TraVinh.

What is Tra Vinh known for?

Tra Vinh is known as a hu tieu mi shop: rice noodles or egg noodles, soup or dry, a counter that did not exist to teach you pho. You walked in off the grocer stretch when Little Saigon was still a neighbour. Steam off the kho. Jasmine tea already in a thermos. Footscray Food Blog, December 2010, called the room a bit squishy, with a small smooth ramp at the door. Howie's 2014 card called it utilitarian and honest, not a standout. That is the point. This was the Nicholson answer when you wanted noodles, not rice, and you were already carrying coriander.

The name is a Mekong city. Treat that as a clue to the bowl, not a family saga we cannot source. Do not steal Phu Vinh's origin story and paste it here. Good Food's October 2016 Phu Vinh review printed Linh and Hien Du making hu tieu from a stall at their home in Tra Vinh, south of Saigon, then from 93 Hopkins. Broadsheet quoted Eric Du at that market-perimeter shop. This listing is 70 Nicholson. Same southern noodle family. Different door.

When it traded, regulars used it as the noodle half of a Nicholson run. Tan Thanh Loi at 73 is still the broken-rice room. Time Out told you to skip the hu tieu there and take the com tam. The skipped bowl belonged here if the glass still said Tra Vinh. Green Valley is the grocer. Mc Dumpling is not soup. After the Little Saigon fire, one diner later wrote that the stretch emptied. Colour, not a founding myth.

The live kitchen at 70 now is Co Tham Can Tho on 2025 and 2026 aggregator cards, phone (03) 9193 8805. Do not eat Co Tham's board and call it Tra Vinh. Do not send this craving to Hopkins because a city name showed up in a Phu Vinh review.

What should you order at Tra Vinh?

You should not order Tra Vinh at 70 tonight. The live board at that number belongs to a different kitchen. When this shop traded, the whole game was hu tieu or mi, then soup or dry.

If you could not read the board, you pointed. Asking for pho because that is the only Vietnamese word Melbourne taught you got you a polite wrong dish or a confused shake. Hu tieu is southern: pork, seafood, chicken stock, rice noodles that go translucent, egg noodles that bounce. Pho is a different broth. Appetite is the plot. You walked in hungry for the word you knew, and the steam wanted a better sentence.

The 2010 Footscray Food Blog special was hu tieu mi kho dac biet: rice and egg noodles together, bean sprouts, carrot, a prawn, calamari, liver, shredded pork, a quail egg, fish cake, chicken stock with pork mince in a small bowl on the side. The noodles came salty-sweet, like a dark soy and caramel toss. Lauren had eaten the same style at Phu Vinh and blamed sweet chilli as a cheat. A reader named Hung told her the chilli is the point of this kho. She mixed a splash of broth through and said Tra Vinh kept the balance better. Useful. Not a reason to mash the doors.

Bun dac biet was the other regular call: warm vermicelli, lettuce, cucumber, carrot, spring rolls, grilled pork, shredded pork skin, nuoc mam over the top. The rolls had filling, not air. Word of Mouth in 2012 kept naming mi hu tieu kho, prawn spring rolls, vermicelli with grilled pork, broken rice, hu tieu soup. A 2017 diner asked for pho anyway. Pennywort and orange egg soda sat on the drinks list. A 2011 tip was house chilli oil with Sichuan pepper, from the kitchen if you asked. Those prices are 2010 prices. Broken rice tonight is still 73. A live hu tieu bowl in this suburb is Phu Vinh on Hopkins, a different shop. 70 tonight is Co Tham's board, if that is even your hunger.

Hours, payment and queues at Tra Vinh

Tra Vinh has no live hours card we trust. NusaList still prints daily 9am to 8pm. Whereis still prints (03) 9687 8008 and no clock at all. Wanderlog stamps permanently closed. Last checked 2026-09-20.

A May 2019 diner update on the stale Tra Vinh aggregator pages said the shop had sat unattended and sent people to Tra Vinh in St Albans, claiming the old owners ran that room. That is one reviewer's transfer story, not a filing. St Albans is 320 Main Road East, phone (03) 9367 8811 on the Wheree card. Different suburb. Do not drive 3021 on a rumour and call it Footscray.

Co Tham Can Tho is the kitchen 2025 and 2026 cards pin to 70, phone (03) 9193 8805. One hours table prints 10am to 9pm daily. Localista prints something closer to 8am to 8pm. That fight is Co Tham's. If 70 is lit, it is not automatically this bowl. If 73 is lit and 70 is dark, that is a rice day. Cash used to be faster on this stretch. None of that helps you if you came for a ghost.

How do you get to Tra Vinh in Footscray?

You walk Nicholson to 70. It sits beside Tan Thanh Loi at 73. Footscray station is the nearest train. This is not the Hopkins spine and not the market hall. If you are smelling baguettes, you walked the wrong way. If you are standing under Phu Vinh's market-perimeter glass, you walked the other wrong way.

Little Saigon burned. Green Valley is the grocer run this plate used to pair with. Do the herbs on this street whether you eat at 70 or 73. At night Nicholson Mall is the skip-if-you-can block.

You do not need a car. Irving deck is the market park if you drove for the hall. Read the fascia before you sit. Co Tham on the glass is not a Tra Vinh win. A dark 70 is not a cue to demand hu tieu from the chop shop.

What do people mix up about Tra Vinh?

They mash Tra Vinh at 70 with Phu Vinh on Hopkins because both sell hu tieu mi and Good Food printed Tra Vinh the Mekong city as the Du family's origin.

• 70 Nicholson Street, Footscray VIC 3011 only. Vacated as Tra Vinh.
• Hu tieu and mi, soup or dry. Not pho.
• Not Tan Thanh Loi at 73. Not Phu Vinh at 93 Hopkins.
• Not Tra Vinh at 320 Main Road East, St Albans.
• Stale 9am-8pm and (03) 9687 8008. Co Tham Can Tho is the live kitchen at 70.

Questions people ask next

Is Tra Vinh still open in Footscray?

Not as Tra Vinh. Wanderlog stamps 70 Nicholson permanently closed. Co Tham Can Tho is the live kitchen listed at that number, phone (03) 9193 8805. Directories still print Tra Vinh and (03) 9687 8008. Read the fascia. Last checked 2026-09-20.

Where was Tra Vinh?

70 Nicholson Street, Footscray VIC 3011, beside Tan Thanh Loi at 73. Footscray station is the nearest train. This was never Hopkins and never the market hall. A Tra Vinh in St Albans is a different suburb.

What did Tra Vinh serve?

Hu tieu and mi, soup or dry, plus bun vermicelli and rice plates. The 2010 house special mixed rice and egg noodles with seafood, pork, liver, quail egg and a side broth. Pho was the tourist word, not the plot.

Is Tra Vinh the same as Phu Vinh?

No. Tra Vinh was 70 Nicholson. Phu Vinh is the Du family hu tieu shop on Hopkins that Broadsheet and Good Food actually reviewed. Same southern noodle family, different door. Do not paste one origin story onto the other glass.

Where we checked

• Footscray Food Blog: Tra Vinh, December 2010
• Howie's Melbourne Food: Tra Vinh, 2014
• Time Out: Tan Thanh Loi (neighbour, skip hu tieu there)
• Broadsheet: Out on the Western Front (Phu Vinh is a different shop)
• Good Food: Phu Vinh review, Dani Valent, 2016
• Wanderlog: Tra Vinh stamped permanently closed
• Whereis: Tra Vinh, 70 Nicholson, no hours
• Sluurpy: Co Tham Can Tho at 70 Nicholson
• Word of Mouth: Tra Vinh Footscray reviews

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