ottawa foodies

First visit to this place with new ownership (formerly Pho TJ ), the decor is the same and the service is still nice.

The menu here is straightforward: you choose a dish and then choose the options. I went with Hủ Tiếu (chicken broth noodle soup) with BBQ pork and won ton dumplings. Everything was of good quality and the broth was excellent!

The lunch special for $11.95 included a vegetable spring roll and a bowl of "hu tieu" with chicken and shrimp. The spring roll was good enough and the soup had a thinly flavoured but enjoyable broth with too-soft rice noodles and a garnish of julienned celery. :-(

The stars of the soup were the nicely browned slices of chicken. Tender and tasty!

It was a perfectly sufficient lunch, except I know just how much better (i.e. tastier, richer, larger, and loaded with lovely garnishes) this soup can be out in the suburbs! Or even in Chinatown...

That said, it was still much better than the "chicken noodle soup" I had at the restaurant named after Ho Chi Minh City's historic name a few doors down. (That one was so disappointing that I didn't even post a review. Part of the problem was that the menu had no Vietnamese on it, so I had to guess what the english names meant.)

We've visited this place a few times now and the quality is consistently very good. This Hủ Tiếu Thịt Bò Saté (Spicy Beef Noodle Soup) hit all the right notes.

Great food combined with a preferable street parking situation compared to Somerset makes this restaurant is an easy choice!

The Medium Satay Chicken Soup with Rice Noodle, Shrimp, BBQ Pork, and Tofu ($10) was surprisingly good by ByWard Market standards. While not as great as some of the best suburban Vietnamese restaurants, I'd put it on par with most of the places on Somerset. Nice option!

Off to a promising start at this fresh restaurant in the heart of Stittsville. I opted for a medium hủ tiếu (chicken broth soup with rice noodle) with shrimp and BBQ pork ($9.95).

This broth was exceptionally pure, with no noticeable MSG component and a light richness that spoke of quality base ingredients. The other components were great too, with four plump shrimp, tender slices of pork, and stalks of young bok choy lounging on a submerged bed of rice noodles.

I'm very much looking forward to exploring the rest of their menu. Will report back here!

Enjoyed this H.08 Hủ Tiếu Xá Xíu Tôm (BBQ pork and shrimp rice noodle soup) at the Kanata location with a Vietnamese friend who declared her bún riêu (also in the photo) to be "Okay." ;-)

The broths here are reliably good. The flavours are similar between the two restaurant locations, both of which are run by the same family.

The majority of Ottawa's best Vietnamese food is now available in the suburbs. Interesting development! Now if only we could get the same happening with Korean...

S4 on repeat! Such a tasty broth. This is my favourite comfort food. :-)

S4 once more! The owner was mentioning that he uses 3 times as many bones to make his broth as some other places do.

The S4. Shrimp, BBQ Pork, Tofu Satay with Rice Noodle is still delicious here, although the one I had today seemed to be missing any satay component. No worries... I added a little chili sauce halfway through to perk it up. Such a delicious lunch!

They've now added a fried shrimp cake to the Shrimp, BBQ Pork, Tofu Satay with Rice Noodle soup! Good news, although last time I had it there was no Tofu in there. Either a mistake or they ran out. No biggie.. it always tastes amazing.

On my second visit, I opted for the Shrimp, BBQ Pork, Tofu Satay with Rice Noodle soup. Oh wow, talk about tasty! This (Large for $9.50) was loaded up with 5 shrimp, 5 hunks of delicious fried tofu, and slabs of the most delicious BBQ pork I've ever had in a soup. This one was *better* than what I've had on Somerset. Nice work!

The quantity of shredded cabbage was enough to count as a vegetable component, rather than just a garnish as you usually see. The spice level was very low, but given that you can add chili oil or sriracha at the table this is probably a good choice.

I really, really hope to see this restaurant maintain its quality. So far, it's off to a great start.

My first visit saw me ordering the Mixed Seafood with Rice Noodle soup. It was chock full of seafood and contained a generous amount of noodles. It's all about the broth though, and this one was mild but delicious. It reminded me of the broth at Saigon Boy Noodle House and that's a good thing!

This was the Large and it filled me up well. Like the places on Somerset, they offer S, M, L, XL. Nice to see an XL bowl in the suburbs!

I think it's safe to say that Kanata Noodle House has already joined the ranks of Pho Thi and Ox Head as places that rival the established Phở joints in Chinatown.

FF: You weren't joking around. This soup instantly vaulted on my list of Chinatown faves along with:

Satay at Huongs
Spicy Tripe at Koreana
Special Pho at various joints around town
Corn and Crab at Jadeland
and...Wonton at Yangtse

My wife had the Hu Tieu Mi Gia, which is this restaurant's namesake. It was absolutely stellar. I'm still salivating over the taste I had and I can't wait to go back. It was certainly one of the best broths I've ever encountered. The menu describes the soup as Egg or Rice Noodle in Chicken Broth (Hu Tieu) with BBQ Pork, Ground Pork, Shrimp, Quail Egg, Fried Bread Stick.

The fried bread stick is a smaller version of the kind you get at congee restaurants, and it is served on a side plate.