ottawa foodies

This vermicelli bowl looks good but was underwhelming. Way too many bean sprouts, bland spring rolls, thin bland beef. Stick with the beef pho!

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.