ottawa foodies

My 30th visit here (estimated), but my first time ordering phở! This was 11. Phở Nạm Bò Viên (with brisket and meat ball). The broth is mild and approachable but still flavourful.

Generous meats and perfect rice noodles. The accompaniments here are all inclusive: bean sprouts, Thai (purple) basil, culantro (ngò gai), lime, and bird's eye (Thai) chilis. Tea and fortune cookies too!

Service is efficient and friendly. There are many reasons this place is bustling at lunchtime even on a Tuesday!

Another delicious lunch of phở bò (with rare beef, flank, beef balls)! Price has gone up to $10.99 for a medium.. which is still a bargain for a big bowl of delicious food served with generous herbs to garnish and a pot of complimentary tea. 🍜😍

FF, me and the other half were there last night! Our absolute go-to for phở, bar none.

The BF recommends the crab soup off their special menu. It's only a medium but it looks delicious.

He normally gets the P24 (Well done beef, beef flank, beef tendon and beef balls) while I get the vegetarian. Deeeelicious.

This was one of the richest phở broths I've encountered, although with less of a star anise flavour than normal. Good to the last drop! Excellent meatballs too.

Like the other offerings here, the phở proved to be well above average. I opted for the "everything" house special phở đặc biệt with rare beef, flank, tripe, and meatballs. Absolutely top notch!

The pho at Vietnam Palace is much like what you get at Ottawa's better pho joints, but with a slightly richer tasting broth. Be warned -- a large here ($7.50) is about the size of a medium elsewhere. Good thing they offer extra large. ;-)

On my last visit I was saddened to find that the pho is no longer on the menu.

I was impressed! Only two sizes (S+M) and the prices are about a buck more than other places ($7.95 and $8.95), but it's worth it. Wifey and I each had chicken-based broth soups, hers was a Seafood Medley Saté and mine was BBQ Pork with Shrimp. A most delicious broth -- better or equal to all the really good places on Somerset. Noodles are the nice wide thin ones, and meat is in sufficient quantity.

Unlike most pho houses, the little plate of bean sprouts, basil, chili, and lime is served as an individual portion -- each diner gets a separate one. Pretty classy.

I should also add that the shrimp are done exceptionally well here. Most times shrimp in pho are overcooked and rubbery. These ones were succulent, moist, and even had the tails removed!

Here is a picture of the rare beef pho after a few bites. There wasn't a lot more beef. They seem to only offer it in one size unless I misread the menu.

Our Sunday morning Aikido class goes here every week for brunch after class, though yesterday was my first day joining them. Overall a good experience with extremely fast service and excellent food.

I didn't even bother sifting through the menu - I just got the same as someone else - which was the 136 with chicken. I'm still not sure what it was - but it sure was yummy! And spicy! It's the first Pho I've had with a really thick broth, and really spicy. Just on my threshold for spicy, but fortunately not beyond my threshold.

I liked it so much I got another one to take home for my wife - who enjoyed it every bit as much as I did.

Generous serving for a decent price.

The photo is of my XL "Special B" -- satay chicken, BBQ pork, and tofu in chicken based broth. It was heavier (greasier? saltier?) than usual and no discernible spice level. The latter observation is strange for something promoted as "satay." No fear, I was able to squirt some sriracha in and make it okay. Quite a passable broth but I've had better at the other Pho Bo Ga places. Generous amount of meat and noodles in the XL.

Phnom Penh offers four noodle soups that are similar to pho. I tried the S11 Spicy Rice Noodle (Chicken, Meat Balls, Ground Pork, and Shrimps). Very nice indeed! Fairly tasty broth, good spice level, with a generous proportion of hearty noodles. Two shrimp, two or three slices of chicken, and a pile of meatballs kept things interesting.

I had the Pho (one size fits all), P7 Special Combo: Beef Rare, Well Done and Beef Balls.

