Bowness Vietnamese Restaurant — Restaurant in Calgary

Came here for lunch a couple days in a row. Par or slightly below par atmosphere for stripmall type Viet. A little crowded with laminated signs for specials over the tables, newspapers, small tv for the owners to watch sitting on the bar/payment desk. First day I had the Sate beef soup and deep fried dumplings. The soup was unusual in that the broth had a milky appearance. It was heavily flavoured with peanut (more than I would like), very little chili flavour and the broth itself was not very flavourful. The noodles were nicely done and plentiful, the beef was very nicely done and flavourful. The side of sprouts etc was fresh and crisp. On the whole it was ok but I won't order it again on account of the lackluster broth. The deep fried dumplings were simply presented and they were of course delicious. Have you ever had a bad deep fried dumplings

Day two I had the BBQ short ribs on rice. They were nicely presented with the little semi-sphere of rice and a little simple salad of lettuce cucumber and tomato. The ribs were very nice. Sweet and salty, tender. Instead every scrap and made a passing attempt at the marrow. If I have a complaint it's only that the portion was a little small for me for lunch. Should have gotten some more deep fried dumplings.

The servers (prolly the owners) were a nice couple. He seems pretty proud of his wontons and asked specifically if I enjoyed them.

This might've been 4/5, but the broth...

I have been eating here since it opened many many years ago. Initially the food was great, good value, and a hard working family offering good service. As the years went by portions shrunk, corners were cut (ie. Giving lemon slices instead of lime... Not the same at all!), and service became so slow. We stopped eating at the restaurant after one time when I went with my husband and I couldn't figure out where a bad smell was coming from. It was the table - it had been "washed" with a mildewy dish rag. Take out orders can take forever when they are busy. Even if you call 45 minutes ahead of time I don't think they actually start preparing your food until you arrive to pick it up as I've always had to wait, it's never ready.

The 2 stars given are for the peanut sate soup broth which is yummy and the subs which have...

A great stop for Vietnamese food! We ordered lemon grass chicken on vermicelli rice noodles, with a side chicken roll. You can usually tell how good the roll is going to be by how much chicken is used in comparison to how much they stuff it with noodles (as a filler) ~ these rolls were mostly stuffed with chicken with a bit of noodle to fill it out, and it tasted great. The main meal was superb: a healthy serving of noodles with lots of lemon grass chicken, along with the usual serving of bean sprouts (extra fresh & crunchy!) We also tried a Peach Smoothie and wow was it delicious! A very generous serving with a very peachy flavour - definitely worth it on a hot summers day. Costwise it was around $40 for the 2 of us. I...