variety of vegetables used! Interesting!

I drove past Phamish a few weeks ago and it was packed, so I decided to do a quick google search and it had mad ratings on zomato. I love Vietnamese food so coming here was a  no brainer. The waiters are friendly and they recommended the rice paper rolls which were just okay. The food here is pretty pricy for vietnamese food but I wouldn't say it was worth it.

I was recommended the Vietnamese curry. Everyone in the place seemed to be eating it, so thought it would be great. The upside is that they were very generous with the chicken, loads of it, but other than that it was quite ordinary. It has massive pieces of potato and sweet potato, why? You eat it with rice - carb overload. Something else I found odd was that they make you walk up to the counter to place your order. I mean it's a really nice place, with lots of wait staff - why? It just kills the atmosphere.

A no-frills restaurant which was not bad but not exceptional. The crab dumplings were tasty and not overfried. The crispy chicken skin was tender and juicy but the poultry and its accompanying gravy seemed to be incompatible. The recommended prawn curry was great and tasted like those which I tried in Hanoi or Ho Chih Min. However, it was a pity fresh prawns were not used.

Like many sydney Siders I've been coming here for years and it's consistently amazing. They've made the decor a bit nicer over the years. Last few times I've been they haven't had the dumplings with the spinach inside which I used to love!! Bring them back please!