Broth was good but very mild. Meat was fine. Noodles slightly overdone. It was a decent bowl of soup and I'd have it again, especially because this place is pretty close to my work.

Whoa baby! My medium 37. Chicken Sate Rice Noodle soup earned its chili pepper icon with flying colours. You can see the thin but angry-looking layer of chili oil floating in the bowl...

I can safely say that this is the spiciest Sate pho I've encountered, even slightly more spicy than the ones I've had at Pho Maxim. I couldn't really taste the broth as a result but enjoyed it very much all the same. The chicken was plentiful, tender, and in nice small pieces.

Wifey ordered a medium 35. Seafood Rice Noodle soup. It came with shrimp, fish balls, and fried fish slices. Her only complaint was that the noodle ratio was a bit high (some people prefer that though).

I tasted her broth and it was actually quite incredible. Not strong-flavoured at all but incredibly delicious in a very subtle way. We agreed that this was possibly the broth we'd had that was least likely to contain MSG. I'm eager to go back and try a bowl of this myself!

The Special A (spicy saté beef, bbq pork, and shrimp) was tasty, although not terribly spicy. As you can see in the photo, the meat portion was quite generous and the shrimp were large. I had the Large, which was a good size. Unlike many other places, this one offers an absolutely massive XL size! They have all their bowls lined up on a shelf so you can choose your size without guesswork.

They provide a decent pho at a good price. I'll be back!

This time the phở was definitely beef broth! And it was really tasty, if a bit on the sweet side of normal. I'm quite thrilled to have a source of decent phở in the ByWard Market now.

The Medium was $11.50, so prices have jumped 15% since last year but the quality has jumped even more so I'm okay with this. :)

This place continues to be a bit of an enigma. The Seafood Phở ($12.95) is a strange beast having very little in common with beef phở. I'd describe the broth as a sweet version of what you'd find in hoanh thanh (aka won ton) soup. Unlike with beef phở there was no side plate of veggies; rather, the scant vegetables were included in the bowl. Rice noodles were in good supply.

The seafood and the broth were both too sugary for my taste. Next time I'll be back to the beef phở!

The Large Phở ($12) was quite wonderful, with a flavourful broth, good noodles, and a pretty generous quantity of meat. The herb and bean sprout garnish was in good supply too (something I've found lacking elsewhere in the ByWard Market).

The Large here is barely the size of a Medium on Somerset or in Kanata, so you probably won't want the Regular size soup unless you're a very light eater (or are having another dish!).

I've been here twice now and have decreed it to be the best Vietnamese restaurant in the ByWard Market. 😛

The pho with grilled beef is positively droolworthy! Top notch flavourful delicate broth and tasty bits of grilled lemongrass marinated beef.

I'm very happy when I have an excuse to come here for lunch!!

Not too often do I write up a negative review.

I've had Phở at approx 12 places throughout Ottawa over the years.

Too bad I found the Phở at the very new Pho Dragon thin, and UN-rich. Lacking in any depth of flavour. Nice amount of beefy oil floating on top. The meat, quail egg, noodles and accompanying bean sprouts and basil were OK.

But ... unfortunately the quality of a Phở hinges on the quality of the broth and I think Pho Dragon doesn't have it .... yet. I say yet with the hope that they strengthen their Phở over time.

Like their Phở, the service was not as smooth as I've seen at other Phở shops. I'm sure that will polish up with experience.

I chose the "everything" Pho. Knowing that upscale Vietnamese restaurants have small bowls, I opted for the Large. I believe this went for $12 and it was maybe what would pass as a Medium in most places.

While the overall portion was not generous, there was a lot of meat here. Thumbs up for that! The broth was relatively bland though; this restaurant could not survive as a Pho joint alone.

The medium phở was not as large as at other places, but the price ($9) was quite reasonable for this category of restaurant. You can choose any 2 meats from a list of ~7. The broth was decent but not exceptional. The meats were nice and in good supply--tender rare beef, and pleasantly oblong beef balls. The beansprout/herb offering was disappointingly small. Scant sprouts, no culantro, and *just* enough basil, a small piece of lime, and no chili pepper.

