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.

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Tagged as:
Pho,
Vancouver,
Vietnamese
Kim Chau Deli
1327 Kingsway
Vancouver, BC

Thu Hien Deli
1388 Kingsway
Vancouver, BC

After I came back from Edmonton, I wrote their Vietnamese offerings are way better than ones here. In the case of banh mi, while there, I visited and Van Loc and Nhon Hoa (my post here). But now that I am back in Vancouver, I have to live with what we have and back in the search for similar good eats it was. That brought me to that corridor in Kingsway between Frasier Street and Knight Street where you have a huge concentration of Vietnamese shops. And there is Kim Chau Deli, one that lately has been regarded as the place with the best banh mi. And, for good measure (and different eats), I went to Thu Hien Deli, too.


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Tagged as:
Sandwich,
Vancouver,
Vietnamese
Nhon Hoa
10622 97 Street Northwest (location visited)
10154 82 Ave Northwest
Edmonton, AB

Van Loc
10648 98 Street Northwest
Edmonton, AB

Paris Bakery
1403 Commercial Drive
Vancouver, BC

This is my third post on Vietnamese restaurants in Edmonton. As mentioned in my previous posts on Tau Bay and Pagolac, there is a large Vietnamese community, to the point that, Chinatown might look more on the line of Viet Nam Town! This time, I am falling back into yet another of their stereotypical dishes (from our perspective, that is): banh mi. See, when Stimulant Junkie was in Vancouver, “for fun”, we did an impromptu taste test from several banh mi shops in town – which I will briefly go through further down in this post. During my trip to Edmonton, it was really difficult to notice how many places they had, so it was almost natural I should try banh mi here as well to see how it compares to the ones in Vancouver. And, after checking around, it narrowed down to two places: Nhon Hoa and Van Loc.


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Tagged as:
Edmonton,
Sandwich,
Vietnamese
Pagolac
9642 54 Avenue NW
10566 97 Street NW (Location visited)
Edmonton, AB

Another Vietnamese restaurant post of Edmonton? Well, in a way I couldn’t help it. Their Chinatown seems to be more on the lines of Viet Nam Town! So, why not try another restaurant? In this case, I went for dinner for a Vietnamese style set menu: Bo 7 Mon or “beef seven styles”. This isn’t the first time I have encountered this set menu: Previously, I had it in Thai Hang along with fellow bloggers Karl and Sherman. However, with so many Vietnamese restaurants here, I couldn’t help myself try this one as well.

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Tagged as:
Edmonton,
Vietnamese
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.

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Tagged as:
Burnaby,
Pho,
Vietnamese
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!

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Tagged as:
Burnaby,
Pho,
Vietnamese
Saigon Sandwich Shop
560 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA

Once Sherman and I were back from Hamburgers in Sausalito, we took a detour to visit one of the places where FoodBuzz Food Bloggers Festival was taking place. However, while there was a bit of chaos, at least it wasn’t the gong show you would see in open public events like Eat Vancouver! Even then, we were only there to make a token appearance and we left short after. Why the hurry? Well, in a quid pro quo, I agreed to go with Sherman to a banh mi shop in, out of all places in San Francisco, in the Tenderloin area. Considering going to such places does no faze me, hey, why not! The place’s name? Saigon Sandwich Shop.

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Tagged as:
San Francisco,
Sandwich,
Vietnamese