In Adelaide, you can't throw a crunchy baguette without hitting a Soonta franchise: there are 18 of them around town. But that doesn't mean they're not good. In fact, Brisbane's lone Soonta shop on Wynnum Road is worth making a trip to Cannon Hill for.
The concept is Vietnam-meets-Japan with a simple menu divided into bánh mì, vermicelli bowls, salad bowls and rice bowls. Choose your protein – they have lemongrass chicken, roast pork with crackling, katsu or karaage chicken, and tofu with shiitake mushrooms – and get them to add all the fresh chilli, coriander and other trappings you desire. They also have a few nibbles such as spring rolls, rice paper rolls and edamame.
You can lean Japanese if you like, but you're missing a trick if you don't go for the roast pork. It's been cubed to save your teeth from a struggle and the crackling is the crunchy, easy-eating stuff of porcine dreams. It goes down a treat inside a lovely light bánh mi roll, tangy with pickled carrot and boasting just the right hit of chilli. That's lunch sorted then.