Le Do Vietnamese Restaurant
2292 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC

Ah… East Hastings… An area I use to frequent but, ever since I quit Magic, I haven’t dropped by at all. It is not that there is something wrong. There are some good grocery shopping places, like Freybee’s outlet store (at Hastings and Victoria) if you are looking for cold cuts or sausages, Donald’s Market is a good option (Hastings and Nanaimo). And then there are “unique” eating places like Bao Chau and Seri Malaysia. Could it be traffic in the area? I don’t know. However, by pure sheer of events, PO and I ended up in that area and I “suggested” we give Le Do a try.

When we arrived, actually other options were considered. For example, Red Wagon which opened recently, as well as the before mentioned Seri Malaysia. However, I chose to visit this place in the end because it has been on my list for quite some time and felt I had to do so. Despite we arrived at the later parts of lunch time, the restaurant wasn’t packed full. But, then again, it was a weekday…

I just realized an odd trend of mine: When in Asian restaurants, I seldom order drinks and fall back into tea/water. Could it be that, for general consumption, it works well? Or because, somehow, when in Western type restaurants, there is that odd need to drink anything else aside from water? Regardless if this is true or not, PO ordered a drink. OK, I will admit I didn’t get the name correctly – salted lemon drink? Just as the name suggests, this slightly salty, a bit citrus-y but overall refreshing. Not something I would have ordered but, regardless, it was interesting on its own terms due to the combination of basic tastes.

To share, we ordered Goi Cuon (or was it Nem Cuon?). In a way, I was distracted when ordering and it could have been the later. The difference in terms of the item in the menu? Both are salad rolls, the former being prawns and pork and the later being listed as “patties pork”. Regardless of the name, it had some nice pieces of sausage-like pork but they were muted by all the rice noodles. The greens inside didn’t help much. Had it had from fragrant herbs – like Thai basil – it would have been better. However, in this case… It was just OK.

In retrospect, had the description been more… Interesting (?), I would have gone for the Le Do Spicy Roll – 1 piece of spring roll wrap with noodle, lettuce and cucumber (spicy). Why? Because the description does not necessarily make it enticing enough! So, what is in this roll? OK, I will let fmed explain it to your here.

Moving to the pho, PO ordered dish #3 from their menu, Pho Tai Bo Vien – rare beef plus beef balls. For the most park, he thought it was OK, not necessarily the best he has had but it got the job done. But, there was something that he kept sort of complaining: the beef wasn’t rare! I guess next time he should order the rare beef on a side so that the soup does not start to cook it… Regardless, it looked like the basic pho so I will trust in his judgement… And, as for myself…

Bun Bo Hue. The first notable? The cabbage. To my understanding, this is something that is added in-lieu of banana blossom. The only other place I recall having this served? Tràng Tiên in Edmonton… Given that Edmonton has better Vietnamese food than Vancouver, I will welcome that addition. As for the rest of the bowl… Well, it sort of went sideways. The basic meats were there but not more unusual suspects like pork knuckles or congealed pork blood. The broth felt more on the lines of the basic pho broth with some hot sauce like oil added on top. But, alas, not spicy at all. The one credit I will give them was that it had some lemongrass flavour to it. However, that didn’t really make it stand out to some other more basic bun bo hue in other places.

After the meal, PO and I compared some notes and, overall, it felt… Average? Sorry, probably I ordered the wrong dishes or it wasn’t necessarily the best time of the day. Regardless, what we ordered didn’t necessarily wow us and left of wanting more. Probably I should go back and try something else? But, if I do so… What? In the meantime, I will just leave it as a maybe

Tau Bay Restaurant
10660 98 Street NW
Edmonton, AB

To most of us, pho appears to be that quintessential Vietnamese dish, along with banh mi. It is can appeal to almost everybody and can easily be adjusted to even neophytes to this cuisine. After all, if we break it down to basics, it is noodles, broth and some meat. Toppings in the form of bean sprouts, Thai basil, ngo gai (sawleaf herb), jalapeño, et al, plus some lime are on the side for the dinner to adjust to suit his/her taste. However, because a lot of people haven’t been to Viet Nam, myself included, I have no yardstick; instead, I can only make assessments base on what I like. However, there are also times where you have fanatics, people who deem that a restaurant has a certain je ne sais quoi… That is the case of Tau Bay Restaurant. How popular is this place? How about it not being open year round and, as a result, people have even created a site just to confirm it is open/closed… At that point, well, you simply can’t help to find out why people has reached that point. I guess the only way for me to find out is to visit it.