Hoisin and sriracha sauces were brought in nice clean squeeze bottles but without a condiment bowl. Expecting customers to squirt sauces into their soup suggests an acknowledgement of inferior broth quality. Good broth needs no saucy accoutrements -- I like to put some sriracha sauce into a bowl and dip pieces of meat into it. ref: this recent and timely post: www.facebook.com

My take-out order was the #107 Rice Noodle Soup with Shrimp Pancake, BBQ Pork, Imitation Crab, Fish Balls, Squid, and Bean Sprout.

It came packaged in two tall styrofoam bowls: one for the tasty garlicky-scalliony broth, and the other for the bean sprouts, noodles, meats, and garnishes. The shrimp pancake came in a separate little paper sachet, much the way an egg roll might.

This soup was good, especially considering this is Bells Corners not Chinatown. The meat portions were super generous: 2 shrimp, 2 squid, 2 fish balls (one orange, one white, both cut in half), some pork-fat lardons, 6 or 7 pieces of BBQ pork, and of course the shrimp cake!

At $8 minus 10%, this brought a smile to my face.

I enjoyed my medium Pho Tai Bo Vien a lot. Nice light broth with a generous amount of meat, noodle, and garnish.

The food seems better than when this was Koi Asia. And the menu is focused on Vietnamese rather than trying to be pan-Asian. Prices are reasonable.

I'd describe this place as Somerset value in Bells Corners!

I couldn't decide if I wanted shrimp, BBQ pork, beef, or seafood in my satay chicken soup with rice noodle so I had the Combination that has everything! :-)

This was a very nice soup. It was the sweetest broth I've encountered in Ottawa, which may or may not be to your taste. The spice level was perfect for me -- exciting without overpowering the flavour of the broth.

This place has a young, somewhat non-traditional vibe. I like that, especially if the food is good. I'll be back to try other menu items sometime!

Pho dac biet is what I order at pretty much every pho place. Pho'licious' version of the pho dac biet had the following: beef balls, rare slices of beef, slices of beef with fat, tripe and a quail egg.

Unfortunately, there was no tendon which is the norm at other places but the quality of the beef and the quail egg (which was a surprise as I usually don't find quail egg at the pho places I go to) definitely made up for the lack of tendon. The tripe and rare slices of beef were fairly ordinary but there was a large quantity of it in the broth. But it was those slices of fatty beef that had me really salivating. The cuts of beef was thin and long and were wonderfully tender. If I remembered correctly, there were only a couple slices.

The broth was surprising. To me, the flavour was light and definitely not as oily and salty as other places. Oh and the large bowl is larger than the size of my head and priced at $8.99. Not too expensive but not what I would consider cheap either. Overall, it was a damned good bowl of pho.

The Pho was good. Unfortunately, we were here on October 5th and I only now pulled the photo off my phone, so I've forgotten the finer details of the experience.

Lots of seating here and certainly worth visiting if you happen to be in Barrhaven. Especially after dropping your kids off at a birthday party around the corner! ;-)

The inside of this restaurant is clean and neat and is not like those in Chinatown. Every one ordered Phở Tai (we had the one with beef and meat balls, #262 on the menu, see photo). The taste was not bad. But my friend told me their Phở is still next to New Mee Fung. Anyway, it is good to have a good quality Vietnamese restaurant in Barrhaven. Hurrah! Cheap dinner tonight, around $14 per person. Better than pizza or McDonald.

Pho Bo Ga 2 is fast, that's for sure. Stopped in for a take-out lunch of medium Pho w/ rare and well-done beef. From ordering to leaving with food in hand, it was probably only five minutes.

Even a medium Pho was more than enough for lunch, and they're very generous with the meat. I did think that the broth was a bit on the salty side though.

