Located on London Circuit, in the middle courtyard area opposite Two Before Ten, is new Sichuan restaurant Bashan. We stopped in for a quick lunch on what was one of the windiest days. There are limited cramped tables inside (and absolutely no room to fit a pram) so we had no choice but to sit outside and brave the wind.
The menu lists mainly dry and soup noodles, with some rice sets, soups, and appetisers. For those that like tripe, there are a few dishes with tripe in it. Orders are taken and paid for at the counter and a table number provided. There’s self-serve water, hot tea, and cutlery to the side.
We ordered the fried egg and glutinous rice cake ($9.80) as an appetiser which sounded interesting and I had no idea what to expect. Out came four thick slices of rice cake, covered in an egg batter and deep fried. A small jug of brown sugar syrup is served on the side. The rice cakes are topped with peanut powder and have a nice crunchy exterior from the fried batter, but are quite tasteless on their own. The sugary syrup is much needed but made this more of a dessert than an appetiser.
We shared a bowl of prawn wontons in hot chilli soup ($18.80) which comes with 10 handmade wontons. These are plump and juicy. I didn’t actually want to drink any of the chilli soup but there was no soup-less option. The wontons coated in the chilli soup didn’t seem too spicy but still had a nice numbing sensation. It might be a different story if I’d actually drank the soup though.
We both choose a bowl of noodles for our mains. You can choose the level of spiciness for your noodles as well as the noodle type – wheat or rice noodles. I chose the signature braised beef noodle ($16.80) with a mild spiciness and the wheat noodle (as recommended by the staff there). There’s a good portion of beef and noodles. The soup is full of flavour with bok choy, spring onion and topped with coriander, and has that Sichuan numbing sensation from the mild spice. I really enjoyed the wheat noodles which are firm yet chewy. I think I’ll go another step up on the spiciness levels next time.
Mr FPJ chooses the dry noodle with stir fried beef slices ($16.80) and also chooses the wheat noodle. The beef is delicious and a lot more tender than the beef in my noodle soup. However we found the dry noodle really was dry. The sauce from the beef is meant to be mixed in to coat the noodles, but there wasn’t much sauce to begin with. Mr FPJ used some of the wonton chilli soup to add some moisture in the noodles instead.
We’re both happy with the generous portion and texture of noodles at Bashan. I love the little bit of numbing in the soup. There are Asian desserts available including sweet lotus seed and mung bean soup, mung bean porridge, and milk pudding. We were absolutely stuffed but I wouldn’t mind trying a dessert next time.
Recommend getting there early if you want a seat, otherwise we saw plenty of nearby office workers getting take away. As mentioned before, the tables are quite cramped inside – not the best for large groups or high chairs/prams.
Bashan
The Capitol, 39 London Cct, Canberra
Foodgasm 8/10
Value for money 7/10
Service 7/10
FPJ score 22/30
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