Fat Noodle’s Luke Nguyen: Brisbane earns its place among the plates

Fleeing from the Vietnam war in the 1970s, living in refugee camps and growing up helping at his parent’s restaurant in Sydney, Luke Nguyen is proud to share a new menu in the heart of Brisbane’s CBD.

After all, it’s a city he believes strongly rivals Sydney and Melbourne’s food culture.

He walks in to Fat Noodle at Treasury Brisbane to greet his guests with a warm smile.

He is in his black culinary uniform, his hair is slicked back, his modern, thick frame on his glasses not hiding the friendliness of his eyes as he introduces himself.

“Thank you for coming,” he says as he announces the new menu and shares his background story.

“My family is from Vietnam and my father was in the Vietnam War fighting against communism before we fled in the ’70s and came to live in Australia.

“I’ve lived in multiple refugee camps as a young boy ... my parents had a restaurant in Cabramatta in Sydney, serving five dishes that they did really well.

“Everyone knew it was great food, terrible service, but great food,” he jokes.

Nguyen says helping at his parent’s restaurant sparked a fire in him to pursue a culinary career.

And that passion remains aflame: from a childhood spent in a restaurant with five dishes, he’s now the proud owner of five restaurants.

“At 10 years of age, I thought, wow, I really like this. I fell in love with it and always knew from then on I wanted to be a chef,” he said.

Salt and pepper tofu cubes that melt in your mouth.Credit: Jocelyn Garcia

Nguyen opened his first restaurant Red Lantern in Darlinghurst before opening others, including Fat Noodle at Treasury Brisbane in Brisbane, which will mark its 10th anniversary on December 12.

“This new menu will take you on a journey from Malaysia to China, back to Vietnam and finally a nod to French colonisation with a dessert,” he says.

“Fat Noodle represents street food and this menu is all about our travels in south-east Asia. My team and I travel to learn and immerse ourselves in cuisine and culture.”

The menu begins with Vietnamese rice paper rolls with tiger prawns and a homemade hoisin dipping sauce, a row of citrus-cured salmon and salt and pepper tofu cubes that melt in your mouth.

Nguyen explains the dishes being served at the restaurant this month.

The Malaysian street food prawn laksa, slow-cooked beef massaman curry, Vietnamese caramelised barramundi, fried rice is then served.

The new menu at Fat Noodle this month.Credit: Jocelyn Garcia

Coconut prawns with a salad, which will be added to the menu once Fat Noodle’s 10th birthday is celebrated, is a surprise taster before a coconut creme caramel with Vietnamese coffee and crumble brings the lunch event to an end.

Nguyen leaves the dining area to a bar-style seating space in the restaurant, politely letting staff know he will sit for a few minutes to answer questions.

His warm smile never falters.

Nguyen reflects on the food scene in Brisbane, from the very beginning of inspecting the space at Treasury Brisbane for Fat Noodle.

“Every dish has a story, it’s about sharing that history, and that’s what everybody does here at Fat Noodle,” he says.

“When I checked out this location I thought, wow, what a great opportunity because there weren’t a lot of restaurants like it around and I thought if we do an incredible job, we could be so busy and there’s not a lot of competition.

Vietnamese rice paper rolls.Credit: Jocelyn Garcia

“And it’s been great. However, I have noticed in the past five or six years in Brisbane, this dining scene is awesome.

“There’s so many great restaurants cooking incredible food and every time I’m here I think Sydney and Melbourne watch out, because Brisbane is up there.”

Nguyen says precincts such as Howard Smith Wharves and the coming Queen’s Wharf are putting Brisbane on the map.

“It’s an exciting time to be in Brisbane. The food is very diverse now,” he says.

A few minutes are spent discussing the state of hospitality in Australia and without hesitation, Nguyen vouches for international chefs.

“Australia needs to open up the country to more people from around the world and to make it easier to get working visas,” he says.

“If you look at our team here, front house and back of house, a lot of them are from international countries.

“During COVID-19 and lockdowns, JobKeeper didn’t really apply to a lot of international workers unfortunately, so the majority had to go back home.

“Here at Fat Noodle, it was different. We really looked after everybody, we were fortunate that we could, but a lot of small businesses out there couldn’t.

Nguyen believes the government should ease up on the process to obtain a working visa so owners had enough staff to sustain their businesses.

“We are really short in experienced staff in the hospitality industry — hotels, cafes, bars and restaurants,” he says.

“A lot of those smaller businesses cannot open seven days a week any more.

“They don’t have that second team so having one team trying to do seven days a week, breakfast, lunch and dinner, is impossible.”