If you're going to get Pho as take-out, you better have a big bowl at the home/office, because even the small will dwarf most bowls.

This is my favourite place to get Pho. The broth is flavourful and their sate specials are even better! Cheap, friendly and portion sizes are large!

4 x 650ml containers for just under 10 bucks for takeout is pretty hard to argue with. That makes 2 extremely generous meals for an adult. Not sure how they manage to make it so cheap but keep up the good work!

I had this "Chicken Noodle Soup." It's the first time I've seen chicken in the beef (Pho Bo) type of broth, and it worked quite well. Not quite the depth of flavour you find on Somerset, but not bad.

My complaint is that the ratio of noodles to soup was too high. They offer one size of soup and then have a note saying you can upgrade to a Large for a buck. I opted for this Large version but now wonder if this meant they use the same bowl size and just increase the noodles!?

If I were staggering around drunk on Elgin craving some pho, I'd happily come here again. I won't drive across town for it though.

Special A (Large, $9.95) again. It's interesting to see how it has changed over the years. As you can see, the broth does not have a strong satay/spicy component, and broccoli seems to have replaced the cabbage and tomato. The broth is subtle and mild, but very nice. I'd say this is now a completely different soup from the Special A of years gone by! Not necessarily worse, just different.

I was in the mood for veggies so the broccoli was perfect. And after I added all the beansprouts, culantro, and basil, I had a veritable veg stew of deliciousness!

The Special A is still very good five years later. The price has gone up a little (as it should) and the broth is a little less flavourful, but the magic is still there.

Reading the other comments, it seems that others have noticed a less flavourful broth. Too bad, as I consider the broth to be the most important component of Pho by a long shot!

Here is the fabled "Special A" (large). Satay style soup with beef, shrimp, and BBQ pork. Lightly spicy, and graced with slices of tomato and shredded Nappa-style cabbage.

First time visit, very disappointed.

We went on a Saturday evening for take out. There were only about 5 tables of customers. All of which were eating, finished eating with their dishes left on their tables, or paying their bills. It took over 25 minutes for the order to be prepared, and during that time, they informed us that there wasn't any chicken left and so we had to change our order.

When we brought the food home less than 5 minutes later, I opened my package and was sadly disappointed at the tiny portion of food offered. I ordered the rice paper roll ups, which usually at other Pho places come with several rice wraps for rolling, I was given ONE small ripped piece that was laying at the bottom of the sparse noodles and dry meat that I unable to distinguish between pork or beef.

That and the noodle soup were extremely bland. I constantly added more Hoisin sauce and hot sauce in hopes that I would be able to taste anything, still in disbelief that I was only provided the one rice paper roll. The spring rolls were the only redeeming factor.

I'm very surprised in this booming Pho market one place could possibly expect to provide such poor turn around and bland food and expect to survive amongst the competition. I will never go there again.

My recommendation is take the extra few minutes and find another place for some Vietnamese cuisine.

My son enjoyed his beef ball phở, but my wife wasn't really thrilled with her seafood rice noodle soup (pictured). I tried a bit of each, and also my daughter's huan thanh (won ton) soup, and I reached the conclusion that the soups aren't the strong point of the menu. They're okay (and certainly much better than I've had recently in the ByWard Market) but they're nowhere near the richly flavoured stocks I've enjoyed in Nepean and Kanata. Temper your expectations and you might be pleased anyway!

I ate here with a few colleagues after work today. Ordered a large beef ball - I liked the broth although it tasted a tad heavy on MSG/salt. Chock full of green onion and beef ball though. Also looks like they do asian karaoke if you're into that sort of thing.

Just ate lunch here. This place is great! Lots of menu items including soups with beef or chicken broth. This is the Chicken and Shrimp Sate Rice Noodle which I recommend. I am coming back here!

