Pho Metro — Restaurant in Markham

50 Bur Oak Avenue, Unit 7 Markham, ON L6C 0A2

Date visited : Thurs April 12, 2018

My wife was craving a hot bowl of beef Pho, and we happen to be in the area after I had finished my last delivery for my Skip the Dishes shift.

Service : 3/5 Service was relatively efficient, since it is an asian resto, friendliness of staff at time of our visit was mediocre. Since the time of our visit was around 4pm there were not that many people in the dining area.

Food : 3/5 Just like to note that we are not experts on Pho by any means. On this visit, we ordered the medium sized beef brisket Pho (approx $10.00) for my wife, and I opted for the bowl of wonton noodle soup (approx $7.50). Both broths were good, tho the broth for the wonton soup was a bit salty in my opinion. For me, I found the wontons to be rather on the small side (mainly filled with pork, no shrimp), compensated by you receive like 8-9 of said wontons. I'm not really sure what the true texture of brisket beef is like, since we normally avoid beef (due to having to manage gout). The texture of the beef reminded me of sliced deli roast beef, from my days before I became burdened with Gout. For the price paid, it felt that the portion size was a it small for the noodle portion of the wonton noodle soup. I like my noodles!! Lol what can I say. Hence why we enjoy our visits to Origination Noodle House, Silver Star branch, (unlimited noodles). Seems for the price paid on the beef brisket Pho was a good value. My wife had almost a difficult time finishing her bowl of Pho, she polished off the noodles and brisket and I helped polish off most of the Pho broth.

Beverages : 2/5 Ugh, the chinese tea we received, wasn't hot at all, along with being on the bitter side. We are being more careful nowadays when we request water at restos, since we don't know most of the time of the water quality. We are uncertain if restos are offering filtered water or straight tap water, unless it is posted. So, when we do remember, we try to bring water from home. We purchase Ice River water for our drinking water, we limit consumption of water from our tap even when filtered through a reverse osmosis system and then filter via a Brita. Since our water at home is softened by a sodium based softener system, we noticed a difference in taste in the water along with noticing an affect on my Blood Pressure. So if any of you foodies are worried about your Blood Pressure rising (you are on a controlled salt in-take) and can't figure out why? If you have a sodium based water softener in your residence, that may likely be the culprit. It was for us at least. I also noticed even with the double filtered water..I ended up drinking more..and I am limited to 2 L max liquid a day from my cardiologist..to avoid another case of edema in my legs.

Apologies for the tangent on the water, but I feel that it is of importance to note. Hate to say, but at times when we are uncertain of the free water offering, we'll opt for a canned beverage instead.

Other thoughts : For those foodies out there that have a Vicinity.ca membership, it is accepted at this Pho Metro location. Tho, I don't think we'll make a special trip to this Pho Metro, just for the Vicinity points. Sure, if we happen to be nearby. Just wish the Vicinity points were a joint pool of points instead of each resto having to collect/earn separately. This location seems priced less than its' sibling location near Warden and Lawrence.

Repeat visits : Would we make a repeat visit? Yes, if we happen to be in the area. Since we reside on the more north eastern area of Scarborough, likely not to make a specific trip just for a bowl of Pho at this Pho Metro

Payments : Debit,...

Let me start off by saying this was my go to pho place. The food was tasty and the service was special. However, today’s visit is probably my last visit.

So what happened? Well, the food was simply DISAPPOINTING and outright not the same as before. We ordered two house special beef pho and pork spring rolls. To start, the pork spring rolls did not have any pork in it. Weird right? We thought so too and after confirming that it was our order, we were simply shocked. The PORK spring roll had cucumbers and other vegetables. It did not have any pork, in fact, not even any sort of meat. The spring rolls were awful. We then sat there hungry and hoping the pho is going to be better. It wasn’t.

The house special is supposed to have beef balls, beef brisket, and rare beef thats served rare and cooked in the broth. When we received our pho, I immediately noticed something was off. What was it you ask? The rare BEEF began to cook and turn white. Hmmm, isn’t beef a red meat I thought? Well, maybe I’m mistaken. They wouldn’t serve fake beef right? WRONG. I gave it a try and kid you not it tasted like PORK, NOT BEEF (I guess we received our pork from our spring rolls after all). Why is my beef turning white and tasting like pork? I’m not sure. Not to mention that pork is not safe to consume unless properly cooked.

After finishing our very poorly prepared meal, which contained nothing we order, I wondered how is it possible that a place has fallen so far below expectations could exist. We were extremely dissatisfied and felt lied to, as nothing in our order was served. Why bother stating PORK or RARE BEEF when it doesn’t contain any of those ingredients? Is it to cut cost? Is it false advertisement? Do they care about their customers? Is eating rare pork safe? I don’t know. But one thing I do know is that I’m no longer going back. And I carefully advise you to think twice before dinning...

Superb, superb, superb. I accidentally found this restaurant today and was attracted by the reviews and avg rating it receives - does it offer food beyond my expectations? Indeed, it does. We ordered 3 dishes that's common in most Vietnam pho restaurant- beef pho, lemongrass fried chicken with rice, and a mango salad. To be honest, I was a bit confused about the price of mango salad because it is more expensive than others. It was not too long before the answer is provided beef pho I would rate 8/10, they are so considerate to ask you if you like the bean sprout to be served cooked or raw, with or without basil and lime. Lemongrass fried chicken 9/10 - the chicken was just perfect, the salad is fine but the rice was a bit hard. And here comes the mango salad, omg, this is the best mango salad I have tried so far - it offers a whole mix of different flavors, not just sweet n sour, but also something extra - gauva slice, peppermint leaves, fried onion and cooked shrimps. 10/10 for this dishes. As a proof, I took a picture of the dishes when we finished- they were all empty. I can't say how satisfied I am with this dinner and for sure I recommend this restaurant to you. If you are a Japanese anime fan, you'll find lots of toys in this restaurant as decorations....