Scullin a dining destination? Really? Thanks to this restaurant gem, it's true

Résumé détaillé

Easy Boy! is light and refined and every bit worth the drive.

Consider Scullin. I normally don't, it's true. Home to just over 3000 people, the suburb is a place I mostly associate with the mechanic where my father got the old Citroen that was equal parts gorgeous and cantankerous serviced. Unless you owned a difficult French car with overly complicated hydraulic suspension, I knew of no other reason to go there.

So consider it now more deeply. Scullin is equipped, as most of the suburbs of that vintage are, with a cluster of shops whose original purpose has been upended by big-box, category-killer retail and the addictive allure of 2am online shopping.

A vegan bakery that gave up on Braddon now lives on there. The great hope, then, of these places is the advent of serious suburban eating. Easy Boy! is among the best examples, the latest invention from the Ratanakosol brothers who gave the capital Morks and Minima.

A sharp and bright Vietnamese restaurant, Easy Boy! has a no-fuss menu that does not take too much time to work through towards a decision. Parties of four and larger need to eat from the $65-a-head tasting menu, which is no problem because it is fantastic.

Canberra already has some fine suburban Vietnamese restaurants. Easy Boy! has a concept that is at risk of delivering only a pastiche of that experience. I think it avoids the trap by being an homage with something of its own to say.

On a recent Sunday, we found the place busy and bright. A 7 o'clock booking in daylight saving makes for a lovely day-to-night, sunset meal with a view out over West Belconnen.

Whether you pick the set menu or not, start with the pork nem nuong spring roll. They are big bundles, barely held together, stuffed with fresh carrot. They deliver snappiness and lightness that offers the right counterbalance to the pork sausage, served with heft, inside the roll.

The chicken wings with fish sauce caramel are fiddly and delectable. Chicken wings are often not worth the fuss.

Kingfish ceviche, with pineapple salsa and bacon, is the type of twist dish…

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