Xic Lo Vietnamese Restaurant and Passionflower Dessert Cafe
Xic Lo (Sic low) is a great little Vietnamese place in Chinatown. I was introduced to this spot by a friend of my Justin who lived in Vietnam for a year and came back enthused by Vietnamese food.
It’s clean and simple. White tiles, and fairly unadorned, but I’ve always found the food to be great value, great quality and able to keep Da Boyfriend happy!
On this evening myself and one of my closest friends, Naan, who was visiting from Canberra ventured out into the wilds of Chinatown. Our first stop was Chat Thai, but the queues! Oh the queues! So we kept walking. As I rounded the corner I couldn’t believe I had almost forgotten about one of my fave places! Now I’m no expert on Vietnamese food, and some of the reviews on eatability I am surprised by, because I’ve only ever had good service and great, consistent and yummy food here…
The menu is straightforward and CHEAP! Especially important in these times of belt tightening (metaphorically of course!)
On this evening I’m persuaded, as usual, by the autumn rolls served with the most tasty peanut sauce…heaven for vegetarians or non-piggy eaters…
My beautiful buddy is a vegetarian, and she decides to skip the entree (the autumn rolls are quite large and filling) and go for the Autumn rolls with Vermicelli (bun cha gio chay) She doesn’t use the dressing as it’s fishy! But downs the meal with gusto…we also go for young coconut juice to accompany our meals…mmmyummy coconut flesh..
I try a special and go for the beef salad special. I’ve had this a few times, and really love the combination of tender beef on a bed of bean sprouts. You don’t need too many carbs with this if you’re like me and pigged on all the autumn rolls:
So sated with free green tea, and coconut juice and stuffed full of autumn rolls, we take our time as we decide on where to go next. Dessert? Yep, and I know just the place: Passionflower!!! Yay!
After perusing the extensive dessert menu we decide sharing is better than ordering our own and we settle on the Superstar a fabbo combination of Sticky Rice, black sesame and adzuki bean (red bean) ice cream with yummy chewy black sesame coated balls of glutinous rice…Oh, I love that combination of words..glutinous balls!
Xic Lo
215A Thomas Street
Haymarket
02 9280 1678
Passionflower
Shop G12, Capitol Square
730-742 George Street
Sydney
Show on map
must drop by when in chinatown next for those big rolls!
There is another Xic Lo in Chatswood too…their spicy beef noodle soup is so, so good and the same fast, pleasant service as the one in town.
Yum, I love fresh rolls. Thanks for the tip
I really like Xic Lo but my girl was really put off by the fact they put fish sauce on basically everything – and she hates fish sauce. We ended up going somewhere else (pity).
But yeah my memory of the place was finding it totally at random back in 2005 when I was here for Web Essentials 05, Andrew K and I wandered around and just picked a place that looked clean and was full of happy looking people
From memory I had the beef salad too and we went through a lot of green tea. We were amused at their extreme concern that we knew it would be HOT! …it really was, too. Great meal.
Ahh I’ve been chattie one but not the chinatown one. Now I’m craving passionflower.. haven’t gone in aggggesss yummm
I haven’t been there for ages! I remember when it first opened years ago. Good to know that it’s still going strong. I love the young coconut juice too
Hi, great post, thanks. I’ve been studying at UTS for years, and Xic Lo was my favourite place! But now they’ve gone! Oh no!!! No sign to say they’ve moved, NOTHING?! can you help? Where is my Xic Lo?
Ps also loved the special (no carb) beef!
Thanks, Ilona
Hi guys,
I stumbled upon this!
Xic Lo – Chinatown unfortunately has gone out of business due to some fierce competition.
As such, we are still putting smiles on many dials over in Chatswood. Be sure to drop by and say hi!