DINING OUT
Review: Imogen Hayes
Fortitude Valley is often a place I associate with drunken nights out. By 2am on a Saturday the streets are packed with partygoers. Young girls in shoes higher than heaven are tottering precariously on the edge of Brunswick Street and clubbers are bopping between Family and The Met.
The cool kids hang behind the velvet curtains of the Bowery and the rest loiter outside New York Slice, waiting for a feed before the long walk home.
Approaching The Valley at 5pm on a Sunday afternoon with grey skies and rain drizzling overhead is a dismal affair. The regulars drink at RGs and the dirt and grime hidden by the night is stark and apparent at this hour. The mall is empty and the clubs and cafes look shabby and desolate.
In Chinatown lies the refreshingly clean Green Tea Restaurant, shining like a beacon with its lime green interiors. At this hour the place is quiet, but the affable and friendly host Tom Tran quickly shows us to a table.
Following the host's recommendations, we order a roast duck salad to share as an entre, followed by soft shell crab and sweetened clay pot fish.
After I’d drunk half a beer (yes it’s BYO) the duck arrives. It is a traditional Vietnamese salad.
The duck is tender and the vegetables are light and crunchy with the mint adding a slightly sweet flavour to this dish. Most apparent is the fresh taste and noticeably fresh vegetables - a sign of good Vietnamese cooking.
The soft shell crab and fish clay pot arrived promptly after the salad, and although the crab is slightly oily, both dishes still manage to maintain the same crispness of the salad. The sweet caramelised fish helps to balance out the saltiness of the crab and the food proves a fantastic hangover cure.
The portions along with rice are generous and although the dessert menu consisting of fruits and puddings looks appetising we are too full to indulge.
We thank the charming host and leave the cosy retreat at 7:30pm as the place is beginning to fill up.
The menu at Green Tea is extensive with most dishes moderately priced,
between $14 and $25 for mains. Hiding amongst the surplus of Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai restaurants, Green Tea is a refreshing and healthy alternative that brightens up The Valley and is quickly being rediscovered after the year-long mall revamp.
AT A GLANCE
Green Tea Restaurant is at Shop 1B 31 Duncan Street, just on the eastern edge of the grand arch in the new Chinatown Mall.
Mine host: Tom Tran
Trading hours: Seven days a week from 11am to 3pm and then 5pm til 10pm.
Bookings: Phone 3252 4855.
