Giò Quẩy: The $4 Fried Dough Stick Your Phở Has Been Missing
★ As featured in Glam Adelaide — 2025 SA Restaurant & Catering Awards finalist
There's a small line on our menu that regulars order without thinking and first-timers scroll straight past: Giò Quẩy, $4, one stick, "for the broth." It's a golden, airy, crackly length of fried dough — the Vietnamese cousin of the Chinese youtiao — and in Southern Vietnam it's as natural beside a bowl of phở as spring onion or a squeeze of lime. If you've ever finished your noodles and stared wistfully at the broth left in the bowl, this article is for you. Here's what giò quẩy is, why it earns its place at the table, and how we serve it at Bà Năm on Grote Street.
What Is Giò Quẩy, Exactly?
Giò quẩy (sometimes written quẩy, dầu cháo quẩy, or giò cháo quẩy depending on which part of Vietnam is talking) is a fried dough stick — two thin lengths of dough pressed together and fried until they puff into a light, hollow, deeply golden crisp. It arrived in Vietnam via Chinese kitchens generations ago and never left. Snap one in half and you'll see the point of it: a lacy, open crumb inside a shatteringly crisp shell, built almost entirely of air pockets.
That structure is the whole trick. Giò quẩy on its own is pleasant — crunchy, faintly savoury, a little chewy at the seam where the two strands meet. Giò quẩy dunked in hot broth is something else entirely.
Why It Belongs in the Phở Bowl
Phở broth is the result of long, patient work — ours simmers for 18 hours on real bones, no shortcuts, which you can read about in our bone broth and red coin explainer. All that time produces a broth with genuine body: beefy, aromatic, quietly sweet. Rice noodles carry it well, but they're smooth. They slip. Giò quẩy, with all those air pockets, actively drinks the broth in.
Dunk a torn piece for a few seconds and it transforms — crisp edges softening, the hollow centre flooding with hot, star-anise-scented broth, the outside still holding just enough structure to bite through. It's texture you can't get any other way in the bowl.
It's also simply how a lot of Southern Vietnamese tables eat. Bà Năm Lời has been cooking from her home kitchen in Trảng Bàng, Tây Ninh since the 1970s, and down south the fried dough stick beside the soup bowl is an everyday habit, not a novelty. Bringing it to Adelaide wasn't a menu decision so much as setting the table properly.
How We Serve It on Grote Street
No ceremony here. Giò quẩy is a $4 side — one stick, served alongside your bowl, listed on the menu exactly as it should be: "for the broth." It arrives whole and golden on the plate, and the rest is up to you.
One stick is genuinely enough for one bowl. It's there to stretch the broth, not replace the noodles. If you're sharing a table and someone orders phở while someone else goes for bún bò Huế, a stick each is a very reasonable life decision.
What to Pair It With
The classic pairing is Phở Tái — our "red coin" bowl, where paper-thin rounds of rare beef are cooked right in the bowl by the boiling 18-hour broth. The broth arrives at its hottest, which means your giò quẩy soaks up maximum flavour with every dunk.
If you want the full production, the stone bowl set — Phở Thố Đá at $25 — keeps the broth bubbling at the table for longer, so your dough stick has a hot bath waiting from first bite to last. And giò quẩy isn't phở-exclusive: it stands up beautifully to the lemongrass-chilli depth of bún bò Huế too. Where you land in the broth debate is your business — our best pho in Adelaide guide can help you argue it properly.
First-Timer Tip: Tear, Dunk, Eat
Don't drop the whole stick in the bowl and walk away. That path leads to a sad, sodden log. Instead: tear off a bite-sized piece, hold it in the broth for three to five seconds — long enough to soak, short enough to keep some crunch — and eat it straight away. Repeat until the stick is gone, which happens faster than you'd expect.
Some people save it for the end, using the last pieces to mop up the final centimetre of broth. Some alternate bites throughout the meal. Both schools are correct. If phở itself is new territory for you, our first-timers' guide to phở covers the rest of the bowl, herbs and all.
A Small Dish With a Long Family History
Bà Năm is a family story: Bà Năm Lời's recipes from Trảng Bàng, carried to Adelaide by her grandson Huynh Nguyen and owner Thi Gai Vo, who opened the doors on Grote Street in 2023. The beef is locally sourced — Huynh does the Sunday farm runs himself — and the broth gets its full 18 hours whether it's a quiet Tuesday or a packed Saturday. We were a finalist in the Vietnamese Restaurant category at the 2025 Hostplus SA Restaurant & Catering Awards, and Glam Adelaide has been kind enough to feature us, but the honest pitch hasn't changed: not a luxury venue, just very genuine. The giò quẩy fits that description too. Four dollars, one stick, does exactly what it says.
Visiting Bà Năm
You'll find us at 65 Grote Street in Adelaide's Chinatown, open seven days from 11am to 9pm (until 9:30pm October to March). Fair warning: at peak times there's an honest 15–30 minute wait — the broth doesn't hurry and neither do we. Book via OpenTable, walk in, or if you're a group of eight or more, give us a ring on (08) 8151 0106 first. Takeaway orders go through order.phobanam.com.au. While you wait, a cà phê sữa đá is a fine companion — and if you want to keep reading before you visit, the rest of our dish guides live in the articles hub.
Bà Năm was named a finalist in the Vietnamese Restaurant category at the 2025 Hostplus SA Restaurant & Catering Awards for Excellence, and has been featured by Glam Adelaide — a nod to a Grote Street kitchen that keeps things genuine, from the 18-hour broth to the $4 side that makes the last spoonful of soup worth chasing. You can also find us in the Glam Adelaide directory and under the Bà Năm Restaurant tag.
Frequently asked questions
What is giò quẩy?
Giò quẩy is a Vietnamese fried dough stick, closely related to the Chinese youtiao — two strands of dough fried together until golden, crisp outside and airy inside. In Southern Vietnam it's a common companion to noodle soups, served for tearing and dunking in the broth.
How much is giò quẩy at Bà Năm?
It's $4 for one stick, listed on the menu as a side "for the broth." One stick pairs well with a single bowl of phở or bún bò Huế.
How do you eat giò quẩy with phở?
Tear off a piece, dunk it in the hot broth for a few seconds, and eat it while the outside still has some crunch. Avoid leaving the whole stick sitting in the bowl — it'll go soggy. Many diners save the last pieces to mop up the final spoonfuls of broth.
Does giò quẩy work with bún bò Huế as well as phở?
Yes. It's most traditional alongside phở, but the airy dough soaks up the spicy lemongrass broth of bún bò Huế just as happily. Any of our broths — including the bubbling stone bowl Phở Thố Đá — makes a good dunking partner.
Where is Bà Năm and when are you open?
We're at 65 Grote Street in Adelaide Chinatown, open seven days from 11am to 9pm (until 9:30pm from October to March). Bookings are via OpenTable, walk-ins are welcome, and groups of 8+ should call ahead on (08) 8151 0106.