Hà Tiên Vietnamese Restaurant — Restaurant in Calgary

The worst pho that I have in many years. I can't comment about other dishes, but only about the pho. Beside the broth and noodles, everything else is very scarce, close to nothing. Sprouts, greens, green onion, meat, basil... The lime was a decent size tough. The hot pepper was missing. Basically you get broth and noodles. The broth is made with a strong anise taste, some can find this overpowering. The anise is not something that I dislike, but the broth is made (I guess) from a very cheap powder soup base. I was eating the soup and said: This is not right, I am going to regret it. I know, the restaurants that are making the broth from scratch are not that many, but the soup base. the powder is coming in different levels of quality. This one was very bad. Basically, you get better with instant noodles and put some garnishes in. Not kidding. I got terrible thirsty for the rest of the day. I guess the MSG levels were quite high also. Better to have some gallons with water handy if you like to live wild and try their pho. I am not going to do the same...

Edit: Initially I gave them a 5 stars as it was local. great food, decent price and I've been eating here almost every week since they opened up pre 2010s after the existing Chinese restaurant was here. I always order the same thing for take out and I am very disappointed that all the past 5 orders I've been paying for extra meat and they just give me the regular portion. When I pay for extra meat on something at any other restaurant it's a hefty charge and they give you double the meat. I know what the regular portion is and and extra was because before they gave me double. Disappointed maybe to a new customer it may seem they're getting extra portions but they aren't. Also skimming a regular customer of 12+ years and other regulars as seen by the reviews. Food is good but I believe the ethics is going down hill. Resulting in the drop of my 5 star to a 2 star.

Original: Local Vietnamese, their vermicelli is excellent pho could be bigger...

We used to love this place, and ordered soup on the regular during cold winter months. However, recently the broth melted the styrofoam containers they served our satay soup in, and that is not healthy for you. We tried to tell them but they insisted it was not a problem. We immediately brought the soup back, where they accused us of microwaving the contrainers, clearly blaming us, and calling into question our character. That broke the trust we had with this local restaurant. They gave us new broth and sure enough same thing. We through away our toxic soup.

If you're looking for a soup so hot it's toxic, and LOVE being called a liar, then this place is for you! If not, there are hundreds of great Vietnamese places to order from in Calgary. You can...