Biang Biang Fresh Noodle open at Cathedral Place
Order the flaky ‘Chinese burger’ with mouth-numbing chili pork wontons, made to order and dripping with chili oil.
It’s easy to underestimate the quiet impact Kieran Zou has had on Brisbane’s food scene.
First, as head chef at the popular Kenmore restaurant Sichuan Bang Bang, he helped introduce an entirely new type of Chinese cuisine to the western suburbs that went far beyond the Cantonese cuisine most locals were familiar with at the time.
Then from 2018 it was first in Toowong, then at Biang Biang Fresh Noodle on Brunswick Street in Fortitude Valley.
There he introduced Brisbane to biang biang noodles, almost impossibly thick, chewy and stringy noodles prepared fresh from aged dough (“biang biang” refers to the crashing sound the chef makes when shaping them by slapping them on the kitchen counter). These noodles have their origins in Shaanxi, a mountainous province in north-central China.
“I noticed when we first moved to Fortitude Valley [in 2022]”Because there was a lot of excitement from locals coming to Toowong, ‘Oh, you’d better move here, near my house,'” says Zou. That’s when we realized the impact we were making and how popular biang biang noodles had become in general.”
This move from Toowong in 2022 was to make way for high-rise development and perhaps unsurprisingly given the pace of development in the CBD and inner suburbs, Zou has had to move again due to new development from the charming little site on Brunswick Street to Cathedral Place on Wickham Street.
These buildings are larger, and with dark wood furniture and a dining room neatly divided by wooden shelves, Biang Biang Fresh Noodle feels much more like a restaurant in the traditional sense than the street food vibe of Brunswick Street and Toowong.
“It’s a little more comfortable for people,” Zou says. “It’s not as exposed to wind and rain.”
The menu is pretty much the same, although it continues the slow development that has been characteristic of Biang Biang since it opened in Toowong. Zou may have made a trip to Shaanxi specifically for research purposes after leaving Sichuan Bang Bang in 2017, but her early career spent cooking in hotels in China and at Noodle Time in London led her to an interest in the intersection of eastern and western flavors.
“We only changed minor ingredients,” says Zou. “For example, we wanted a little more cumin with the lamb noodles.
“But we don’t want it to be too traditional. Some people like traditional, but it might be too oily for Western tastes… In China, for spicy chilli pork noodles, they might put too much oil and too much yellow bean paste. I do less of that, and I do more shallots, more garlic. Australians love it.”
There are still 10 noodle dishes on the menu. Dry Shaanxi-style biang biang noodles (ground pork, potatoes, eggs, tomatoes, carrots, shallots, and salad), dry cumin lamb noodles (lamb meat, salad, onion, chili, cumin, chili oil, sesame oil, and soy sauce), spicy chili pork soup noddles (pork mince, yellow bean paste, soy sauce, and salad), or dry-style sizzling chili oil noodles (garlic, You can order salad, shallot, red pepper). flakes, soy sauce and red pepper).
Behind the noodles are roujiamo (the popular flaky ‘Chinese burger’), spring rolls, pork dumplings and house-pickled vegetables. Beverages are soft drinks and BYO wine.
“We are now very happy to have taken action,” says Zou. “Maybe we’ll look at another store in the West End or South Bank, but I think we can keep it smaller than this.”
Open every day 11.30-14.30, 17.00-21.00
6/115 Wickham Street, Brisbane
Matt Shea is Food and Culture Editor at the Brisbane Times. He is a former editor and editor-in-chief at Broadsheet Brisbane and has written for Escape, Qantas Magazine, Guardian, Jetstar Magazine and SilverKris, among others.
