Don’t let the bare-bones fitout fool you. Quan Lua delivers hit after hit. After an astonishingly short wait you’ll find yourself slurping steaming bun bo Hue,the lemongrass-forward noodle soup. It’s stacked with pork knuckle and loaf,thick beef strips and wobbly cubes of pig’s blood.

Flossy beef jerky tendrils hide among a mountain of green papaya salad topped with fried shallots and peanuts. But it’s Quan Lua’s bun cha that draws a line out the door well before noon.

Juicy pork patties are cooked over charcoal,served with a punchy broth of lime and fish sauce plus bowls of vermicelli,lettuce and mint. Toss it all together and marvel at the fresh-salty-sour equilibrium. The setting may be lo-fi and the service low-touch,but on the food front

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Melbourne’s Southern Suburbs

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