Hanoi 3 Seasons — Restaurant in Toronto

This resto was full of promise: good reviews, small, possibly family owned biz with a small, apparently dedicated menu. Well, the reviews are wrong.

The service is good, but the food is at best mediocre. I had the tofu and veg pho. The tofu is the firm pressed kind you can buy at an Asian grocery store. It looked and tasted processed. The broth was okay, but nothing about this soup was delicious. Why bother to eat it then?

I also had the veg spring roles that had a nice crispy wafer, but seemed to be filled with a bland rice. I wouldn't order it again. The home made fish sauce for the springrolls tasted like water with weak vinegar. My friend had a beef dish and advised it was mediocre.

Perhaps not fair to say, but I will. It is not clean. The green covering on the bench where we sat was really dirty. There was an empty baby seat near us with old food stuck to it. You know the adage, if the restaurant isn't clean, imagine what happens in the kitchen. Lunch for 2 with no alcoholic beverage, tax and tip was over $40. Will not return and...

As a northern Viet person, I really like this place. There are so many options for vegans and vegetarians since many of the mains that come with rice or bun noodles can be made veg with tofu instead, and they use the same sauces, herbs and seasonings. They all taste good to me! I always get these rather than veg pho which is never good at a meat restaurant. I really don't want vegetables (aside from herbs) in my pho as that doesn't taste right. If you want veg pho, go to a veg restaurant. There are almost no veg options at any of the other Viet places in this area so I'm grateful this place exists. Also saw some people say the pho is lighter. Obviously I've never had the meat pho here but my late grandpa used to like it. This is probably northern style pho (pho originates from North Vietnam btw), which is lighter and more delicate than southern pho. The latter is much more common in Toronto which is why people are unfamiliar with the difference and are expecting something else. You can google...

There are several locations but I like the one in Old Chinatown (Broadview and Gerrard).  They have a variety of the standard Vietnamese dishes.  Coffee with condensed milk over ice for the warm days, Pho Tai (noodle soup with thinly sliced raw beef)  for the cold ones.

What makes this little Northern Vietnamese restaurant’s so special is the signature dish, grouper vermicelli. I am not a big fish eater, typically I prefer to order meat dishes, but this fish is magical.  The  grouper is lightly dusted with flour, dill and curry (I think) and then fried so the edges are crispy.  This is served on a bed of vermicelli noodles, shredded lettuce, cilantro and peanuts.  You can add sauce or just eat it the way it is. I