I arrived just before 12:00 and, by the time the bowls arrived, the restaurant was 3/4 full. Now, the interesting part is that not all customers were Asian; yet, those who are not, were enjoying their bowls the same way as those who are. So, to those who say that over half of their patrons have to be of that particular ethnicity, here is your exception.

And here are the bowls. Now, to those who have read this blog for a long time, would have expected some of the sides in form of spring rolls first. Yup, that usually would have been the pattern; however, here is the reason you don’t see it here: they don’t serve it. In fact their menu is extremely limited: one page for pho, one page for desserts and one page for drinks. No spring rolls, no banh mi, no rice dishes. Now, out of the pho, they even only limit themselves to two types: beef variety and pho ga, the chicken version. Nope, not even Bun Bo Hue or some soupy vermicelli dish.

The first bowl is the dac biet, aka, “special”, aka, almost all but kitchen sink version. Specifically, “special combo with steak, well-done brisket, flank, tendon and tripe” . For the popularity of this place, I will have to say outright the rice noodles were overdone. From that perspective only, I will have to already qualify it as a fail. Moving on with the meats, they were cut quite thin but still enough to be considered chewable. Nothing wrong but nothing spectacular. So… Why people have such high opinion of this place? One reason: the broth. I will have to say it has one of the cleanest, yet meatiest and savouriest broths I have had. I almost ended up drinking most of that broth but had to hold back a little bit. Furthermore, I didn’t use the lime, mainly because I didn’t want to alter that Beth taste (actually, I forgot about it but, hey, the other reason can be used as an excuse as well!).

The second bowl was their number 9 – “steak, well-done flank and brisket”. The major difference, aside from having well-done flank rather than well-done brisket, was that some of the meats are cubes rather than sliced. Otherwise, it would be about the same.

One item ordered at the end but I forgot to take pictures of is a durian shake. While I haven’t had the real thing, as for this version, it was a bit sweet, yet didn’t have that strong pungent taste people “hate”. It was icy, similar to a smoothie, but, past that, I can’t think of another way to describe it.

Overall, while the broth was really good, I wonder if that would make up for the rest. The rice noodle is an easily fixed one, but, given it’s fame, I would have expected it perfected from the very get go. Still, because I like that broth, I am willing to return some other time to give it a try – assuming they are open…

Pho Century (Kingsway and Sperling)
6701 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post on Pho Century. Almost in no time, Karl of The Friday Lunch wrote back a comment about his subpar experience, not to mention they were opening a second location. Curiosity got the best out of me and let’s just say I had to visit it…

Update: Due to some interesting coincidences in life Sherman shokutsu of Foodosophy, wrote a post of this location as well! Check it here.

Right from the get go, one thing was noticeable. They seem to have spent some moola to make things “clean”. Of course, the fact it is a new establishment has something to do. How long will that last? Anyway, let me get the pictures completely out of the picture first so here is what I had.

Wonder why I put the pictures without much description? Well, this is one of the oddest post you might read. In fact, it might be stuff you will NOT read. Let me try again: if you want to know about the food on this trip, I might as well refer you to my visit to the original Pho Century (again, link here). Why? Pretty much the experience I had in the original location was experienced here. Talk about consistency! So, in the end, the conclusion…

Pho Century
4429 Kingsway, #14A
Burnaby, BC

After I came back from San Francisco, I noticed something really odd: in the last year or so, I have changed a little bit my activities. In the past, on Fridays, I used to go to a game shop in East Hastings to play Magic: The Gathering and, afterwards, it was a search for good eats. Nowadays, well…, just leave it there… Anyway, one night, on my way back home, I was driving back through Kingsway and, as expected, hunger hit and then the usual question: Food, where and what? I was in such a hurry that I stopped by a Marketplace IGA just to grab something quick just to notice a Vietnamese restaurant in the far corner. Well, it is there, it is open, so why not!

