This is Măm Măm, a casual Vietnamese home-style restaurant focused on traditional comfort food. The menu centres on Vietnamese home cooking, with dishes such as broken rice and bún chả. It was also one of the few restaurants we encountered with a very steady group of customers from as early as 10 AM.
We were amused by the Super Mario-inspired system used to indicate which tables were open or occupied, adding a playful touch to an otherwise straightforward dining room.
Cơm Tấm Đặc Biệt ($19.00)
This featured broken rice topped with a grilled pork chop, shredded pork skin (bì), steamed egg meatloaf (chả trứng), a fried egg and scallion oil, with pickled vegetables, clear soup and sweet-and-sour fish sauce (nước chấm) served alongside.
The pork chop was as moist and tender as could reasonably be expected from a pork loin chop, with enough flavour to work well with the broken rice when drenched in the nước chấm. The greens were fresh and crisp, while the pickles were also fresh but somewhat stingy in quantity. The fried egg was not oozy but was acceptable.
The clear soup had a citrus and pepper character, reminiscent of the yuzu addition to miso clam soup in Japan, giving it a brighter profile than expected. The shredded pork skin was less successful, providing texture but little flavour, while the inclusion of a grainy fish paste created an unpleasant texture.
Overall, the dish was tasty and competently executed, but not something we would return for. This was more a matter of preference, as we generally prefer broken rice served with crispy-skin chicken rather than pork chop, which can tend towards dryness.
Bún Chả Hà Nội ($19.00)
This featured Hanoi-style smoky grilled pork, meatballs and vermicelli salad. We could see the meat being grilled over an open flame, which produced a relatively smoky, meaty profile. The aroma and flavour were nevertheless less intense than the version from Marrickville Street Food.
The fish sauce was served hot, but was too sweet for our preference, with the sweetness masking some of the savoury complexity of the grilled meat. The herbs and greens were fresh, while the portion of bún was more generous than at Marrickville. The dish was acceptable overall, but again was not something we would return to this restaurant specifically for.
Overall, Măm Măm was defined by straightforward Vietnamese home-style flavours and generally sound execution, strongest where the grilled meats were balanced by fresh vegetables and herbs. The dishes were acceptable but did not offer enough distinction or alignment with our preferences to encourage a return.
Măm Măm is located at Shop 1, 313 Plaza, 313 Chapel Rd, Bankstown NSW 2200.