Pho Bac — Restaurant in Montreal

I wish I can give Zero star. I came from Toronto and wanted to have good pho place for my parents. I was considering between Pho Saigon and Pho Bac. And I chose that place because my husband like the North pho. Our first impression was the moist smell from the old wood. It smells really bad. Then we were not served at all. I’m a very easy person in this part because I’m in this industry too, as long as you serve us I will be happy and not hesitate o give big tips but I didn’t receive any service at all. The tall guy with glasses was very rude, he had attitude with my table. Why? The bowl of pho was hot you guys dropped wrong table (only 2 tables in the resto) and then you dropped back in my table with attitude and no apology. You dropped a hot soup bowl at right end of table not in front of person who ordered . My mom was BURNT when trying to move the bowl. Lmao. I asked for empty small bowl and you guys ignored it and never returned with bowl. The food was really bad too. Don’t answer back that I have no knowledge about Pho. My brother is Pho chef and we have a restaurant in Toronto. The spring roll was very sour from old ingredients, the veggies for decoration was old ( I think it was a week or 2 weeks). The fish sauce was super sour from vinegar. I could taste it. There’s so much things to talk about their food, pho is salty. Bun Bo Hue was not taste like Bun Bo Hue. Sausage they cut was super thin. At the end, we asked for bill and complained about spring rolls, they didn’t charge it. But they asked for TIPS with NO SERVICE. They told my mom that their salary is very low that’s why they asked for it. Lol. I know what your guys trying to say. But let me tell you guys, you guys still receive the minimum wage. Because that is the law unless you guys work under table. Why we have to pay what we did not get? That is service. My mom was easy to give you guys 5$ tips. Lol. What a bad day, bad experience. Never come back and do not...

Pho Bac 97 has always been one of my favorite spots whenever I visit Montreal. It is right in Chinatown, which made it really easy to get to since our hotel was only a few minutes away.

The people here are honestly the best part. The owner, the male staff, and Hannah were so sweet and welcoming. They made us feel at home right away and it’s clear they can connect with anyone because they switch so easily between English, French, Vietnamese, Chinese, and probably even more languages. That kind of warmth really makes a difference.

We ordered two Pho Dac Biet XL bowls and one Bi Cuon roll, and with taxes and tip it came to around $50 for the two of us. The food was comforting, flavorful, and authentic. As someone who is part Vietnamese, I really appreciate when a restaurant captures those traditional flavors, and this one absolutely does. At the end they even gave us fortune cookies, which was such a simple but thoughtful little touch.

I’ll be honest, there is a strong smell around the bathroom area that can be a bit distracting, maybe from the age of the building or cleaning issues, but it didn’t take away from how kindly we were treated.

I still want to give five stars because this place feels special to me and the staff treat you like family. Thank you again for such a lovely experience. Sending love from Candy and family from...

Sadly never coming back here again.

It used to be one of my favourite spots in Chinatown, their waiters were friendly and the food is so good. Last year I unfortunately found multiple fruit flies in my soup. When I pointed it out, the waiter insisted that it was simply pepper. There were clearly legs and wings poking out of them tho. He offered another bowl for free, which was sweet! But the next bowl also had fruit flies in it. Eventually he admitted that the cook had left the onion out overnight which led to a bunch of fruit flies sticking to it (this was in summer). I decided to not write a review on it, hoping to give them a second chance when I’d come back.

I’ve come back twice ever since, the first time I was treated indifferently, which is understandable, but today was the last straw. I had come with friends, and after ordering, we watched as 4 other groups of people come in after us and receive their food before us. We had been waiting a solid 30 minutes, whereas the others who came in after had all received their meals within 10 minutes of ordering. They were eating the same stuff we ordered, so I don’t know why we didn’t get anything… These groups were seated around us, and the waiter who served us (and the other groups) seemed to ignore us whenever we’d look at him. There was no way he could’ve missed our order. So...