I've been there a few times in the past and I honestly don't see anything special about this place.

i just came back from this place and the portion is tiny. I got the large and it pretty much came looking like a big bowl of soup. all i saw was a a few pieces of meat and a couple meatballs floating around. then when you mix it all up, there's just way too much soup, not enough noodles or meat. So far the best places for pho are thai son, and the place on nanimo and 1st ave. (used to be located on broadway and nanaimo) the bun bo hue there is awesome and so are the spring rolls.

Okay, I'm going there in about an hour or so. If this place sucks, I'm going to shit a brick. :mad:

Looked on dinehere.ca and it should be this one according to the address

http://dinehere.ca/restaurant.asp?r=2765

Impactx - haha would you really br surprised if that was true or even if I said most places do.

thai son's TYSONNNNN baby

portion is good, soup is soso. nothing spectacular.


i guess many of us are disappointed, due to the recommandation coming from a wonna be PHO expert

:p

Alright everybody.

I had dinner there at 6:30 on the dot with my lady friend. Place had maybe 2 or 3 people but whatever, traffic was a real mess on Main and King Edward. Walked in, guy was super friendly/outgoing and said the typical, "Heeey my friend! Come in! Your wife! I love her hair, just like Pulp Fiction and Saturday Night Fever!"

We were like, "WTF?!?" Okay. Put a smile on our face. Seated and took a look over the menu. They have some very traditional items on the menu, in fact, very intricate in terms of ingredients used, mainly Chinese ingredients especially for their spring rolls. Prices for their spring rolls were outrageous - $7.50? No thanks.

My lady friend and I ordered coffee (hot and cold) - it was $2.50, not $1.50 on the menu. I ordered the Pho Dac Biet house special (how could you not!?) while my lady friend ordered the beef and tripe noodle soup. She asked for a small but when the food came, turns out that everything is all one price. Only difference is the size of the bowl. Go figure. My bowl was bigger and cost the same as my lady friend's. The portions were the same. And as mentioned by another review, yes, the portions of noodles suck ass. It was barely a fistful and had so much soup, it's an embarrassment to pho in itself.

Here's the lowdown on the pho:

1. Broth/soup - Bland. You can taste hints of the daikon, star anise, cloves and dates. They concentrate heavily on this however, the soup has been boiled for 14+ hours (I asked.) While so, they do it south Vietnamese traditional style where they make the soup boiling it with tonnes of bones. No MSG - I can tell you that for sure.

2. Noodles were the thicker/fatter type and were fresh. I prefer this style and they're chewy.

3. Beef/meats - not bad. Standard pho meats for a house special however, it just sort of floats around. Meats were complimented with a good serving of onions which I like.

4. Condiments - bean sprouts / basil / lime and chilli. Standard. Nothing special.

5. Portions - WTF? Small or large - no difference in quantity or price. Just the bowl and the amount of soup you get. What kind of trickery is this?

Final verdict - it was just, "okay." Not good. Not bad. Just okay. If not, it sucked. No use of MSG was awesome and I applaud them for keeping the broth as real as possible but it ultimately had little to no flavour to it. The broth is the key to all pho. They failed. And wooden/disposable chopsticks? What the fuck man?

I don't recommend this place at all nor would I go back. $20 with tax and tip for 2 bowls of pho and two coffees? I've had much better pho.

Picture of fail not worthy of a real camera:

$2.50 for coffee and it wasn't great. There's very little coffee used so it tastes pretty weak.
http://www.trianglecafe.ca/misc/vietnamese_1.jpg

A bowl of fail.
http://www.trianglecafe.ca/misc/vietnamese_2.jpg

Another bowl of fail.
http://www.trianglecafe.ca/misc/vietnamese_3.jpg

usually get the lemon grass chicken on rice at thai son. or the skewered pork with spring rolls. spring rolls are not the greatest.

Allllrighty then, thanks for the review bcrdukes.
I almost overhyped myself for nothing haha. I guess I won't have to waste a dinner slot on this place anymore..

see what did i tell u



my review was correct



OP pho expert? i think not
a bowl of fail? lol indeed


honestly i think golden train is better than this joint no joke

cambie/broadway golden train is a lot better than the one ghetto out on kinsway

Where is achiam? Damn guy. :D

LOL kev, is Golden Train that 24h one? If it is then that one is not bad, but considering by the time I'm off work that is practically the only choice I have left ... haha

I am humbly embarrassed. I've always hated the salty tang of MSG as I saw it as a cheap way to enhance flavor, and this is probably why I am so attracted to this location.