I had the H01 - Chicken broth rice noodle with beef and shrimp satay. It was definitely tasty, with more fried onions and sesame flavour than other places. Spice level was low-moderate, just pleasant.

The Pho Bo (beef) comes in 3 sizes, but the others (including mine) have just one size. I would be happier if I had a choice of sizes (the single-size bowl looks like a medium).

HC1. Mixed Seafood Satay with Rice Noodle Soup - good as always, this is probably your best soup choice here.

The Rare Beef and Beef Meatball pho was okay. Not the tastiest broth I've had but good enough! This was a Large, and while more like a Chinatown Medium, it contained a decent amount of meat and was nicely priced at $7.95.

Definitely going back to the Bò Kho next time!!

beef pho @ ox head. if you like it vanilla style, this is the safe bet. YAWN. be GGG and go for the bo kho!

As you can see, this spicy seafood soup is chock full of seafood! The shrimp were some of the nicest and freshest I've encountered in a Vietnamese soup. On the other hand, the broth was just okay, lacking the depth of flavour found at the really good places.

I ordered #2 (cooked beef pho, medium size) for lunch. Their clear broth is pretty good (only small amount of MSG used)! Good place to go for Phở. Also got my vote.

Gets my vote!! Amazing broth :).

Like Pho Bo Ga LA (Pho Bo Ga LA), they also serve a shrimp cracker with their satay-style soup. The shrimp and chicken satay soup (S3), was decent. Broth is sometimes awesome here but was just okay today.

Unlike the other "Pho Bo Ga" restaurants, this one offers a full menu of non-soup dishes.

The non-beef options (P7 - chicken, and P8 - seafood) actually come with non-beef broth, even though the menu suggests otherwise.

The broth was just okay -- not something to make a special trip here for.

Had the seafood noodle soup for lunch today. It was pretty good, TONS of veggies which I like. Shrimp, a shrimp ball???(not too sure what it was, but it was good) and fake crab meat. Broth was okay but I liked it.

I ate a plate of Bratwurst and Rösti at Richtree, then in a sudden wave of virtuosity tried the vegetarian Vietnamese soup. It was pretty good, and full of the veggies I was craving. The meat ones are probably a little more tasty though.

Best Pho soup stock in town....

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

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.

I explored the food at this place last night as I was shopping down Merivale- really good assortment of shoes at Winners right now BTW.

Decor looks like reminants of previous tennant. Not a mish mash of stuff like most asian restaurants but definately has an impersonal feel.

Staff were pleasant, although I did get only takeout. Seems to be your typical family run restaurant with two teenage brothers running the front of the house.

Food was a bit of a let down. My summer rolls were supposed to be a combination of shrimp and pork. I almost couldn't detect any pork but, after some minor dissection, I did find a scant amount. The rolls were flavourless although very fresh. They were served with a peanut sauce that was unusually sweet and almost of a jam-like consistancy. Peanut sauce at New Mee Fung blows this one away.

Spring rolls were well, spring rolls. Nothing to write home about.

I have a thing for calamari or squid so I will usually order it. This version was battered, like the pancake style, puffy batter that they use on chicken balls... definately a miss and so was the bizzare jam like plum sauce that was served with it.

The best dish of my order was Bun with grilled shrimp on sugar cane, meatballs and grilled pork. This was one of the better versions that I have had. Nicely garnished with chopped peanuts.

If out that way again and craving asian cuisine, I'd probably go to Sea King Sharkfin Restaurant for Chinese food.

The the broth is somewhat lackluster compared to pho houses in Chinatown, and the price is a little steeper. Still - overall a good soup (I usually stick with beef ball)

The seafood pho didn't have a very tasty broth and had proportionally too much noodle. Stick with the spicy ones!

The satay soups are marked "spicy" and, unlike most pho places, they actually are. Tiny fragments of dried chili peppers float in your bowl. Most yummy.

