Bang Bang at the Rifle Club. Sounds appropriate doesn’t it? Memorable certainly. And in a rather left-of-field turn, within the year is set to become synonymous with great Indochinese food in Elsternwick.
For now Bang Bang is a pop up at The Boatbuilders Yard at South Wharf. To suit the current waterfront, upmarket beer garden setting, the menu is based around food to drink with. We sampled a selection of dishes from the menu.
Pork Banh Mi ($6.50) is stuffed with meltingly juicy knuckle meat, duck parfait, a sprinkle of salad and topped with tendrils of crunchy crackling.
We are encouraged to try an imported fish sauce that graces the table, adding a delicate umami saltiness to the dishes. This was particularly delightful on the warmly-spiced green papaya salad ($18) topped with crispy fried soft shell crab.
Chicken skewers ($11) are tender, subtlety spiced and served sizzling-hot with a savoury eggplant and kampot relish.
Beef in betel leaf ($12) is lean with a nice balance of herbal sweetness (Vietnamese mint) and bitterness (betel leaf).
The pop up is an opportunity to test the menu, giving head chef Matthew Dunbar (ex Longrain) an opportunity to play with the Laos-inspired menu with notably lower levels of sweetness – clean-eating Indochinese food if you like.
Bang Bang has plans to open in its permanent home in the previous Elsternwick rifle range by next summer with Asian-influenced Australian breakfasts and Australian-influenced Asian lunches and dinners. For now it is serving up affordably-priced high quality share food right on the Yarra from 3pm Friday to Sunday until the 3rd of April.
Disclosure: I dined at Bang Bang pop up as a guest.