Two Sticks

The corner of George and Goulburn Streets is now home to more than cheap shoes, late-night kebabs, Scruffy Murphy’s and strawberry-scented stationery shops. It’s home to this ace Yunnanese canteen offering cold noodles, salads and hot pots. And while we wouldn’t call Two Sticks the sort of place you’d Long Lunch (it's a small, tightly packed room made for getting in and out), it’s perfect for a quick and delicious bowl of rice noodles and cold chicken, slick with chilli oil and punched up with pickled carrots, coriander and peanuts. You can bet on pretty much everything coming at you fast and spicy, like cucumber sticks covered in garlic and chilli and a salad of daisy leaves, doused in fresh chilli and minced garlic. And yeah, while this one dish is a little reminiscent of lawn trimmings, they’re very tasty lawn trimmings all the same. But we’re pretty much here for the individual hot pots, like the braised beef shin, hunks of fried tofu, slippery noodles and heaps of coriander. Sadly the ‘trio of pork delicacies’ is off the menu on our visit, but we’ll be going back. A lot.