The Mandalay Bus is open for business again!
Located at the end of Lonsdale Street, at Haig Park, the double decker yellow bus is selling hot take away food (similar to Brodburger in its early days). I’ve been reading up on this place and it had previously been serving food to a variety of people including the homeless. See Canberra Times article for a bit more background. After a horrible accident, it was shut down and had laid idle for many years.
I ordered the small beef croquettes, prawn twisters, vegetable samosas and a hot dog with onions and cheese. All were $5. The prawn twisters were my favourite – there’s a decent amount of prawn meat inside, they’re salted and just really tasty. Goes great with sweet chilli sauce! I’d order these again. The samosas were alright but slightly dry inside and I’ve had better. The hot dog didn’t look that appetising and is not a gourmet dog by Snag Stand standards, but for $5 it wasn’t bad. The onions were slightly caramelised and I polished those off. I suppose the hot dog is great for those with a hangover, but I don’t think I’d order it again.
The beef croquettes were like mini deep fried shepherds pies – stuffed with beef mince, peas, carrots and (I think) what tasted like potato mash. The outside is nice and crunchy, and the croquette goes pretty well with tomato or sweet chilli sauce. I quite liked it. Good to share as it can be a bit heavy.
Popular condiments such as tomato sauce, mustard and sweet chilli sauce are provided at the pick-up counter so you can squeeze as much as you want onto your food. It’s cool to see a dessert crepe of nutella, banana, marshmallows and peanut butter (I’m assuming it comes with all of those ingredients) at only $5 on the menu. Bargain! I will have to return for that.
To be honest, I was expecting some Burmese take away curries and the like, so I was slightly disappointed that it was just fried hangover food. However, at only $5 per small serve item, the food here is cheap and I only waited about 15 minutes for my order. I was also informed that the menu will change regularly so maybe they will put some curries on the menu at a later stage.
The bus is powered by a generator at the back. The owners have also put out milk crates in the park for those wanting to sit down/hangout.
Food is served from 8pm. Corner of Lonsdale St and Girrahween St at the Haig Park carpark in Braddon. Check out their Facebook page.
Foodgasm 6.5/10