Past already 9:00 p.m., I found it interesting there were several customers plus some coming in while I was having my meal. Did I mention it was stuck in a corner and not really noticeable from the outside main street? Well, the question is rather if it delivers in the end.

I started off with a spring roll, the fried version. In a way, it reminded me the ones from Bao Chau. How so? The filling was on the lines of minced meat. But, other characteristics weren’t there: for example, it didn’t have the same “sweetness” level nor it had the same crunchiness. It was good in its own ways but not my first option for spring rolls.

Yes, this picture pretty much tells you what will be next. Before I go there, one word or two about this: notice something interesting? Or rather… Missing? Yup, that’s just plain bean sprout and lime wedge. Where is the hot pepper(s) and Thai basil? Otherwise, it is your default/usual plate of bean sprouts and other components…

For the “main”, I ordered Bun Bo Hue. From the food amount perspective, it is a well sized bowl and, right out from the picture above, the size of the Vietnamese sausage cuts are quite noticeable. However, there was something that visually made me put myself on guard: the broth. Now, I am not Vietnamese food expert and the Bun Bo Hue I have had diverge in some crazy way (which can also be interpreted as everybody does it differently). In this case, what it looked more on the lines of a regular pho broth with some dashes of hot oil/sauce.

Now, drilling down a little bit to the rest of the bowl, it had some actual pieces of pork hock, which I actually appreciated (though, of course, this enthusiasm isn’t usually shared by others). The rest of the meat was a bit of a miss. It was present; however, it had a bit too much gristle and fat. And, as mentioned above, the pieces of the Vietnamese were massive, though I wish it had more spice.

In the end, for myself, I didn’t find anything extraordinary here that would make me want to come back. However, there was something that drew other customers. Even that case, that is not enough enticement for me to come. In fact, I have revisited Gold Train Express for their Bun Bo Hue and, despite my initial thoughts, Gold Train Express’ is better. So, while Pho Century’s bowl did fill me up, that is about it for me.

Delightful Cuisine
1745 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC

For good or for bad, in the couple of blocks near the corner of Robson and Denman in the West End, you tend to get more ethnic restaurant than other parts of Downtown Vancouver. For Japanese, you have different ramen places like Santouka, Kintaro and Motomachi, izakaya like Kingyo and Guu. Then you have several Korean restaurants like Kim Bob Chun Gook, Nor Boo Korean Restaurant, Ap Gu Jung and so on. For Thai, you have Khunnai Chang and Tangthai. However, given there is only that much space in the West End, this growth has come to the expense of others restaurants. For example, Rooster’s Quarters in Denman closed some time ago to be replaced by Pomegrante, which failed as well to now be replaced by Dajia, a Japanese restaurant, which over saturates the existing market. Notice I didn’t mention some that, otherwise, would be ubiquitous like Chinese (there is Main Dining Restaurant, Chongqing, Hon’s and Legendary Noodles) and Vietnamese. Ah, Vietnamese, the one that a lot of times is overshadow by the other ones mentioned above. But, then again, their presence in Downtown is a bit muted and it seems they focus more in the Kingsway and Fraser Street area instead. So, to a certain extent, having one nearby seems to be a good thing. When Delightful Cuisine took over the former spot of a French restaurant (which confirms the above), the question was would it fulfill those expectations?

Unlike previous lunches, where I went by myself or with PO, for this one instance, I ended up going with a large group of work colleagues. It seems they were curious as well about this place so we ended up gathering a 5+ group. The more the better?

It was a rainy day and we sat at the corner. After we were given the tea, I noticed something quite odd – it had a light vanilla scent that nobody was able to pinpoint what was the reason behind it. I won’t say it was better or worst than regular tea, just different (or preference). Still, it was… Odd? Moving to the food now, some of us order spring rolls as appetizers and here they are!

Here is their “regular” spring roll and their shrimp/seafood version. I will have to say these ones caught me completely off guard. The “regular” spring roll was actually decent, in the sense it was balanced between ground/minced meat and some vegetables. However, the winner was the shrimp one, as the shrimp was snappy and had some actual shrimp taste! Still, you don’t necessarily go wrong with the regular spring roll (it does a decent job).

