A clipboard menu of dog-eared, well-read pages is filled with Vietnamese dishes like phở (built on a 48 hour slow-simmered broth), Vietnamese omelette, crisp spring rolls, and an extensive selection of bánh mì – dishes that reflect the Nguyen family's Vietnamese roots.
Our pillowy Vietnamese omelette is so generously filled with crumbly pork mince, prawns and crunchy bean sprouts that it's barely foldable. Aunty Five's clay pot baked eggs are happy little flavour explosions, embedded with slices of house-made pork and lemongrass sausage, along with mushrooms, chopped tomato and tangy tamarind. You can get this as a vegetarian version too, with lemongrass tofu.
It’s a Vietnamese café with some western influences (don’t call them fusion though). It’s predominantly Vietnamese dishes that form the menu, but if you’re not quite feeling the fish sauce and hoisin early in the morning, there’s brioche French toast with vanilla poached rhubarb, strawberries, labna, pistachios and honey syrup, or good ol’ eggs on toast to go with your cup of Toby’s Estate espresso.
House-made cakes decorate the counter under domes: almond and white chocolate, studded with juicy blackberries; or pineapple and coconut dripping with snow-white icing, and they’re a bargain at $5 each.
Don't leave without trying the Vietnamese affogato. Espresso is slow-dripped Vietnamese-style before being poured over vanilla ice cream and a nest of coconut tapioca pearls – it's Ô-Mai's signature happy ending.