The pho was very similar to the one I've had at Pho Thi on Merivale (good!), with maybe a little more depth to the broth. I had the chicken broth soup with chicken and shrimp. Accompaniments were as usual.

They only have two sizes here -- small and medium. Sucks for me because I like to have a large.

Boyfriend and I were looking for good pho around Chinatown. My friend had recommended "Pho Thu Do", and since they're also Vietnamese, I decided to check it out.

The pho was decent. Just decent. It doesn't compare to pho I've had back home; the broth was missing something (maybe coriander?) and there wasn't enough meat and too much noodle. It was okay for the pho craving, and a good value.

We both ordered the pho with beef balls and tripe.

I concur with Fresh Foodie.. the broth, and the Pho are top notch here, if the selection is a little limited. I don't mind the 'spring rolls', but that is not saying they are good, but rather just part of the experience that I have fond memories for at this place. I used to go here once a week... hmm.. wait a minute.. it's been a while since I've been... I think I'll have to start going again. Anyone up for lunchtime, Chinatown Pho?

We tried this place after reading rave reviews on the restaurantthing site. I have to mention that they have just one kind of broth -- the standard "Pho Bo" beef one. (At other restaurants, we normally prefer the pork and chicken broth with seafood or bbq pork.) They offer just one broth but they do that broth very well! The rice noodles are nice and narrow. Small is pretty small. The one in the photo is a large.

I stopped in for a bowl of Northern Style Chicken Pho ($8) and it was pretty good. The broth was salty and very mild, made delicious by a generous garnish of chopped scallion. The rice noodles were a bit chewy, unlike anything I've ever had in other restaurants, and more like when I've made them at home and not soaked them long enough. The fried bread stick (which I normally love) tasted a bit stale or rancid, like most of the pre-made ones I've bought at grocery stores.

The chicken meat was good and the savoury broth made this a tasty light supper. At 8 bucks for a bowl, there isn't really anything to complain about. If I lived nearby, I'd likely visit often.

When I arrived around 5:30pm, I was told that only the lunch menu was available. The atmosphere of this tiny place feels more like a university hangout than a restaurant. And whether that's a good or a bad thing is entirely up to you!

I have a feeling you are speaking about Canh Chua, which literally translates into "Sour Soup" because of the pineapple.
But usually made with a fish broth, with fish chunks obviously! :)

My mom likes to eat it with vermicelli noodles.
But I have never heard made with chicken broth.

Of all the Pho places in Ottawa that I have visited (I've tried most of the Pho joints in and around China Town) this place sticks out to me. The atmosphere is homey and the owners of this place seem to really care about food and the happiness of their customers. I won't get into all the dishes because I want to stick to my soup subject, so lets get to it!

This place offers a REALLY UNIQUE chicken soup. I guess I can still classify it as a PHO but its REALLY different. These are the ingredients: Chicken, a couple of cubed tomatoes, noodles and a few slices of celery....the special ingredient is PINEAPPLE. This soup is AMAZING. It's really light and it has a tang that opens up your whole palette. There are a few peices of actual pineapple in the soup, but you can taste it in the broth mostly.

The prices at this place are pretty well the same as any Pho joint - a large bowl of this mouth watering pineapple soup runs you about $8.00.

I recommend it!!

I can similarly vouch for the Chicken & Shrimp Satay...yes, it's only available in a medium, but that's the perfect size for a filling lunch. The takeout version is equally full of ingredients, with a full 6 shrimp making an appearance (though, less chicken than usual.)

I find the broth is also much more flavourful than the standard one.

Spicy (Satay) Chicken and Shrimp Pho Ga with rice noodle

Extremely tasty, with a richer flavour than one might usually find. I agree with Pej that the one-size-fits-all medium appears a little skimpy at first glance. However, I found that after eating it all I was quite satisfied (I also had a couple spring rolls). Presumably this Satay version of Pho is a little more filling due to its higher oil content.

