Pho Ao Sen — Restaurant in Mississauga

Update May 2021

I am back again. They now have a online order pickup system by Ritual which is easy to use.

My wife really enjoys their CT17 Rice Dish which is new because it includes Fried Fillets of Fish. And it tastes pretty amazing. A must try for sure.

Update April 2021

I am in the mood for Vietnamese today, but I am not craving PHO. I have a hankering for some BBQ and rice dish. They call it their "Broken" rice dish.

I chose the CT17: BBQ Chicken and Deep Fried Crispy Fish which comes out to $12 and change after taxes.

What can I say, it was delicious. Aromatic BBQ smokiness / char, perfectly cooked rice. I like the batter on the crispy fish. One thing about take out only, we are always robbed of the fresh crispiness because we have to transport it home to eat. Oh well....pandemic times.

The prepared fish dipping sauce. My taste buds are satisfied and they are happy campers right now. Good pho on a consistent basis is hard to find nowadays. Gone are the days from years past where you can see the restaurant dumping their pile of pork, beef bones that they used to make the broth.....those were the golden days....

So it is refreshing to find a decent Pho restaurant. My wife and friends have been frequenting this location for years now. And the consistency, taste and portions have been spot on. I will actually go out of way to come to this particular location because there are other Pho restaurants in and around the area. The reason is their food is a notch above the others plain and simple.

Check them out and see...

Covid takeout review - April 2021

After a year of not having pho, I finally caved in and ordered takeout. Pho is usually a sit-down, dine-in experience with the large soupy bowl of noodles, so I was hesitant on ordering takeout. To my surprise, my at-home pho experience was amazing! I order a large, house special pho and I think the portion is bigger than if I dined in (how is that even possible?). For $11, there was enough food for my dinner and next day's lunch. The noodles, meatballs, tripe, beef tendons, basil leaves and bean sprouts came in a large square foam container, while the soup filled up an entire tall styrofoam container. The soup was flavourful, the food was cooked to order and I have since made it my once-a-week treat for myself.

I've also order the vermicelli noodles with grilled chicken (or pork) which comes with 2 super crunchy and hot spring rolls (one vegetable, one pork). My husband enjoyed the fried rice (it's sweet and I think there's some fish sauce in it) with lemongrass grilled pork.

I'm fortunate that Pho Ao Sen is just up the street from my place. It's given me something to look forward to every week during this...

I used to come to this restaurant with my family years ago, but the service and quality of food has gone down significantly since the ownership changed.

I recently ordered take out for all of my extended family, but when I got there, none of the servers were wearing masks! I commented that masks are mandatory right now, but he only confirmed that the cooks and servers don't ever wear them because it's hot. This is unacceptable! What other health and safety procedures are being ignored while our food is being prepared?!

On top of that, the server tried to give himself extra tip by reaching across the plastic to hit buttons on the handheld I was holding until I could only apply my credit card. When I asked him to redo it, he did it again! Then I told him I wanted to choose the tip amount myself and saw that they left no option for zero tip! I could only choose from 12%, 15% or 18%! I normally tip on takeout anyways, but their underhanded, sneaky ways is an all time low!

I will definitely never return to this...