Five Corners Vietnamese Restaurant — Restaurant in White Rock

With all the great and excellent reviews on this place I was expecting more. The place looked kind of run down and the fruit flies flying around kind of killed it for me. Usually in the middle of winter that is not an issue. Also noticed, there was a lack of hand soap in the washroom and I could smell the towels they used to wipe down the tables.

The food wasn't the best I've had, but wasn't the worst. I had the house special pho and the wife had the bun bo hue. We also shared a side dish of spring rolls. The soup broth for the pho was tasty and had some depth. However, the bun bo hue broth was not as spicy as I would have expected and seemed like it was missing something. It looked the way it tasted I guess. Kind of like pho broth with some spice added. I almost couldn't tell the two apart until I stared right at it and seen the different noodles / meats. Usually there is more color and therefore more flavor.

Other than the soup broth, the noodles could have been more firm (a bit over cooked) and the meats were a bit chewy as well. When the pho was brought out, I was expecting more red (rare). But it was probably sitting there for a bit since the soup wasnt piping hot, like it normally would be.

The spring rolls were just meh. I asked the wife if we ordered the veg ones as I couldn't taste much except for cabbage - so it was kind of plain tasting. She said no it's pork with veg and she showed me the inside. The fish sauce didn't add much and was kind of sad. There was no garlic or shaved carrots or red chilli. It, like the bun bo hue broth, looked the way it tasted - like watered down fish sauce.

All in all, the portion sizes were kind of small and the flavors were ok. The broth wasn't oily at all and I didn't have the need to drink a liter of water after. On the plus side, the banh mi's aren't $14 (may try some of those for take out). This place is probably one of the better tasting pho places in south surrey, but would still make the drive into Richmond, Vancouver, or Burnaby, instead...

Someone’s got some explaining to do.

I totally understand this is a small business and they work hard and serve their community but how does this place have 4.4 stars?? From 397 people in 2023. At most this is a 3 star restaurant.

We ordered take out got it home. The prices on their webpage are defiantly not their current prices, so that was the first surprise.

Ordered a pho noodle soup which was fine tasting, just average not good or bad. Only complaint is that the large doesn’t seem like a large. Just a handful more noodles it seems. We didn’t order a small so can’t really compare. Pho was okay, passable.

Bun/vermicelli bowl. This was… not good. Ordered the grilled chicken with spring rolls. Chicken had zero flavour. It was a small chicken thigh topped with some hoisin/peanut sauce. Spring roll was nothing special too. Not sure if it’s home made or frozen. The FISH sauce. Abysmal. Zero flavour with sweet taste that’s it.

Chicken wings…. Oh boy. The wings are passable. But what got me was the sauce. You’re a restaurant, why are you just dumping sweet Thai chilli sauce into a container and that’s your dipping sauce. I haven’t been to one pho restaurant that does that. Try harder!

I get these are hard working owners but what gets me is the reviews. This should be a 3-3.5 at the VERY most. Yes I get the location. It’s in a demographic area which isn’t adjusted to “exotic cuisine”. That might have worked 10-15 years ago but the area sure has...

We’re so sad, we wanted to love this place. 😔 Had been waiting a while and finally came to pick up (during this whole Covid-19 pandemic). Our first order since eating out 3 weeks ago, we’ve been home and decided to do takeout.

Ordered the Lemongrass Chicken rice plate with a side order of spring rolls. They come as 4 small sized rolls for an additional $7.35 but hardly had any filling in them. They don’t have the chicken and rolls together as other places usually have.

The lemongrass was a chicken breast lightly coated in sauce but not really as tender and juicy as usual pho restaurants are. Quite a bland and dry chicken breast (that was also a first, usually thigh is what is served)

We also ordered the Peanut Sate Pho and I would recommend as the flavour was good. Rich and flavourful for sure.👍🏽

I think what was the most disappointing was the fact that the sauce containers were thrown in a sandwich bag along with the basil and bean sprouts together which is quite unhygienic. I’m sure those containers were not handled the way food is, so I felt like it was unreliable and off putting a little.

I’ll will have to stick to Pho Hoa up the street.

We’re we’re hopeful. 🤷‍♀️

Again, this was a take out experience. Food is subjective (our loss) however, I believe hygiene is very important.

Maybe dine in is a different...