hoa tran restaurant at springvale





















each time we visit melbourne, since ivy came over to study in 2003, we never fail to eat at this vietnamese chinese restaurant at springvale. ida calls it 'the oily food place', still the food is tasty and reasonably priced. hoa tran restaurant is located in the middle of springvale shopping centre.

the hoa are an overseas chinese minority in vietnam. they are also typically referred to as either chinese vietnamese, vietnamese chinese, sino-vietnamese, or ethnic chinese from vietnam.

the two-storey restaurant is usually crowded on weekends. there are two large plasma screens, one on each level, that flash pictures of the few hundred items available from the restaurant. today, we picked items number 41, 45 and 101.

if you order a rice dish, it normally comes with a complimentary bowl of hot soup. ida had roast duck rice while i opted for tomato rice with crispy chicken. ivy did not get the bowl of soup as she went for the beef kway teow. the vietnamese seems to like to add lots of raw bean sprouts to the beef kway teow soup.