Yeah, you could have seen this one coming from afar. They only have that many items in the menu which can be a good thing or bad. In this case, I will lean towards the good side as less dishes mean the kitchen can perform quite well. So, while they had banh mi which we didn’t order, they had your usual pho and curry. Given you see the bean sprouts, pho it was. Now, before somebody asks, in the lime and jalapeño was served in a separate dish.

Alas, I am not Sherman, who has “trained” his dining companions to order different things so he can snap as many pictures as required. In the end, pretty much everybody ordered their pho bo. Oh, well… For the most part, they were OK, they weren’t really that impressed with it.

As for myself, I went for the bun bo hue “just to order something different”. It wasn’t that spicy (had to complement it by eating the jalapeño peppers) and the broth was quite light – no hint at all of lemongrass or something that would have separated it from the other pho shops. The meats were the basic ones, again, with no unique characteristics. It felt… Generic.

OK, one of my work colleagues didn’t really want pho of any kind and ended up going for something “different”, in this case, their curry. Because she was seated on the other side and I was using a 35mm prime lens, this was the only picture I managed to snap. Sorry! What I can tell you is that it is among the blandest curries I have ever tasted. It was mostly a coloured broth. Ouch.

I will have to say that, despite it was generic, you only have that many Vietnamese options in the area (Chau, which some considers expensive and Pho Number One – I won’t count Vina). So, it is a take it or not. In my case, I would rather drive to other places for pho or have other dishes in lieu.

Pho Tam
10302 135 Street
Surrey, BC

In what seems to be a crazy trend for posts on this week, similar to what happened on my post on Tuesday, for today’s post, I ended up in the Whalley area of Surrey. Now, to those not familiar, this used to be (and, to a certain extent, still) considered a criminalised area. However, times have changed and with the SFU campus in the area plus new condo constructions, it can be considered an upcoming area of sorts. After running an errand in the area (which did not involve anything green, leafy or powdery), it was close to lunch time and had to consider possibilities. Given that I am not that familiar with the area, I dropped a text message to Sherman asking for suggestions. After all, he frequents the area so often that have had close encounters with the police! His first suggestion? “Pho Tam”. OK, that was good enough for me!

Upon walking, I realized why Sherman suggested it: This place was packed! I guess it is popular in its own ways not necessarily because of visuals but also (and hopefully) for the food. The fact that the other Vietnamese restaurant in the same block wasn’t full served as a testament somehow of what they could produce!

After I was seated in a two-seater table at the far back (some of the tables were side by side and could, if necessary, connected if required for a larger party) and was provided with tea. Well, a tea pot rather than a cup or a glass and that worked fine for me. Then it was time to decide what to order… For the most part, it had similar pho offerings; however, I realized something they didn’t necessarily mention in the menu: they have a a spring or salad roll plus a bowl of pho for $8.5 (?). Well, that solves my dilemma! Of course, that brings part #2 of the question: which bowl? More of that, of course, in a moment…

After making my order of pho and spring roll, almost in no time, I got this. I usually take pictures of the food “as is”, without any modification or changes or trying to make it pretty. After all, you want to show what will be given to you on the table! Anyway, this is one of the few cases I had to break my own rule. This spring roll was darn ugly! If you look at the two pieces (it was cut into four), you can have an idea of how bad it looked. As a result, I had to show case the filling. And, darn it was a good, meaty spring roll! Shee, skin here does not matter to me, it was the inside, which was on the meaty side rather than the veggie side. It tasted pork… And that is all what I cared for at that point! It was quite hot and had to dip it into the sauce to cool it down slightly but, otherwise, had I burned myself a little bit by eating this, I think I won’t have cared.

As for the bowl of pho, I ended up ordering bun bo hue rather than the usual pho. I am not sure if they were following some sort of trend here but, similar to the roll, this bowl was darn bloody ugly! Just look at all that oil on top! Past that, the broth was (initially) not as hot but it got spicier as I kept on eating. By the end of the meal, I was drenched! >_<

Other than the spiciness, the broth itself was quite light. There was some light meatiness taste plus so lemongrass-like taste. The noodles, on the other hand, was a bit of hit and miss. My main issue was that it ended up quite soft and broken into smaller pieces. Because of this, the droplets of broth was flinging around every time slurped a bit of the noodles (in fact, my shirt had several blobs of the broth/oil when I was done!). The meat was, again, a bit of hit and miss. Some of the meats had some sesame hint (which is good), other is pretty much bland. Could it be I missed something?

