Port Coquitlam is a city that I rarely venture out to! The fiance and I came here for an errand back in November. Since we drove all the way out here, we decided to try a restaurant around here for my blog before heading back.

Pho Toan Thang is located in a small strip mall in Port Coquitlam, across from the Costco.

With the new public health order that everyone must wear a mask in restaurants except when eating, plus the existing social distancing rules, we felt safe here. It wasn’t that busy and tables were very spread out as well.

Also, it’s important to support small local businesses during the pandemic. As long as you’re following the rules, being cautious and limiting your circle to who you go out to eat with, then you should be fine.

We kept our masks on and sanitized our hands before and after the visit.

Lemongrass chicken and spring roll vermicelli: Recently, vermicelli bowls have been the fiance’s go-to when having Vietnamese food. Not complaining though, because it allows for more variety on my blog since I usually order pho.

The lemongrass chicken here was more of a satay chicken. The chicken was juicy, tender, and well marinated. Although there was only a hint of lemongrass taste, the satay marinade was tasty and the fiance enjoyed it.

He also really enjoyed the spring rolls here. They were piping hot and crunchy. Instead of the rough spring roll skin, Pho Toan Thang makes their spring rolls with the smooth skin, similar to Chinese style.

House special pho: I used to not like eating tendon, but I have started to enjoy it now! My taste buds have evolved over the years. Since I like tendon now, I decided to go with the house special which came with all the different types of beef – rare beef, beef balls, tendon, tripe, and flank.

The broth was very flavourful and had depth to it. For a Vietnamese restaurant out in the suburbs, it was on par with the Vietnamese restaurants or even better than some I’ve tried in Vancouver! If I lived in this area, I would come here for a satisfying bowl of pho.

Overall, we both enjoyed our lunch at Pho Toan Thang. The service was efficient and attentive as well. It’s good to see a decent pho option out in this area. If we found ourselves in Port Coquitlam again, we would definitely come back.

A bit over a couple of years ago, I had a delicious lunch at Anh and Chi and wrote a review on it! Since then, I haven’t been back until Maki mentioned that she tried it and enjoyed it. We had some wedding tasks planned in the area a few weeks later, so we came by for a re-visit lunch.

One thing to note is that Anh and Chi only takes reservations by donations. They start at $10 and you can pick one of the charities that they have listed on their website. Otherwise, you will likely have to wait in line because this place is always busy.

We came on a Saturday afternoon, and aimed to get here just before 12pm to beat the lunch rush. However, there was already a line ahead of us so we ended up waiting for about 15-20 minutes.

The interior of Anh and Chi is really aesthetically pleasing. It is modern, but warm and woodsy with lush green plants everywhere.

Mushroom spring rolls: I remember on my first visit here 2.5 years ago that these spring rolls were delicious! Maki really enjoyed them too, so naturally we had to get these.

The spring rolls were incredibly crunchy and packed with flavour. They came stuffed with black mushroom, carrots, jicama, taro, and vermicelli. Despite them being vegetarian, I found them to be really delicious and would gladly order them again and again. The fish sauce added even more flavour and complemented the spring rolls really well.

Bun rieu: When I saw that they had bun rieu, I knew I had to try it! Bun rieu is a crab and tomato soup. It came with crab meat and roe soufflé, fried tofu, crab claw, fresh tomatoes, green onions, rice vermicelli noodles, pork bone broth, shrimp paste.

The soup was bursting with umami flavour and was delicious. There was a lot of depth in the broth and the crab meat and roe souffle was soft and fluffy. I haven’t had anything like that before but it was good. However, the broth eventually got too salty after having more bites so I should have asked for some hot water to dilute it down but oh well.

Instead of the regular noodles, I asked to substitute for the bun bo hue thick vermicelli noodles. The thick noodles seemed to be thinner than other places though. Now that I’m writing this review, I wonder if they forgot to substitute but I didn’t think much of it then.

Steamed rice cakes: The steamed rice cakes were individually served in small sauce dishes. At first, we weren’t sure how to eat them because the rice cakes were sticky and messy when we tried to peel it off the plate. There was also a lot of water leftover from the steam in the plates.

Maki ended up slightly lifting the rice cake in a circle with the chopstick, and then putting the chopstick under the whole rice cake to make them unstick without breaking.

The rice cakes came with mini sauteed prawns, chicken crackling, and chive oil. The chicken crackling was my favourite part and it also added a fun crunch and gave the rice cakes some texture contrast.

All in all, I enjoyed my second visit to Anh and Chi. You can’t go wrong with coming here. The quality, flavour, and service is great and the constant lines prove it! I highly recommend coming here.

After going to Hoang Yen a couple of times with Avocado, she suggested that we try Cafe Xu Hue, which also has a delicious seafood noodle soup but with tapioca noodles.

I was intrigued because I’ve never had tapioca noodles and wasn’t sure what to expect, but she loves coming here for their tapioca noodles! I love my chewy tapioca balls aka pearls in bubble tea, so I figured that tapioca noodles would have the same chewy texture. I was excited to try!

Cafe Xu Hue is located on Kingsway, by the new TNT. The storefront is really small and easy to miss.

Going inside, the restaurant was quite small with a loud fan underneath our table. Half the tables were removed due to the pandemic and it felt clean and safe in there.

One thing to note here is that the menu is quite small. This is all there is to the menu!

Pho ga: Since Avocado was going to get the seafood noodles, I thought I’d try something else to review. They didn’t have a beef noodle soup, so I picked the pho ga which was a chicken noodle soup.

Since we came here for the tapioca noodles and this came with the usual rice noodles, I asked to substitute for an additional cost.

The chicken broth was light but still very flavourful, with a hint of garlic. Although it was simple and clean, it was a comfortable bowl of noodles.

