Pho Xua — Restaurant in Toronto

Pho is my comfort food so I'm always on the lookout for highly reccomended Vietnamese eats. I absolutely love this place. It is clean and nicely decorated, service is prompt prices are fair, and the food is exceptional. I always order the shrimp mango salad. I'm typically weary of ordering shrimp dishes as most places skimp on shrimp portions(assuming seafood is more expensive than chicken, porc or beef), but this salad was chockfull of jumbo shrimp, sweet mango, red cabbage slivers, and a wonderful tangy dressing. The fresh rolls are, well...FRESH! - filled liberally with vermecelli rice noodles, lettuce, more shrimp (lol) and refreshing mint- accompanied with a delicious peanut-blended hoisin sauce for dip. It's the perfect remedy for a cold winters night. I ordered the seafood pho, and my partner ordered the House special- and again, this place does not skimp out on portions! The seafood pho includes a medley of fish balls, imitation crab, skuid, and surprise! SHRIMP ❤ The broth is PERFECTLY seasoned and can stand alone on its own, without the table condiments. I was a little underwhelmed with the Thai pineapple fried rice. I guess I was anticipating it to be a lot more flavourful, as one does when eating Thai dishes- nevertheless I ate it anyway as it was still palatable. The pineapple was of the canned variety and I was a bit dissapointed, but I can let it slide as we're right smack in the middle of a Canadian winter and pineapple isn't exactly in season right now. I would probably order it again, but maybe during the warmer months. Would definately reccomend this reataurant to anyone looking for a comfy date night spot with a partner or a small group of friends. The hours of operation are in favour for those who enjoy a later dinner, as theyre...

One of my favourite Northern Vietnamese restaurants in Toronto. The bun oc, bun cha Hanoi, and bun nem cua be were SOO DELICIOUS. I rarely see bun oc on a menu, and it made me genuinely excited. The broth was sweet, sour, and perfectly balanced with tomatoes and fermented shrimp paste. They were very generous with the fried tofu and snails, which if you’ve never had before, just tastes like a combination of abalone and chicken cartilage?

The vermicelli dishes were a big hit. Both bun cha Hanoi and the fried crab spring rolls were mouthwatering, and tasted just like what I had in Hanoi. The vegetables were fresh, green and crisp. They didn’t just throw together a random assortment of iceberg lettuce, bean sprouts and Thai sweet basil like most other restaurants. There was tia to (Vietnamese perilla) with the bun cha, rau ram (vietnamese coriander) in the noodle soup, and diep ca (fish mint) with the bun nem cua be. It may be a small detail, but it shows that they pride themselves in authenticity rather than stick to what most people are familiar with.

Overall, everything tasted delicious and authentic. Next time I will try the Pho with stir fried beef (similar to the famous Pho Thin popularized in Hanoi), and bun dau mam tom. And of course, a Northern pho isn’t complete without the fried dough sticks, which they do sell!

Update: Pho tai lan (pho with stir fried beef) may not look great at first but it was really really good - it had a richer and beefier taste than regular pho. Bun day mam tom was okay, the best part was the tofu but I don’t think I would...

I have been in Pho Xua many times with my boyfriend and my friend. We always order Fried tofu and steamed pork served with vermicelli , shrimp paste and vegetables. We all enjoyed it a lot. However, the portion is really hit and miss. A week ago, we had the same dishes but with bigger portion as it should be. Then I went back there on Victory Day with our friends and ordered the same thing but we got the dishes with just few pieces of steamed pork which was easy to see the different. We did want to tell them but saw how busy the restaurant was and feel afraid that the boss would screw the employees up, we just kept eating but totally not satisfied with what we had ordered. The staffs (students) are always fast and nice. We are usually good tippers but we refuse to give tip to this restaurant because we know that the boss keeps all of them or distribute/reduce the amount of Tip which is should be given to all the employees. This problem happens in most of Vietnamese restaurants even though the employees are also paid less. We see this is not fair for them because they are doing good jobs and deserve tips as well but then we cannot give them tips because those tips are not going to the right people. We feel so bad for them, but just to remind the boss about Karma. I don't need to write more about this kind of boss, but they will get what they...