However, despite the hits and misses, I thought it was a worthy bowl of noodles. Granted, it could have been better but, to repeat myself again, those are details… Minor details! And, unlike Richmond, getting here is a bit easier (just take Skytrain) so I can actually see myself coming back. The only thing I need to remember is to bring a towel!

Tràng Tiên
9449 Jasper Ave
Edmonton, AB

Finally, my posts from Edmonton! As suggested a couple of weeks ago, I went to Edmonton for BC Day/Heritage Day long weekend and, finally, I am catching up with those posts, hehehehe. Actually, at this point, I am starting to wonder if the posts in this month of August will be mostly non-BC based… Other than Minoas Greek Taverna (a min-gathering suggested by Elaine) and Mui Ngo Gai, all the posts so far have been from Tacoma and Edmonton. But, wait, what about the rest of the month, there are still weeks to go, right? Well, yeah… In part! Because, as possibly suggested by some tweets (here and here), I just came back from Portland! (And, yes, there will be some food carts!).

But back to Tràng Tiên… Not sure if you might have or might not have caught up but, when I wrote in last Friday’s post of Mui Ngo Gai, I made reference to “a reader” suggesting order other dishes in addition to pho or banh mi. That reader happened to be Trinh who was my host during my trip in Edmonton. So, putting things to test, I asked Trinh if she could take us to a place she would go for pho or, in her case, bún bò hue. And that’s how we ended up going to Tràng Tiên

Upon walking in, I finally remembered something that is more noticeable in other parts of Canada (and the US) but you seldom, if ever, seen in Vancouver: there is a mud room are with another set of doors (storm door?). I guess that is an indication of how “interesting” weather can be. Now, I know a lot of people might be looking at this statement funny but, remember, prior to me moving here, I used to live in a tropical country – there was never a need for it! But, once you go past that, one thing quite noticeable compared to a lot of other Vietnamese restaurants here is how bright it was. In fact, it was mostly windows and no blinds blocking the sunlight. Then again, facing north-west helps.

Since I pretty much had my mind set on bún bò hue, the question was rather… What else to order? Partially because I called shotgun (or rather because she knows the menu a little bit better), she order something else. So, without further ado..

When I first looked at it, I noticed it was quite… light? Compared to the versions I have had in Vancouver, this one looked almost as if the broth was the ones used in the regular pho. But, as usual, looks can be deceiving so when we digged into it, I noticed something even stranger: whereas the ones I have had here were on the lines of a strong taste with some spiciness, this one was instead strong in lemongrass. The “interesting” part was that Trinh agreed there was something strange on that days offering so I won’t argue with on her that…

The other “interesting” part was the cole slaw. Again, I don’t recall the ones I have had here ever being served with the cole slaw so it was odd. Still, at least there was some veggies! As for the meats, actually, I noticed some of them were heavily spiced (in the ham, I even noticed what seemed to be a peppercorn) but, otherwise, it wasn’t that different from others I have had.

As mentioned, Trinh ended up ordering pho. (Sorry!). The “interesting” part was that the rare beef wasn’t that rare. Either that or I took a bit too long to take the picture and it ended up being cooked slightly! Regardless, I found it was slightly better than the ones I have had here in Vancouver. For one, I found the broth to be quite “clean” and savoury enough. And the meats might look gristly in the second picture but, actually, it was your usual slices of meat. The loaded question would be… Were they using Alberta beef?

Just for kicks, I ordered something outside of the usual spring rolls and what not… That something else ended up being bánh loc lá or tapioca dumplings with pork and shrimp wrapped in banana leaves. They also had a version that is not wrapped in banana leaves but we ended up getting this one. Would it have made any difference? Not sure; however, this one was quite interesting. It had a quite “chewy” texture but, if you have had glutinous rice before, you will have a pretty good idea of its initial taste. Past that, there was some pork-y tasting goodness in the inside. Didn’t taste any of the shrimp (either taste or texture) but, otherwise, I was happy with what was offered.

