This Sydney food phenomenon is still delivering
MissChu has been around for a long time in Sydney, and I liked the way it sort of took the city by a storm. The freshest rice paper rolls I’d ever tasted (because often, a regular Vietnamese rice paper roll, tastes a bit plain to me). These ones made me understand what the fuss was about. Matched with a smart selection of other Vietnamese street food, it was cool to see how someone was producing smart, affordable food, with such authenticity and flavour, it was changing Sydney’s tastes.
So, it was sad to also read about MissChu’s rise and fall and partial collapse a few years ago. The story stuck with me: expanding too quickly, without the right management in place. It seems though that the chain is back on its feet, in some form. The Darlinghurst branch is still there; I believe the one at the Sydney Opera House is still running, and a new one is to take over the old Russian Coachman restaurant in Redfern (which was a fantastic heritage convict-built building, lately with two huge concrete naked angel nymphs on each side of a doorway which I really hope they keep).
In any case, it’s been years since I’ve had MissChu’s and I was happy to find that it was as good as I remember. Basically, a perfect quick meal, packed with flavours, and even a surprise. The ‘special’ dumplings turned out to be stuffed rice rolls… and so delicious. The duck pancakes were perfect. The Vietnamese spring rolls also perfect. The afore-mentioned rice rolls, and we split two steamed buns, one pork and one vegetarian. We managed to grab one of the handful of tables on the footpath, and there was a nice buzz of people dropping by to grab food, mostly take-away. I think all up it was 30 bucks for the two of us, and for a good portion of yummy food.