Failing the Pho, however, is to me excessive - while my other friends who went with me still feel Pho Tam is the best in the GVRD, they certainly did not give the broth here a fail rating. None of us proclaim ourselves to be Pho pundits, but we have eaten quite a large variety of Pho over the years and recognize the restaurant's emphasis on natural ingredients. This I feel is much more difficult than simply dumping MSG in, and warrants credit.

Obviously everyone has different tastes, but I maintain that the place deserves a try.

To anyone who was disappointed by my review, I apologize.

^
It's all in good humour so don't sweat it. :D

As I mentioned in my review, I do applaud the folks at Vietnamese for keeping it real and using the best ingredients as possible. It's a bold move. Not many people do this.

Don't get me wrong. I like the fact that they do what they're doing, but it could have been done a little better and without the use of MSG. Similar style of what they serve can be had elsewhere nearby. Their portions could be a tad bit larger, but all in all, it's not definitely something out of the ordinary and not for everybody.

Edit: And by no means, am I a pho expert or pundit, but I grew up eating pho since I was 4 in the heart of Chinatown. I've met a lot of people and learned as much as I could about pho and I try to get a taste of it everywhere I go in my travels, whether it'd be in Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Dresden, or Montreal, I've always criticized the quality of pho upon the basis of my knowledge and understanding. I think I've got it pat down pretty well but I'm most certain somebody can tell me to shove it and school me on how REAL pho is done.

LOL ya thats the one, by the time u get off 1-2am ish that seems to be the only choice u have. The one on kinsway i went many many years ago, the food taste like crap and the place is filthy with flies running aronud. The one on cambie the broth tastes different, has a unique chinese medicine (again) to it, i like their XL portion as well as their grill chicken sub is pretty damn good. IMO i like cambie's golden train broth better than tai son. Tai son's soup is nothing special really IMO, and tats the one i tried in coquitlam (closed down now) and the one near east vancouver T&T


Dont sweat it dude, everyone has different taste. And for sure its hard to come by finding a PHO rest. without using massive/slight of MSG.
Pho is like crack cocaine tho, u gotta have some MSG fix once in awhile haha


the food god has spoken :haha:

I used to be a regular customer of pho tam since 1998. 5 years ago i found another pho restaurant and haven't been back until last month. Their pho has changed what from i remember because i remember them having some really good pho but now its just....average. That's when i realized that the only nammers in the restaurant were the servers. I haven't been back and don't plan too. The pho restaurant i go to now is pho tau bay on 148st and 108ave.

I've been to both Pho Tam and Pho Tau Bay as recommended by other RS members. I was truly disappointed.

Pho Vinh has been the only place that I've really enjoyed.

Im going to have to try pho vinh now to see.

werd try it 4 sure

lol vietnamese, the only difference your gonna see from that place to any other viet restraunt is that the service is really good and friendly, otherwise the price / portions suck

I like the pho place across from save on foods in richmond on ackroyd where nando's chicken is....anyone eat at that place before and give a comparison to other restaurants?

i like that place toooo. but i wouldnt go there to get " filled up ", i do not find the proportions that filling compared to other pho restaurants in richmond

how did you mistake the coffee for 1.50? lol

I think I'm gonna give Pho Vinh a shot sometime this week, or even Pho Tam since I can basically WALK to either restaurant (Pho Tam is closer to me, yet I go to New Town near it for baked goods so often I don't even think about getting lunch there). Plenty of mixed reviews so I can't really decide. I haven't had pho for a while, so I'm open to what I should order as well. I'm also pretty close to Pho Hoa, and even though I've eaten there a while ago, I knew that the pho sucked there.

Which of the two should I try out first?

Actually I was charged $1.50; on the receipt though I realized that it was entered as Soft Drink so it was an error on their part.

Quent pho ? or sth like that,, on fraser and 24th? best pho i've ever had.