Ingredients were generous (5 good sized shrimp) and of excellent quality. The slices of chicken were tender with no gristly bits. Thumbs up!

spicy seafood pho @ pho van van on holland ave. one of the cleaner pho places in ottawa. i have this regularly and they only have this in medium; however i keep bugging them that i'd pay for an upgrade to large and they happily did. perfect for the upcoming ottawa winters. recommended nutrition and perhaps cures hypothermia, colds, flu, h1n1, or your crave for livin' la vida mondo pho loca in an asian invasion kinda way.

karey, the narrow green leaf is a type of coriander: en.wikipedia.org
The flavour is like coriander, only milder.

Thanks for mentioning the delivery option -- I'll add the tag!

[EDIT: As of September 2010, I've been informed that they do not offer delivery. Tag removed.]

Very nice pho, fabulous beef and broth, very fresh side garnishes...small is $5.50, medium is $6.50. large is $7.50 no matter which type you order. Medium is enough for two; I'd love to see how big the large is, but I haven't had the guts to order it. Medium is almost 2 litres of soup. I love the rare beef (101 on the menu, I believe). Bun is also very good at this place, especially anything with BBQ beef (well balanced yummy fish sauce mix served on the side). Salad rolls are definitely not the best I've had...quite bland, too much mint, seemed like the rice paper was very tough and hard to chew...maybe they had been refrigerated? But a very nice peanut sauce.

Service is very good even when it's packed at lunch with office workers from nearby Tunney's. Slight language barrier, but they had no problem understanding that my BF has a shrimp allergy and were quite ready to make any necessary subs..

Apparently they do delivery, I will be trying it on the next ridiculously cold, snowy night.

A question for those with more Pho experience than I; the garnish plate that accompanies the soup has Thai basil, mung bean sprouts, a lime wedge, and one unidentifiable narrow, pointed green leaf. What is this green leaf, what does it taste like, and what do I do with it (seems too tough to throw into the soup and eat like the basil)?

I chose P01 Pho - rare beef today.
It was very tasteful as usual, but it was extremely filling - as if loaded with MSG.
I finished my meal 2 hours ago and still feel somewhat overstuffed.
It was a medium and I started with 1 spring roll (shared order of 2 with bf).

There weren’t really ever (and still aren’t) many good places to eat in the West End of Ottawa. The good restaurants seem to be concentrated everywhere else…

…Except for this little find (as well as a shortlist of a few other spots). It’s a fairly new place on Merivale that stands out in the likes of my taste buds. In my opinion this place actually competes in flavor, portion sizes and …pause…service, of course! LOL

Contrary to the name, this spot doesn’t just serve Pho…which I can really respect! There’s nothing worse than going somewhere where you only have one choice.

This place serves rice dishes, main entrees (stir fry), vermicelli, pho, interesting appetizers, bubble tea and dessert. Overall, the ingredients are fresh and flavorful, the service is PHENOMENALLY fast and the price is really close to Chinatown prices.

Honestly, one of my favorite things about this place (aside from the great food) was the fact that I felt more trust for it than I do for most of the spots I’ve been to in Chinatown. (eeek, sorry if that offends some people, but it’s just how I feel).

Bonne Appétit!

Pho Thi gets my thumbs up and two lip smacks! Go try it!

Just had take out lunch, I ordered the P04 beef rare and well done. It was very good, broth was very flavourful. Take out is always really quick. Great lunch in -25 weather!

Here's a medium H09 chicken broth soup (BBQ Pork with Rice Noodle and Egg Noodle). Most yummy!

Like I've mentioned before, the beef pho is the thing to get at this restaurant. The chicken broth based soups are on the bland side and the vermicelli bowls are substandard. Some people like the pad thai too.

I've heard the veggie spring rolls are excellent even though the regular (meat) ones are not.