Because the restaurant label themselves as a “Hue’s Special Noodle House”, I found it odd that the bún bò hue wasn’t as good as it could have been. Of course, my comparison is based from what I have had here in Vancouver; but, given Trinh’s thought, I can’t help shake those feelings. Still, I liked the rest of the dishes were good, so I can see myself wanting to give it a try again.

Mui Ngo Gai
2408 Nanaimo Street
Vancouver, BC

For quite some time already, I have wondered about dishes representatives of a culture. This is somewhat “important” because, when we go to an ethnic restaurant, we want to go there to have a taste of that culture. So, not sure how or why, in the case of Japanese, it ends up being sushi, though there is a showing of izakaya places lately. In the case of Greek, it shouts lamb. But similar to NY style pizza, chicago deep dish pizza (which, technically is a casserole), St Louis style or California style, each region has its unique version. So in a chain of emails with a reader who prefers not to comment, she made a note that “whenever you (as in food bloggers in general) go to a Vietnamese restaurant, you always end up ordering pho or bánh mì and, in-lieu, we should give bún bò hue a try instead. While I have unknowingly tried it once in Pho Maxima, when I went to Mui Ngo Gai, I consciously decided to give this dish a try instead. So, would it change my thoughts of pho and start ordering this other dish instead (if available)?

So that begs the question: why Mui Ngo Gai? Believe it or not, the reason is actually a really interesting one: it is among the few Vietnamese restaurants in Vancouver that actually have a website and have their menu on-line! With that option, I knew I could go there and be able to order it; rather than driving around Vancouver to find such a place. Hey, technology working for you!

Upon arrival, I was given the option to sit anywhere and I chose one of the tables closest to the window – sort of. Unlike a lot of restaurants where they let the curtain/blinds open for natural lights, they had their blinds closed, yet there was still some sunlight filtering in. Man, that was some crazy light conditions to take pictures I tell ya, specially when there was flourescent light inside! Anyway, bún bò hue it was, but it has never stopped me from ordering something extra, which ended up being…

A spring roll. Somehow, I wanted the wrapped version rather than the fried versions. Reason? Pork! (Specifically barbequed pork). Yup, I had the option to go for pork and that is what I end up doing. Nothing wrong with that, right? For the most part, not even the herbs managed to make it palatable – it was dead bland. Sure, there was some pork and the pork was actually quite tasty. By together, the rice dampened everything; it was similar to eating a bowl of plain rice cooked only with water. Yup, not even a pinch of salt… So, what “saved” it was the dipping sauce, which I didn’t take a picture but you can partially see from the background. It was peanut based and provided some nutty taste.

Moving to the bún bò hue, if you go by visuals only, I am sure it would have already detracted a lot of people from going for it. Yes, that it is what it is: chunks of cooked pork blood! Huahahahahaha ! In addition to it, there were “sliced beef shank, pork balls, Vietnamese ham and seasoned pork roll”. Alas, the description sounded better what was actually served on the table. Despite the description was to be a spicy beef soup, I didn’t even break a sweat. The meats were OK, nothing extraordinary – hint of sesame was what “saved” it, as it was what provided most of the flavour to the meats. In other words, for the most part, it was… Average?

Now, given the main difference between bún bò hue and the rest of the menu, i.e., it being a Hu? dish compared to the other regions, I am not sure if it would be a good yardstick for the rest of the menu. However, looking at the rest of the customer, for the most part they seem to be enjoying their pho so it seems there is a target audience here. As for myself, actually I see myself coming back to try bánh xèo…

Green Leaf Vietnamese Restaurant
418 8th Ave South
Seattle, WA

I apologize for making things so stereotypical at times. You see, whenever I am down in the US, I try to go to restaurants unique to that place. For example, when I was in New York City, I went to Carnegie Deli; when I was in Panama, there was Mi Ranchito – and that was among a lot of restaurants. The “problem” is that Seattle is ~300 Km from Vancouver and, for the most part, you can find an equivalent here. To make the most of it, the key is to find cuisines/known restaurants not available here, which, more often than not, it translates to American or Latin-American restaurants – or even tacos, though I am not that enthusiastic to try this. So, just for kicks, this time, I tried to look for a form of Asian and, in the end, I decided to go for Vietnamese. That’s how I ended up going to Green Leaf Vietnamese restaurant.

