What’s actually good in Springvale is nearly everything, which is the problem this guide solves. The suburb in Melbourne’s southeast is best known for Vietnamese cooking, and that reputation is earned, but the current list of venues reads like a map of half the world folded into a few blocks around Springvale Road.
So that is how to eat it: as a world tour, one region per visit, no passport control between courses.
Two ground rules first. Everything below sits in or just off the main Springvale grid, so park once and walk. And trust the specialists: in this suburb the shop that does one thing has usually been doing it for a very long time.
Start in Vietnam, because Springvale does
The dish to seek out first is not pho. Bun Bo Hue Chu Le at 288 Springvale Road is named for bun bo hue, the spicy beef noodle soup from the central Vietnamese city of Hue, and it backs the signature with pho, banh mi and com tam for the cautious.
Co Thu Quan is the charcoal specialist, grilling pork and fatty pork patties over coals and serving them with thin rice vermicelli, lettuce and a pile of herbs. Service is fast and polite, and one warning is worth passing on: the room runs hardest between 7pm and 8.30pm, so book your stomach in early. Order the grilled pork with vermicelli, add spring rolls for the table, and let the herb plate do its job.
Mekong Restaurant covers the classic sit-down end, open every day except Tuesday for lunch from 11.30am and dinner from 5.30pm, with pho, rice paper rolls and curries alongside proper Vietnamese coffee. And in a genuinely rare offer, Le Feu Springvale is a gluten-free Vietnamese and French kitchen accredited by Coeliac Australia, doing pho, banh mi and grilled meats that coeliacs usually only get to watch other people eat.
Taiwan for breakfast, Korea for the chicken
Ajushi Soy Milk Fritters does traditional Taiwanese breakfast and lunch, and its namesake fritters, deep-fried to a crisp shell with a soft middle and a dipping sauce, are the order that explains the queue of regulars.
A few doors along the world map, Korean chicken serves its fried chicken boneless or on the bone in original, sweet chilli, soy garlic and spicy, with steamed rice and a salad under house-made Korean mayo. There are bibimbap and bulgogi for the table’s non-chicken minority, which at this address is a small minority. Soy garlic is the gateway flavour; spicy is the commitment.
Thailand and Cambodia, family-run
Kao Gaeng is the family-operated Thai with large servings, reasonable prices and a drinks fridge worth reading in full: longan drink, chrysanthemum tea, grass jelly, Thai iced coffee and Thai iced milk tea. Many rate it the best Thai in Springvale.
Lemongrass Restaurant pairs Thai with Cambodian cooking, and the Cambodian-style grilled beef is the reason to come. It takes no reservations, so arrive with patience or off-peak timing.
The subcontinent block
South India gets its embassy at Adyar Ananda Bhavan (A2B), where thin, crispy dosas made from fermented rice and lentil batter anchor a vegetarian menu, washed down with mango, sweet or salted lassi.
North of the border, Missi Roti pulls flavours from Punjab, Hyderabad, Goa, Madras, Lucknow and Calcutta, and its namesake missi roti, wholemeal flour brushed with butter, is the thing to order alongside whatever curry wins the argument. Bharawan Da Dhaba handles the dhaba classics: aloo tikka, seekh kebab, butter chicken and biryani.
East Africa, Greece and one Saudi legend
Cafe Asmara has been serving Eritrean and Ethiopian food since 1985, with doro wat and kitfo arriving on communal injera, a full bar, and a room decorated with the art of both countries. Nearly four decades in one suburb is its own review. Go with a group, order the vegetarian spread alongside the meat dishes, and eat with your hands the way the format intends.
It’s Greek at 218-220 Springvale Road runs traditional family recipes, souvlaki, gyros and moussaka, next to a list of Greek wines the owners will happily argue are underrated. They are right.
And then there is Al Baik, the Springvale branch of the Saudi fried chicken chain founded in 1974, now more than 120 stores worldwide. The broasted chicken runs on a secret recipe of 18 herbs and spices developed in 1984, and eating it in a Melbourne suburb feels like being let in on something.
The counterpoint: burgers on Queens Avenue
Cultural Commons at 12 Queens Ave is the deliberate outlier, a mural-walled cafe doing experimental burgers, beef, chicken and vegetarian, as a stated departure from the Asian cooking around it. When the tour needs a rest day, this is the rest day. The bird mural on the wall came from a local artist, the seating splits indoor and outdoor, and the flavour combinations are more adventurous than any burger strictly needs to be, in a good way.
How to use this suburb properly
Do not attempt the world in one sitting. Pick a region per visit, bring one more person than you think you need for ordering coverage, and remember the peak-hour warning at the charcoal grills. Lunch visits dodge most queues, and the no-reservation rooms reward the 5.30pm table more than the 7.30pm one.
The full and growing roster lives in the Springvale food and drink listings, the wider Springvale local guide covers everything beyond the table, and the rest of Scoop’s food and drink coverage is there for when you finally leave.
