Silver Chopsticks — Restaurant in Toronto

Came here on a Saturday night, after the South Toronto Congress Centre (vendors building) closes down for the night from the Anime North convention.

At around 8:30 pm, the restaurant is fully packed. People are lining up in a waiting list. As time passes, people start to trickle out of the restaurant. I thought I wouldn't make it in, since all these big groups of people were getting in, and not me, a single person. More time passes, and I finally get into the restaurant.

The interior of the restaurant is cute. There was this fake pink tree (cherry blossom?) in the restaurant. The decorations felt cozy, cute and chill. They have more tables outside of the restaurant with a tent on top of it. It seems like they converted a part of their parking space to be restaurant space. Outside has about 5 ish tables, including a large table that can sit like 5 people at it. Inside there's a lot of tables in a rather small space. The largest table can seat 8 people.

I ordered my food pretty quickly. I also asked what the large sizing of pho looked like and was shown what a lady had ordered across from where I was sitting. So, I ordered the Large Beef Pho with Beef Tendon and Beef Balls as my choice of meats (can choose from a list of meats on the menu).

I was given a free cup of water (it was a big cup of iced water), and a small plate of bean sprouts with some decorative green leaves on top (not too sure what that was), and a slice of lemon on the side. My large bowl of beef pho came. It was pretty big, like bigger than a regular sized bowl by like 3 times or something like that. I threw in all of my bean sprouts and pushed them into the soup.

The taste of the pho soup was clean and clear. Lightly salted? It wasn't too salty or overpowering in flavour. It was good. Especially after a long full day at the Anime North Con. The noodles were smooth and good. The beef balls were tasty. The beef tendon was the best thing I had. Chewy and delicious. The bean sprouts added a crunchy texture to the pho. Overall the pho I had was pretty good.

The only thing that wasn't good was the price. It felt very inflated. I expected that but still... I know that somewhere in Scarborough, you can still find pho served for only about $15-$16. This large beef pho's price was $18.95. When it came to paying the bill for my dinner, I noticed that they discounted $0.95 off of my meal. I also paid in cash for some kind of discount that they advertised. I guess that was the discount?

I was told that tip was already included in the bill's total. So, I just paid and went to the washroom, and left the restaurant. The total that I paid for my Large Beef Pho was $23.18. To me, that's some pricy as hell pho.

Anyways, I would recommend you get the pho, the soup is really good... Maybe not a large bowl, the smaller the bowl (if they have that option, the cheaper it is, also chicken is a cheaper meat too). I didn't have any of their other food types, so I can't say anything about that. The other food they had looked really good.

Can't come here again because it's too faraway from where do live. Only came here to eat because of the Anime North 2024 Convention happening at the Toronto Congress Centre...

Even though I had read a review beforehand warning me to "check your receipt before cashing out," I completely forgot to do so – you just expect it to be accurate! Unfortunately, there was a mistake, and I only discovered it after getting home and realizing I had already paid for the entire table. They charged me for an item we didn’t even receive. I called them today to request a refund, and guess what? They refunded only the cost of the item plus tax, but they didn’t refund the tip for the dish we never got! Remember, most places add the tip after tax is calculated, so I paid a tip on the tax as well – but didn’t get that money back either. I didn’t bother calling back for the $2 tip refund – it just felt pointless. Why should I pay for something we didn’t receive? We're not a charity or a funding organization.

I was originally planning to leave a review focused solely on the food, but the missing $2 refund has left me feeling like I need to address all the disappointments our group experienced.

As for the food, it was all mediocre at best. The shrimp fresh rolls barely had any shrimp and were mostly filled with noodles. The deep fried spring rolls were the best. It had flavours and was crispy. The pho was good. The Bun Bo Hue was good too, it had two types of meat and two slices of ham, but the pork had a bad odor i barely ate them. (Gave all the pork slices to my friend) The Pad Thai was made with a ketchup-based sauce, and the ketchup flavor was overwhelmingly strong. There were hardly any vegetables in it. On top of that, the kitchen or staff forgot our Pad Thai order, and we had to remind them after waiting almost 15 minutes after everyone else had begun eating and 1/3 done. The restaurant wasn’t busy at all either – there was just us, a male customer who had nearly finished his meal, and another large group who had already finished. When we asked about the delay, the waitress could’ve been honest and said they had forgotten the order and were just starting to make it, but instead, she claimed it would take "3 more minutes."

Everyone makes mistakes, and mistakes are part of the learning process that helps us grow. However, being dishonest or trying to be sneaky with money is something we just can't get behind.

Given all these issues, I don’t think we’ll be...

Exceptional food and accommodating service. Everything on the menu is super flavourful and creative. We ordered the coco-cafe, Vietnamese iced coffee, Crispy Basil Fried Rice, and Crispy Spinach Rice.

For the customer service: I contacted the restaurant if there were any birthday specials. They replied the restaurant offered an in-house dessert. At the restaurant, the staff were unaware when we asked but promptly contacted the owner. They said they weren’t able to, and we showed them the conversation. They then served a very generous, complimentary birthday dessert. They were able to accommodate for sugar levels in our drinks as well. There are plentiful pescatarian and vegetarian options.

The restaurant decor is also so pretty. Love how they brought traditional Vietnamese decor into their design concept.

The staff are very informative and helpful when we asked for more about their dishes. Overall, it was a spectacular dining experience.

Highly, highly recommend. Price-point is reasonable, ranging from $15-20 per main dish. This was my third visit. I will definitely be returning and recommending to my friends after this experience. As it is located near the airport, a great place to dine before or after your flight to Toronto. I really appreciated this experience :) hope to see the...