Cà Ri Gà in Adelaide: Vietnamese Chicken Curry with Potato
★ As featured in Glam Adelaide — 2025 SA Restaurant & Catering Awards finalist
There's a particular kind of comfort in a bowl of cà ri gà. It's the golden colour first — a warm, turmeric-yellow curry with orange droplets of oil pooling on the surface. Then the smell: lemongrass, curry spices and coconut richness rising off the bowl before the coriander even hits it. At Bà Năm on Grote Street in Adelaide's Chinatown, this Vietnamese chicken curry with potato sits quietly on the menu next to the phở that made the place its name — and for a lot of regulars, it's the dish they keep coming back for on cold days.
We're not a luxury venue. Bà Năm is a family-run spot cooking recipes that started in a home kitchen in Trảng Bàng, Tây Ninh in the 1970s, brought to Adelaide in 2023 by grandson Huynh Nguyen and owner Thi Gai Vo. The cà ri gà is cooked the way it's been cooked at home for decades: honest, generous and made to be eaten with your hands wrapped around a torn bread roll.
What is cà ri gà?
Cà ri gà is Vietnamese chicken curry — and if your reference point for curry is Thai or Indian, it's worth knowing it sits in its own lane. Southern Vietnamese chicken curry is typically gentler and more aromatic than fiery: lemongrass-forward, softened with coconut, coloured golden with curry powder, and cooked with chunks of potato that soak up the sauce as they simmer. The chicken cooks down until it's tender and the potato goes soft and creamy at the edges, thickening the curry slightly as it goes.
It's a home-cooking dish through and through. In Southern Vietnam it's the kind of thing made for family gatherings, ladled out with fresh bread for dipping. Our menu lists it plainly as "Chicken Curry with Potato", because that's exactly what it is — no reinvention, no fusion twist. If you're exploring Vietnamese food in the Adelaide CBD beyond phở, cà ri gà is one of the most rewarding places to start.
How to order it: bread, broken rice or noodles
The curry itself stays the same across the menu — what you choose is the vehicle. There are three ways to have it at Bà Năm:
Cà Ri Gà Bánh Mì — $20. Chicken curry served with a bread roll. This is the classic Southern Vietnamese way to eat it: tear the bread, dunk it into the golden sauce, repeat until the bowl is clean. If you've never had Vietnamese curry before, start here.
Cà Ri Gà Cơm Tấm — $20. Chicken curry over broken rice. Broken rice — the fractured grains that were once the humble end of the harvest — has a softer, slightly clingy texture that holds curry beautifully. If you're curious about broken rice itself, we've written more about it in our cơm tấm guide.
Cà Ri Gà Mì Sợi — $22. Chicken curry with your choice of egg noodles, sticky rice noodles or vermicelli. Noodles in curry turn the dish into something closer to a rich noodle soup — slurpy, warming, very hard to share.
There's no wrong answer. Bread for dipping, rice for a proper meal, noodles for a rainy Adelaide evening. If it's the middle of winter, the curry also earns its place in our roundup of Vietnamese winter warmers in Adelaide.
Cà ri gà vs bò kho vs phở
Cà ri gà has a sibling on the menu: bò kho, the Vietnamese beef stew, served with the same three side choices at the same prices ($20 with bread or broken rice, $22 with noodles). The simplest way to split them: cà ri gà is golden, coconut-rich and lemongrass-aromatic; bò kho is deeper and darker, built on slow-braised beef, tomato and star anise. Curry mood versus stew mood. There's a third stew lane too: Gia Cay, Southern pork hock with galangal and turmeric — $22 with bread, broken rice or bún.
And then there's the phở — the dish Bà Năm is best known for, built on an 18-hour bone broth. Phở Bò runs $20 small and $22 large, the Phở Thố Đá stone bowl is $25, and Phở Tái arrives with the "red coin" — paper-thin rare beef that finishes cooking in the boiling broth at your table. Phở is clean, clear and delicate; cà ri gà is rich, golden and hearty. Plenty of tables order one of each and argue about who chose better. (First time trying phở? Our first-timer's guide has you covered.)
As featured in Glam Adelaide. Bà Năm has been written up for serving grandma's authentic recipes in Chinatown, and was a finalist in the Vietnamese Restaurant category at the 2025 Hostplus SA Restaurant & Catering Awards — a finalist, not a winner, and we're happy to say it straight. The recognition is for the family recipes, the locally sourced beef, and Huynh's Sunday farm runs that keep the kitchen honest.
Finding us on Grote Street
You'll find Bà Năm at 65 Grote Street, Adelaide SA 5000, in the heart of Chinatown — a short walk from the Central Market. We're open seven days, 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM (9:30 PM through summer, October to March), public holidays included. Walk-ins are always welcome, though honesty compels us to say peak times can mean a 15–30 minute wait. You can book ahead via OpenTable on our website, and for groups of 8 or more, give us a call on (08) 8151 0106. If you'd rather order ahead, our app is at order.phobanam.com.au.
Come for the phở if that's what brought you. Stay for the curry if the weather's turned. Either way, you'll leave fuelled up — not a luxury venue, just very genuine.
Frequently asked questions
What is cà ri gà?
Cà ri gà is Vietnamese chicken curry — a golden, lemongrass-aromatic Southern Vietnamese curry cooked with chicken and potato. It's gentler and more fragrant than most Thai or Indian curries, and traditionally eaten with fresh bread for dipping, or over rice or noodles.
How much is cà ri gà at Bà Năm and what does it come with?
There are three options: Cà Ri Gà Bánh Mì with a bread roll ($20), Cà Ri Gà Cơm Tấm with broken rice ($20), or Cà Ri Gà Mì Sợi with your choice of egg noodles, sticky rice noodles or vermicelli ($22).
How is Vietnamese chicken curry different from bò kho?
Cà ri gà is a golden, coconut-rich chicken curry with potato; bò kho is a darker Vietnamese beef stew built on tomato and star anise. At Bà Năm, both come with the same side choices at the same prices — bread or broken rice for $20, noodles for $22.
Where is Bà Năm and what are the opening hours?
Bà Năm is at 65 Grote Street in Adelaide Chinatown, near the Central Market. We're open 7 days a week, 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM (extended to 9:30 PM during summer, October to March), including public holidays.
Do I need to book a table?
Walk-ins are welcome, though at peak times you might wait 15–30 minutes. You can book via OpenTable on our website, and groups of 8 or more should call (08) 8151 0106. You can also order through our app at order.phobanam.com.au.