Ottawa Foodies

It's a Vietnamese place that gives decent options beyond merely Pho. They also don't automatically toss cilantro on everything which is a plus in my books (as I am one of those who can't digest Cilantro and find it tasting like soap).

I like the place. The portion sizes are also sensible.

I love it! The service is awesome! The prices are nice and cheap! I love how they give you the food and leave you to eat it. My biggest restaurant pet peeve is when the waiter keeps coming back and asking "is everything ok?" Ugh! Just let me eat! And this place lets you eat :)

It's always crowded, I've gone there at supper time, I've gone there at 3am and it was crowded both times! It's ok though, we never have to wait too long.

Their soup is awesome! It comes with lots of veggies that you can add to your soup, and all the condiments that you need are on the table. It's very tasty too! I usually get the beef soup or the shrimp wonton.

The shrimp spring rolls are pretty good, a little small but still very tasty.

The tea is free and unlimited and their dessert is out of this world!

I totally recommend this place to anyone and everyone. Pho Bo Ga La! I love thee.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first time. Great food - reasonably priced. Delish.

This is my favorite Vietnamese Soup place in Ottawa. The portions are tasty and generously sized. The service is friendly, but the restaurant is very popular so sometime you have to wait. There is a downstairs, but I did not like it as much because it didn't have windows and had the humid feel of a basement to it. Eat upstairs and you will enjoy the experience.

New PBGLa with the blue sign and the brown wood Buddha is on the north side of Somerset….is in fact the PBGLa than MingD is talking about. There is also one on the south side of the street further west of Bronson with a blue sign… this is the ‘old’ PBGLa…and it’s been around a long time and I have never been too impressed by it. It has also gone through many reincarnations thru the last 20 years and I found the food wanting.

Was at the recommended Bun Bo Hue place on Somerset, Pho Bo Ga La to try out their Bun Bo ($10 for a bowl of medium, including tax/tip, for lunch). Somehow, I thought the write ups by MinhD were about a pork noodle soup, but this was beef. At least the ‘covering’ was beef tendons. The noodles were the best part…au dent. Great… (Au dent is in any language, the way to do noodles….) The soup was ok and the stuff on top is pretty well reproducible at home. (Family in Toronto have said that the viet soups, the secret, are better in Ottawa than Toronto. Must be project 2000….). Would I have it again there….no, but I tried it.

Are there any recommendations for beef stew with noodles? Forget the name in Vietnamese. I will try Pho Bo Ga La for that as well, but have not been able to find anything of the calibre of Pacific Village’s… now gone…mother retired; so have not been able to find it anywhere. Have tried a number of places on Somerset, but none really authentic… well I have never been to Vietnam, but from the viets I have spoken with, include the original owner of Mekong, Pacific Village’s was the best.

When Pac Village folded, I turned to New Mee Fong (at it’s new location, the old one on Somerset being too small….story there as well). Was a regular there for the longest time, enjoying their rice dishes, especially the one with steak. Until they raised the prices sometime late last year and early this year. Their noodle soup is average, but with the price increase…’next gen’ running it now, I think it’s overpriced. Mostly local civil servants going there for lunch... as with PhoBoGaLa… Always crowded and uneven service…. But then who eats viet food for service….? It’s like a Chinese greasy spoon…

Does anyone have a place that has really good Vietnamese rice dishes?

They graciously brought extra bowls so our kids could share a soup. Excellent place for kids if it isn't super busy and your children are little angels like mine. :-)

Is that Pho Bo Ga La (the one with the red Buddha in the entrance)?

If that's the one, then it has GREAT food.

Best tonkinoise since Montreal I had some in Montreal!!! So happy to have found this hidden gem for pho!

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I order the same thing every time I'm here because, well, I like that shrimp cracker! :-)

Lots of garlic, two kinds of noodle; this is full of yum.

I forget which one this was (could it be the same as the previous one I had?) but it was great! Again, with a shrimp cracker.

The only pho restaurant I've seen that offers a shrimp cracker in a satay-style soup! This is the Special 3 (S3), Large.

Very tasty overall, although the MSG levels are more noticeable here than in other places.

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I had their lemonade in the summer and it was fabulous! Tasted freshly squeezed and had the perfect ratio of sweet - sour.

When summer returns (summer, remember?) I recommend you give it a try.