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Made to order and dripping with chilli oil, order them with a flaky ‘Chinese burger’ and mouth-numbing chilli pork wontons.
It’s easy to understate the quiet impact Kieran Zou has had on Brisbane’s food scene.
First it was as at popular Kenmore restaurant Sichuan Bang Bang where, as head chef, he helped introduce the western suburbs to an entirely new kind of Chinese cuisine that ranged well beyond the Cantonese most locals were familiar with at the time.
Then, from 2018, it was at Biang Biang Fresh Noodle, first in Toowong and then on Brunswick Street in Fortitude Valley.
It was there he familiarised Brisbane with biang biang noodles, the almost impossibly thick, chewy and ribbony noodles prepared fresh from rested dough (the “biang biang” refers to the banging sound as the chef slaps them into shape on the kitchen counter), which have their origins in Shaanxi, the mountainous province in China’s central north.
“I noticed when we first moved to Fortitude Valley [in 2022],” Zou says. “Because there was a lot of excitement from locals who used to come to Toowong. ‘Oh, it’s better you move here, near my home.’ That’s when we realised the impact we’d had, and how popular biang biang noodles had become generally.”
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That move from Toowong in 2022 was to make way for a high-rise development and, perhaps not surprisingly given the pace of development in the CBD and inner suburbs, Zou has again had to move because of a new development, from the charming little space on Brunswick Street down to Cathedral Place on Wickham Street.
These premises are larger, and with their dark timber furniture and a dining room neatly sectioned off by timber shelving, Biang Biang Fresh Noodle suddenly feels much more like a restaurant in the traditional sense than the street-food vibes of both Brunswick Street and Toowong.
“This is a bit more comfortable for people,” Zou says. “It’s not as exposed to the wind and the rain.”
The menu is much the same, even as it continues the slow evolution that’s been a Biang Biang feature since it opened in Toowong. Zou may have made a trip to Shaanxi especially for research purposes after he left Sichuan Bang Bang in 2017, but his early career spent cooking at hotels across China and at Noodle Time in London has left him interested in the intersection of eastern and western flavours.
“We’ve just tweaked little ingredients,” Zou says. “For example, with the lamb noodles we wanted a bit more cumin.
“But we don’t want it to be too traditional. Some people love traditional but it can be too oily for Western tastes … for the spicy chilli pork noodles, in China they might put in a lot of oil and a lot of yellow bean paste. I do less of that and more shallot, more garlic. Aussies love that.”
There are still the 10 noodle dishes on the menu. You can order dry Shaanxi-style biang biang noodles (pork mince, potato, eggs, tomato, carrots, shallots and salad), dry cumin lamb noodles (lamb, salad, onion, capsicum, cumin, chilli oil, sesame oil and soy sauce), spicy chilli pork soup noodles (pork mince, yellow bean paste, soy sauce and salad), or dry-style sizzling chilli oil noodles (garlic, salad, shallots, chilli flake, soy sauce and chilli).
The noodles are backed by roujiamo (the popular flaky ‘Chinese burger’), spring rolls, pork wontons and house-pickled vegetables. Drinks are soft drinks and BYO wine.
“We’re very happy now we’ve made the move,” Zou says. “Maybe we’ll look at another shop down the track in West End or South Bank, but I think we’d keep it smaller than this one.”
Open daily 11.30am-2.30pm, 5pm-9pm
6/115 Wickham Street, Brisbane