OMG looks like I've been hit by the 'sideways picture' bug! Maybe I'll finally have to troubleshoot this. ;-)

Sorry to say that the worst experience out of any restaurant I have been to happened at this restaurant. The noodle dish with meat was inedible - one big lump of sticky noodle with very questionable toppings. When I asked for something else they aregued that this is the way the food is supposed to be. Well, I have been almost every soup place in Ottawa and many in Montreal and Toronto and I know this is not true. They say that they will not replace the meal with something else, that I must pay for the horrible lump of food! I was floored by this lack of service - it was truly awful to have to explain something so basic. On the bright side the soup was edible - not much stuff in it though and the broth was bland. Service seemed quick enough and the restaurant seemed clean and bright too. I am soooo dissapointed because I live near this place and would have loved to have it as a regular haunt. Too bad the service was so horrible. For good food check out Mr. Pho in Bells Corners - it is well worth the drive.

I had heard good reviews of this place on other sites and have wanted to check it out for a long time. So i finally did last week.
I must say I was somewhat disappointed with the pho at this restaurant. There was nothing wrong with it per se. But it was not what I would expect from a place that features phew in the name.
The broth tasted like it came from a package. The meats we somewhat overcooked and the noodles were all stuck together in a lump.
All in all it was mediocre - kind of what I might expect to get in a food court or something.

I've now tried both kinds of broth here and am of the view that the beef one tastes superior to the chicken/pork. I normally choose the chicken/pork based soups at pho restaurants but I will make an exception for Pho Moonlight.

We received our soups about 3 minutes after ordering them. The Large here is a little smaller than you'd find on Somerset and there is no Extra Large. Still, it's a nice big bowl of soup and they will see more of me since it isn't too far from work.

That's a great idea, Ashley! Since I know bean sprouts are especially prone to carrying foodborne illness I usually just ignore them and don't use them in my pho. Asking for them cooked is a good plan -- I'll be sure to do that when restaurants don't seem too busy!

This is the bean sprout for the Phở. I asked the server to "blanch" the bean sprout for us. (You know, with E. coli found in spinach, I am more careful for uncooked vegetable and I don't know if restaurants wash the vegetable thoroughly.) The server didn't understand the word "blanch". So, he asked the kitchen to "steam" the bean sprouts. That works for me.

After my son's piano recital (grade 9 piano now), I asked my son where he wanted to go for dinner (anywhere except MacDonald and Pizza). He told me that he didn't want to take too much time to eat since he needed to go home to play his computer game. Well. I don't want to drive to downtown either. So, I decided to try "Pho Moonlight" for Phở.

This is our first time here. The place is clean (not like downtown's Phở places). Only 6 customers (including 2 of us) there on Saturday night.

My son ordered large size Phở Gà (#111 of the menu) which is rice noodle soup with chicken ($7.95). I ordered medium size Phở Nạm (#108) which is rice noodle soup with beef flank ($6.95). Within 15 minutes, we got the Phở (see photo). They arrived steaming hot and we put the bean sprouts to the bowl. It is good to have hot noodles to soothe the stomach in the winter time.

I don't see too much difference between the Medium bowl and Large bowl. Besides, I don't see too much meat inside the bowl either.

The taste of the Phở is okay. But compared to the Phở places in downtown, this place is still missing something. I don't know what it is. But if I don't need to drive and the weather permits, I would prefer to go to downtown to eat Phở. Anyway, it is a convenient place in the winter for Kanata residents.

Service was friendly.

P.S. When we left, my son told me in the car that Chinese food tastes better.

I lived in Asia for 12 years and have had excellent Vietnamese food across Canada as well. The food at Bien Pho is definitely not classic Vietnamese -- it's an odd foreigners' version. We had a vermicelli bowl with "grilled pork" that wasn't really grilled and spring rolls that were more Thai style than Vietnamese. It was pretty "meh". I assume it was the Lebanese owner who served us. He was pleasant enough but I had to go to the back to find him and ask for water, additional fish sauce, etc. My friend and I were truly disappointed with the place.