Pho Golden Star — Restaurant in Toronto

First time coming to this restaurant and it was pretty busy for a Sunday night at 9pm. The review is reflective of the whole experience but I’d rate the food a 4/5 separately.

When we ordered, they told us that it’d take ~15 min for our food to come out. After waiting for around 30 minutes, the server told us they made a mistake and the order wasn’t entered, and they’d start it now, which would take another 5 min, it took longer than that. We didn’t get our food until about 45min after we ordered and were so hungry.

They seemed genuinely apologetic but it wasn’t a good first experience. They made it right by offering to comp the chicken wings which was much appreciated.

Food-wise, we both ordered the steamed rice and free run chicken with salad. The chicken salad was great and nicely flavoured. I personally liked the rice and chicken with the sauce but my partner found it to be on the blander side.

The chicken wings were nice and crispy, I liked the unique flavour. Main issue is that there wasn’t a lot of meat for the price.

Overall, I’d give this place another shot as the order issues could’ve just been an unfortunate one-time thing (though they seemed swamped and understaffed). The service outside of the mishap was better than most Vietnamese restaurants I’ve been to and the food was very promising.

Hope to try a different...

Bún riêu is one of their specialties…it was not very good. What I found interesting was that they added beef slices. Which were overcooked and tough. Tomato slices in the broth were most definitely fresh, raw tomatoes. Not sauté and cooked in the broth which is unusual. The actual soup broth was not at all flavorful. Also, the riêu was pretty much nonexistent. There were 2 very small pieces or chunks in my bowl, which were smaller than the tofu cubes. I’m not sure if they ran out or whatever…but I had to dig around to find those 2 little pieces. Very disappointing dish. Elements of bún riêu, but did not taste like bún riêu.

The fried blood sausage appetizer was actually pretty good, adequate amount of fat in there. Good texture, moist.

Service was good. Although my server literally brought one small thing over at a time. He made like 4 trips…brought one small bowl, then came back with a small plate and utensil, then came back with...

I recently visited , Pho Golden Star on St. Clair for an early dinner with a few friends, and it was such a wonderful experience. The restaurant itself is simple, but the food is full of flavour and really stands out. We ordered the seafood fried rice, which was served inside a fresh pineapple, along with a few other dishes—and everything tasted absolutely delicious. It is an authentic Vietnamese cuisine.

The service made the evening even better. Our server was so attentive, making sure our tea was always topped up and checking in on us with a smile. It felt warm and welcoming from start to finish. Another big plus was the convenience of the parking lot behind the restaurant, since parking directly on St. Clair isn’t available.

This place has the perfect combination of tasty food, friendly service, and convenience. I’ll definitely be coming back, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a spot with both...