Mot To Vietnamese Restaurant — Restaurant in Calgary

We went out with a party of 5 last night to Mot To, to which we had made reservations about 3 days ealier. We were seated promptly, however we were seated at a table meant for 4, right next to the washroom, in the most uncomfortable chairs. There was plenty of larger tables available, but we figured oh well, we won't be long. However, that proved not to be the case. All in, this dining experience took about 2.5 hours for appetizers and mains.

We started with 2 orders of spring rolls, papaya salad, 2 pho grilled cheese, and 2 orders of shrimp salad rolls. The salad was spretty tasty, but for $12, we received maybe a half cup of salad. The grilled cheese were pretty good but the portion was miniscule, and the pho broth was flavourless with a hint of salt.

The spring rolls were quite good, but the salad rolls were pretty bad. Each of the 2 rolls was cut in half, and only half of each roll had shrimp and lettuce in them, the other half was only vermicelli. I think between the 2 orders there might have been 2 whole shrimp, as the shrimp were cut in half length wise and each roll had half a shrimp. They dont give enough sauce for the salad rolls either, but unfortunately, our server didn't come back for almost 45 minutes, so we didnt get an opportunity to ask for more sauce and just wound up eating dry, flavourless "salad" rolls.

When she finally did come back, we ordered 2 sate chicken bahn mi, and one order or salt and pepper wings, the other 2 people in our party were turned off by the sub par taste and portion sizes and opted not to eat anymore while there. By this point we were all in need of more drinks, but could not get the servers attention so we waited, and waited.

About 30 minutes goes by and we finally get the opportunity to order more drinks when our food arrives. The subs were appetizing looking, but on closer inspection, mine contained about 2 tablespoons of sate chicken placed in the middle of the bread so when cut in half to present, looked full, but was I ever disappointed after my first bite. When I opened them up to see where all the fillings went, there we no more to spread around! The rest of the sub contained ONE sprig of cilantro stalk ( no leaves), the smalles sliver of cucumber, and about a tablespoon of pickled carrots and daikon across both halves of the sub. I moved all of that to the one half of my sub, and ate it. I will say the taste was good, but the portion was insulting. The other person who ordered the bahn mi said it was a bit better portion wise, but not great at all. To top it off they forgot to put the salt and pepper on the wings so we received plain unseasoned wings, which were about as good as that sounds.

Due to the small portions and watered down broth, I get the impression that maybe they under prepped for dinner service and had to stretch supplies out, but if thats the case, tell paying customers that certain items are sold out and reccomend something else.

Over all, I would not recommend this place, and will go as far as to say that if I hear of anyone with plans to go, I will go out of my way to change their minds to save them from a...

Mot To is an unusual place, as it aims to present, in their own words, "Vietnamese Classics with Modern Twists". Visible signs of this are menu items such as cocktails made with pho juice and the "Pho Grilled Cheese" sandwich.

Tonight, for me, the star item on the menu item was the famous "Pho Grilled Cheese" sandwich, which I had as an appetizer.

This sandwich is unusually tasty and innovative. One could describe it as a Vietnamese version of a Philly cheese steak sandwich. It was made with ban mi bread and came with pho broth as a dip. Great start for our meal!

The next item I had was a bowl of vermicelli with lemongrass chicken and a couple of spring rolls. Overall, it was underwhelming. The spring rolls were above average, with a very thin and crispy crust, but they alone could not save this otherwise ordinary bowl of noodles.

Nothing horrible, but when the appetizer outshines the main, something appears to have been lost.

I asked about the mango rice cake but it was sold out.

The restaurant was clean, well maintained, well located with lots of parking space, an advantage in a busy area of town. Mot To is obviously popular. It was almost full on a Tuesday evening. The service was friendly and the prices are reasonable.

In short, not a bad meal but at time of writing, (May 2023) not every dish on the menu is blessed with the advertised "modern twists".

For now, I can only wish Mot To good luck. I really hope that more modern versions of the traditional vermicelli and pho soup will soon show up on their menu. Competition is stiff. While the pho grilled cheese and cocktails are good start, one has to ask: will...

I was very excited to visit this place after seeing it all over my Instagram. We got there right at opening time. As we were waiting to be seated the waitress that came to receive us gave me a very obvious judgemental stare, starting at my shoes to my face. I was not wearing anything out of the ordinary, btw. My partner never notices these things until today. He was very upset at this rude first impression and wanted to leave but I just smiled and stayed calm as I am there to try the food and was not worried about this waitress as I’m sure she may not realized how she was acting. Anyway, we ordered our food and everything came out quite quickly. The bone marrow was okay but not as flavourful as I had hoped. The un-pho-gettable cocktail was…forgettable, unfortunately. I liked the bun rieu but it felt like it was missing something, maybe more fish sauce or salt? I couldn’t put my finger on it but it was lacking in something. My partner got the chicken curry pho, it was also okay but nothing spectacular. 3 stars for food coming out promptly and the service. Missing stars are for lack of proper menus and food tasting sub-par. The menus were printed on printer office paper. We didn’t get nice new ones either. We got crumpled menus basically. And then there’s the waitress who needs to learn proper greeting etiquette. Overall, it’s a nice place to try once if you’re curious but we will not be returning here...