Pho Xe Lua Vietnamese Restaurant — Restaurant in Toronto

For over 35 years, Pho Xe Lua has always had a special place in my heart since I first visited their Scarborough location when I was only 2 years old in the late 90s.

Pho Xe Lua is one of the best stories for any Canadian business for their commitment to provide quality dishes at fair prices while also maintaining a family style service to ensure all customers are welcomed into the restaurant.

Their pho is always prepared piping hot with the right balance of seasoning, MSG and from the beef bones it was stewed in. For the Pho Dac Biet, they provide a generous portion of sliced rare beef, tripe, flank steak, and tendon to pair with your choice between fresh rice noodles vs dry noodles. Preferably, I would go for their fresh noodles which the texture is quite pleasant.

The Bun Bo Hue has a nice flavour with the right amount of spice to compliment the sliced beef shank and rare beef. It is a good portion of rice noodles to meat to enjoy with the broth.

The Deep Fried Octopus Tail has to be one of my favourites. It was fried to perfection with just enough batter to not overpower the octopus, while also the right amount of batter to allow a fair amount of seasoning to help accent the natural sweetness of the octopus tails.

The Fried Spring Rolls are always nice and crispy with a generous amount of filling of pork, mushrooms, and vermicelli noodles.

The $18 DIY Vermicelli Platter is a great deal whether you want to make your own spring rolls or your own portion of vermicelli bowls. Whether it is to share with friends and family or to enjoy on your own, it's one of the best deals at this restaurant as you get to choose 3 of 8 proteins to enjoy with freshly prepared vegetables and pickled daikon.

Arguably, it felt like my first visit when I was quite little with my first Che Ba Lau (Three Coloured Dessert) to yet again enjoying the nostalgic delicious flavours...

I normally don't write reviews like this but I had a very disappointing experience as the staff did not take my food allergies seriously.

I ordered a vermicelli and specifically wrote down "no peanuts" on the order paper and told the server that I have a nut allergy so please do not include peanuts on my dish. The server acknowledged my request and took my order in.

However when the food came out there were peanuts all over my dish. When I told the second server (who brought out the dish) the first response was, did you tell them when you ordered? No apology or acknowledgment of the mistake. They took the dish back and apparently the first server misunderstood and thought I said no beansprouts. She had never mentioned beansprouts when she was with us and we repeated multiple times that it was a nut/peanut allergy. Plus this was written on the order paper.

When the dish came back out there were still no beansprouts (which was odd if they remade the dish as it normally has beansprouts) so after careful examination of the dish we found a peanut still inside. It was as if they just took the peanuts off, rinsed the ingredients and sent it back out.

The most frustrating part of the experience was the response of the staff. They seemed annoyed with the number of times we sent back the dish and never apologized. They did not seem to understand the severity of the situation. If they were very busy I could understand an honest mistake but there was at most 1-2 other parties and the restaurant was very empty. To say i was disappointed is an understatment. Overall, I would not recommend this restaurant, especially to those who...

Such a hidden gem. I know they have been in business for so many years, but was recommended this from SIL who was recommended it from someone in my son’s vball club.

So you know if word of mouth gets around, it’s gotta be that good.

Most of us got the 3 protein plate of your choice. At $18 that’s a great deal. First off, the plate is ginormous. I don’t think I’ve had a plate of viet food that big.

The second thing is that you can’t really get grilled pork and chicken on the same plate anywhere else anymore. Or it’s very few places, so to be able to have that here, just made my day.

Third, they also give you rice paper on top of my vermicelli bowl because of the portion size, you can’t have wraps ro go with it.

Service was on point. Very attentive and not sure if it was because we had a larger party or that it was a bit quieter, but they got everything right

The place is a no frills viet restaurant. Nothing fancy but the food can speak for itself.

Parking is very tough in this plaza as it seems like there are so many places to go to with lot enough spots. But my secret is going to the second floor parking beside the Chinese restaurant. There’s a ramp that goes up and usually it’s pretty quiet up...