The selection of Green Leaf was semi straight forward: go to Urbanspoon and locate one “close” enough but “highly” ranked enough. I found some places including Pho Hoa (aka, the MickeyD’s of Vietnamese/Pho and which I have visited and blogged an iterations in Vancouver) and a really wacky named restaurant called “What the Pho”. Obviously, I wanted something else and, looking at the higher ranked Vietnamese restaurants, this was the one that was high ranked enough but not necessarily upscale (hey, I like my holes in the wall!).

Arriving at this place pose one challenge: parking. Despite parking was free after 6:00 p.m. (do you read this, City of Vancouver???), there open parking spaces nearby, which really puzzled me considering most of the shops were closed by then. OK, there were a couple of restaurants but… Anyway, after I parked a couple of blocks away, I walked to the restaurant and noticed something that might make a lot turn around right away: there had some (plastic) trash cans outside. Now, they weren’t smelly but it is one of those things that will certainly raise eyebrows…

Finally, upon walking in, I I encountered this small restaurant. There were about a dozen or so tables (most of then 4 seats). There was a couple ahead of me and they were about to seat them to a two seat table that just opened, the staff noticed me and asked how many. Without any shame, I made the gesture of one. And you know what? The waiter told the couple another table (a four seat) would open soon as they just paid and if they would be OK to wait. They were and I was given that 2 seat table on the spot. Dining solo has it advantages!

Upon getting the menu, I ran into that problem of what to order in a Vietnamese restaurant. On one side, you have pho and then there are rice dishes, banh mi and so on. When the owner/manager (the rest of the waiting staff was dressed in uniform-like shirts) noticed my hesitation, offered to provide suggestions, starting if I wanted a rice based dish or a noodles based dish. While I answered his question, his answer was, well, too generic: “this is good, this other is good” and so on. At that point, I told him I will have to think about it… Eventually I did and started ordering… And ordering… And ordering. Yes, I ordered three dishes (two appetizers and one main). When the waitress heard me about the third appetizer, she stopped and said “that will be a lot of food”. Well, it seem she didn’t watch Up in the Air! Eventually, my food started to arrive, starting with… (BTW, I apologize for the pictures, lightning conditions were really wacky – some sunlight, darkness and artificial, almost incandescent, yellow lightning).

Chao tom – shrimp on sugarcane. I ordered this because it was on the walls listed as a “special”. Alas, it sounded better than it ended up being. While I was expecting the shrimp to be in a semi-paste form, it lacked a bit of snap. OK, let me formulate: shrimp has a unique “snap” when bite into it whole. If you mince it, it is possible that snap will still be there. However, if you use something like a food processor, you overwork it and, as a result, that snap will be gone. Now, I am not sure if Vietnamese cuisine would follow this Chinese cooking-type principle; however, because it was expecting that, I found it was disappointing. Now, if I took that aside for a moment, I thought the shrimp was a bit bland, even with the fish sauce it was served with. As for the sugarcane, I wished it was juicier and cut thinner. Having it that thick was problematic for me to chew – I ended up tearing them into pieces before chewing them. I would skip this next time…

Just for kicks, I ordered wings. What I did NOT expect was the amount of food it came out. I guess, once again, I underestimated how much food restaurants in the US serve… Originally, I was expecting only chicken wings, not with some peppers on top (oh, the jalapeño wasn’t even spicy). As for the wings itself, well…. Despite it had some fried garlic on top, I was totally disappointed. This ain’t wings similar to that of Phnom Penh… If I had to draw some sort of comparison, that would be House of Wings or Wings Pub & Grill. For the most part, it was plain and I had to use some of the dipping sauces to try to “kick it up a notch”. It was a fail…

