Noshingham: BunMii

You might not have clocked it yet, but this place has been about for a year now. BunMii is a cool little Vietnamese cafe just up from the DG Cars taxi rank in town. The staff are super nice and the interior is peppered with curios: mini orange trees, waving lucky cats, and trinkets brought back from travels to Vietnam.

The menu only has four options, which is all good with me; in this world of a million choices, it’s refreshing to be given a succinct few. I went for the summer rolls: as damn fine as any I’ve had before, and an absolute bargain at £3.50. They come packed with rice, glass noodles, fresh herbs, salad, and plump, coral-pink prawns presenting themselves through the translucent rice paper. All served with pickled carrot and sweet chilli sauce on the side. A bottle of Sriracha hot sauce is never more than arm's length away at BunMii, so I dipped away contentedly.

The pho (£6.20) is a huge bowl of light stock topped with beef, chicken or tofu. I find myself eating less meat these days so went for the tofu, which was light and fluffy, garnished with finely chopped spring onions and coriander. In the base of the bowl are flat rice noodles, making it a proper fill-you-up meal.

I finished with a traditional Vietnamese-style coffee; the polar opposite of my usual short, black, no sugar. Sweet condensed milk is placed in the bottom of the cup, with a small, metal filter on top to percolate the coffee through for a few minutes. You then stir in the condensed milk from the bottom to your taste. I was pleasantly surprised; it felt like a dessert and a coffee in one. In all, it’s fresh, authentic food and great service for about a tenner.  

George Street, NG1 3BE. 07715 938 878

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