Ben Thanh North — Restaurant in Ontario

I’ve been to this place twice and I got to say that the service here is much friendlier than Toronto. I read others saying they’ve gotten bad service but that was not my experience.

That being said, food is not exactly about the service but the Taste. I’ve had quite an experience food hunting for restaurants all over Toronto during teenage and University years. So I definitely have higher expectation taste buds. This review will mostly be based upon that, I don’t really care about service that much, just normal order taking and cashing out.

Pho I’m not going to share my experience regarding any other dish aside from the Pho. #101. That’s literally the only only thing I’ve ordered because I can’t figure out if I really want to try the other ones.

I’ve grown up with Pho in Toronto and I got to say that it taste pretty good. Pho isn’t exactly a hard to make dish though but the key is in the broth. And the broth taste pretty good.

That being said, in all Toronto Vietnamese restaurants, they ask you if you want “Fresh” or “Dried” Noddles. Just like the name, Fresh noodles are not dried and vice-versa. They did not ask that here, they thought I wanted a different type of noodle. Not a big problem but doesn’t seem authentic, but the taste is definitely there.

Portion For Pho there’s only Small or Large (we had the small). My problem here lie in the bowl.

The Bowl for the Small is way too small. The portion is there but it is filled to the max so any movement in the bowl = Spill. Also splashes from the noodle and unable to mix the noodles and things without splashing.

The review loses a star because I was constantly trying to avoid splashing my clothes.

They should remove small and replace it with a larger bowl with the exact same portions and call it regular.

Menu One of the problems with the menu is nobody knows what it is unless you already know the dish. I’ve always hated going into restaurants with text-only menus.

In Toronto, they usually make a print with the house specials and top picks which makes it easier for the customers.

Even in those restaurants in Toronto I have no clue what 95% of the stuff on the menu are and I am Asian. Lol.

Conclusion

The Pho is decent. If I had tasted the Vermicelli and Pad Thai I would be able to judge their flavors much more. I’ve been to some of the best Thai restaurants in Toronto and the Vermicelli would give me an understanding to how they BBQ their meat and of course the Spring Roll also tells you something about the other dishes for the place.

I wouldn’t feel shame if I’ve taken friends from TO here, unlike the new Congee Chan when after COVID the original chef isn’t there and all the flavors are of poor quality. That reminds me time to make...

I have now had two TERRIBLE experiences at the Fanshawe/Wonderland location. I'll start off by saying that both my boyfriend and I have worked in the restaurant industry for many years. Neither one of us have ever "not tipped" or "walked out" of a restaurant ... until Ben Thanh.

Our first visit to Ben Thanh was about six months ago. We have no complaints about the food. The food was actually delicious. The problem was with the service. Our server ignored us for most of our meal, was never around to fill drinks, and spent most of her time talking (loudly) about her plans for the weekend. We sat with dirty dishes on our table for about 30 minutes, until the hostess finally noticed and took the plates away. Our meal was supposed to come with dessert but after a total of 45 minutes between the end of our meal and seeing our server again, we actually had to wave her down and tell her we no longer wanted the dessert that we PAID for. We just wanted to get out of there. It's the first time in our lives that we have not tipped a server.

Tonight we decided to give Ben Thanh a second chance. After all, the food itself WAS good..maybe we just had a bad server the first time. Wrong. We arrived at 8pm - not an overly busy time for this type of restaurant. We stood at the door for about 3 minutes without being acknowledged whatsoever, despite the numerous servers, hosts, and runners that passed us. Finally the hostess (who had passed by us at least twice) stopped and took us to a table. She brought us the pot of tea that is given at the beginning of every meal. After that, we were never tended to again. We had our menus closed, finished the tea, and sat for TWENTY MINUTES waiting for someone to offer us drinks or take our order. This is not an exaggeration. After the first 5 minutes of waiting (and having dealt with this scenario previously) I took out my phone and started the timer. Multiple servers, the host, runners, and even the manager walked by our table without stopping. We finally gave up and started to leave. The hostess must have spotted us leaving and came up to the table asking us if we were "ready" to order. I told her we had been ready and waited for 20 minutes and were just ready to leave. She didn't seem concerned and walked away. I passed the manager as we left - who still didn't acknowledge us in the slightest.

Ben Thanh has great food, but not worth the visit due to the terrible service. It's impossible to have a...

Wish I had checked the most recent reviews before trying Ben Thanh again -- wouldn't have wasted my time or money. We live nearby and the last time we went to Ben Thanh was at their old location at Wonderland and Fanshawe, and even then our experience was a big disappointment -- average quality and highly priced. On a whim we decided to give them a try since their move. We ordered online for pickup -- I should have stopped there as my experience online presented a BIG red flag. We ordered the shrimp rolls app thinking a safe bet (more on that following), red curry and General Tau chicken.

When you order entrees , which are between $16-$18 ea. be prepared to spend (big time) for the "extras" that one would expect to be part of the dish, not an option. For example, the red curry (an unexciting gooey blah) contained nothing other than the sauce, eggplant and your choice of protein (chicken or beef) . You want to add bamboo chutes? Add $1.50. Extra eggplant? Add $4! Tofu? Add $4. Green beans? $3. Bell peppers? Add $4. Mushrooms? Not available! Basic rice? $3.50! Noodles? Add $4! They call them "extras, so one expects extra to be "more", not "any" -- a $16 entree ended up at $24.50 for AVERAGE quality and portion size. We also ordered Gen. Tau chicken at $18, but after adding peppers, onion and rice it was $27. And those shrimp rolls -- a treat if you call two vermicelli rolls with 3 half shrimp per roll a taste extravaganza, and all that, plus $1 for the dipping sauce for $11. Total cost, including tax and the auto added tip of 10% came out to be about $70.

There are far better choices worth the short drive farther such as Thai Cuisine (Gainsborough & Hyde Park) or even the predictable Bangkok Pad Thai on Richmond or even Meesai Thai (Byron) which are far better meals, portions and at less cost. Our meal was done on time and the staff I dealt was friendly -- but this resembled nothing of the Ben Thanh kitchen that was a quality restaurant for years. Now I remember why we were never again guests at the old Ben Thanh north location -- and won't ever be in the future. Complete disappointment -- We've been big supporters of local restaurants during COVID and this has been the worse experience in over two years of doing take-outs. Time for them to improve or suffer the consequences when folks really decide to...