In the end, I went for noodles. Now, I could gone for a regular pho but, c’mon, what’s the excitement behind it! Instead, they had several interesting variations, like escargot noodle soup, tomato shrimp patty noodle soup, anchovery (sic) noodle soup, one that includes blood cake and the one that I eventually ended up ordering: duck noodle soup. The soup was akin to pho ga, i.e., chicken pho, where the broth was quite light. However, it had one thing that improve things: fried onions/shallot. It provided an additional dimension to it. The (rice) noodles were of the really thin variety and were OK, not much to comment about. The shredded pieces of duck meat was actually, well, duck… Now, that is not the whole dish yet…

Yup, there is a salad of sorts going along with the bowl of noodles/soup. Here, there was more pieces of duck and the fried onion/shallot. Going back to the pieces of duck, they were slightly overdone but, still, enjoyable. After dunking it in the soup and let it soak for a moment before eating it was a key to go around that overdone-ness of the meat. Now, not Peking duck but, still, good duck.

So, was it worth it in the end? The answer will be ambiguous. The bowl of noodles was quite good; however, the rest was average at best, specially compared to the offerings in Vancouver. As a result of this ambiguity, I don’t feel that urge to return – if not for one dish… Bò 7 món! Yup, I tried ordering it but they stopped me, hehehe. But, once again, given that we have that as well, here in Vancouver…

Pho Hoa
Several locations in the US and Canada
5505 Kingsway (location visited)
Burnaby, BC

Last week, on my Thursday post, I made reference to a post I had to reshuffle because it would have made that week too focused in one area of Metro Vancouver. One of the posts I had to do so is that of Pho Hoa, a restaurant in… Well, several places over Vancouver! While they do have several locations, I went to the one in Burnaby. That, of course, brings the question: why go to Pho Hoa? Well, the reason is similar to why I have been going to several restaurants in Kingsway in the Burnaby side: because of several errands and what not, I have been spending a lot of time in the area which translates into eating in places nearby. Hmmmm… Why suddenly I start to sound like Sherman???

One seemingly unique feature of this restaurant is the fact they are open 24 hours… Or that is their claim. In its own interesting ways, it is a good and bad thing: If you are going for pho it means their broth is being prepared round clock; however, at certain times of the day, I wonder about the “quality” of the food. The day I went, it was around 9:00 p.m. so, in a way, it shouldn’t be that bad.

Interestingly, the restaurant was half packed which, again, in its own ways, is a good thing. More people, more turn around. However, as soon as I sat down, the restaurant started to empty. OK… Feel free to blame me!

Now, to the food. One “good” feature in their menu is how it is laid out for pho first timers. It breaks it down into how “adventurous” you are in their offerings. It has a combination of good and bad, though. Some options look way too similar – which is not helped because they do not keep a consistency in the order of how the meats are listed. Anyway, a regular bowl won’t do so, instead, I went for their “adventurous” options, which ended up being…

#44, noodle soup with brisket, flank, tendon, tripe, and fatty flank. Well, it is pretty much almost everything but the kitchen sink! An oddity was that, rather than a wedge of lime, it was a wedge of lemon – something that was experienced as well by shokutsu when he/she visited a Pho Hoa location in Seattle.

If I had to describe this bowl of pho in one word, that word would be average. There wasn’t anything wrong but there wasn’t anything that stood out. The tendon was just a slab of tendon, while the tripe was, well, the same you would get in places like dim sum or something on those lines. The beef was rare and that was about it. And the broth… Well, I expected some more given what I mentioned above about the operation running 24 hours.

Normally, along with the pho, I would have gone with a spring roll; however, this time, I wanted meat. So I ordered a side of chicken wings. In what seems to be something I have repeated myself a lot of times already in this post, there wasn’t anything spectacular about these. OK, it was nicely fried and still had some juiciness in it but, that aside, there wasn’t much. Not even that marinara-like dipping sauce. However, a squeeze of the lemon wedge gave it a good different twist so, from that perspective, it was good.

Hmmmm…. Should I repeat myself? OK, let’s try again. There is nothing wrong with Pho Hoa in the grand scheme of thing; however, because there wasn’t anything outstanding, it makes you wonder if, out of all places, this is the one you should go to. Well, if the 24 hours claim is true, if you are looking for something at 3:00 a.m., I guess that should do it. As for me, I am seldom awake at that time of the day and I am aware of other options…