The tapioca noodles were delightful. They were thicker and shorter than I imagined, but very chewy and enjoyable.

My only complaint, and I’m not sure if it’s because I got the bottom pieces of the bag or something, but near the end of my meal, some pieces were so short that I had a hard time finding them in my soup. The picture above were the longest stands of noodles I had.

Banh canh cua bot luc: Avocado usually orders the crab meat soup here, and this time was no different. I had a sip of her soup (before we started eating and with a clean spoon – being safe and responsible during the pandemic!!!) and loved it. The broth had depth to it and was so flavourful. The soup tasted like crab, so if you’re a seafood lover you’d enjoy this. There was also a hint of spice to it as you can see with the chili flakes.

Bun bo hue: A few weeks later, I took my mom here since she likes bun bo hue. The bun bo hue here was seriously amazing. The broth had so much depth with the perfect amount of spice and lemongrass flavour.

I only had a few bites, but this was my favourite bowl here so far and I am definitely coming back here when I crave bun bo hue.

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Despite having a small menu of only 9 items, Cafe Xu Hue was delicious. I would describe bit as a small, no frills, family run Vietnamese restaurant that has been around for awhile.

With so many Vietnamese restaurants in the city, the thing that sticks out to me and the reason why I would come back, are the tapioca noodles that I haven’t seen elsewhere. and the mouthwatering bun bo hue.

If you know another place that has tapioca noodles, please let me know so I can try it out too!

Ever since we discovered Basil Garden almost 3 years ago, we have never looked back. In fact, I think it is probably our most visited restaurant due to how close and delicious it is! Since I only wrote about the first visit 2.5 years ago and we come here at least once a month, I figured that warranted a re-visit post on this spectacular hidden gem.

Most people come to this small plaza for Mr. Sub or Riz Sushi, which has surged in Instagram popularity in the past year it seems. I’ve never gone though because why go next door when Basil Garden is so great? =P

Well actually, we did visit Vallarta Mexican Restaurant a couple of times on the other side of Basil Garden so I guess my argument is not valid hehe. Anyways, this small but mighty strip mall is full of good food, it seems.

One thing I really like about Basil Garden is how clean it always is. Coming here when they opened again after the pandemic wasn’t a big deal because I knew they always had clean handling protocol.

The chopsticks always come wrapped in your napkin, tables are always spotless, the sauce bottle tips are always cleaned, etc.

Pork bone soup: I normally get a pho, but was feeling like something different since I had pho here with my bridesmaids just a couple of days prior. The pork bone soup was delicious, with well rounded flavour and depth. It also came with a fried chip with shrimp inside which was tasty. I would recommend eating that first or it would get soggy in the soup. 

I had a choice of egg noodles or vermicelli, and picked egg noodles. They were cooked firmly and reminded me of thin ramen noodles. There were also some fish cakes with dill, and some pieces of pork. Overall, it wasn’t a bad choice and I’d get it again if I wasn’t feeling like a beef broth.

Vermicelli bowl: The fiance picked the pork patty, spring roll, and grilled pork vermicelli. He usually gets this bowl so it wasn’t a surprise or anything new.

The pork patty was grilled nicely. Meanwhile, the grilled pork was fragrant and tasty. The spring roll was fresh, crispy and served piping hot. The only complaint was that they didn’t include crushed peanuts this time.

Also, it’s a bit weird that their vermicelli bowls only include pork (the only alternative is a vegetarian one). I wanted one the other day but they were all variations of grilled pork, pork patty, shredded pork, etc with no beef or chicken options.

Pho: I’ll add in my usual order of pho here in this review too. The soup was delicious and there was a generous portion of rare beef and tripe too. I like how they always crack some fresh pepper on top as a nice touch.

Lemongrass chicken on rice: On another visit, I ordered a lemongrass chicken. They deep fry the chicken here instead of grilling, which I find gave the chicken less of the lemongrass flavour. I’d prefer my lemongrass chicken to be grilled.

In addition, although the chicken was juicy and crispy, I found it too oily for my liking. The batter was also very salty and took away from the lemongrass chicken taste.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a good dish. It’s just not how lemongrass chicken is usually served. A more accurate name would be “deep fried chicken on rice”!

Bun bo hue: I didn’t actually realize they had bun bo hue on their menu until recently. The bun bo hue packed a lot of spice, but it didn’t have that much lemongrass taste so I didn’t find the flavour of the broth to be well rounded. With that said, I’d still order it again if I wanted a spicy soup.

Satay peanut soup: Cola ordered this and liked it, so the fiance decided to order it on a subsequent visit. The satay peanut soup had a mild spiciness to it, and was rich and flavourful. It would be a great alternative if you’re not feeling like the usual pho!

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Overall, Basil Garden has been consistently delicious and our go-to Vietnamese restaurant for almost 3 years now! We are huge fans of this place. It doesn’t get much attention but I would recommend giving it a try.

This location has seen its’ fair share of Vietnamese restaurants open and shutter in the past six years or so. For the OGs who remember, Taste of Asia was the first and also longest lasting. I was quite disappointed when they closed down and then Tasty Pho replaced it for a couple of years.

Just as we were beginning to get used to Tasty Pho, it changed again to Pho Tan! And now most recently for the past 1.5 years, it has been replaced by Pho Mr Do.

I’ve been meaning to go here for the past year but just end up going to Saigon Bistro or Basil Garden. However, I suggested that we come here for lunch with my mom so I could finally write about it.

Pho Mr Do has been renovated since Tasty Pho and Taste of Asia days. We all found it to be quite stuffy in here because it was a hot summer day with no AC and one ceiling fan blowing. We asked to sit near the door which was the coolest table.

Small DIY pho: I went with a DIY pho that included rare beef, tripe and beef balls. The broth was comforting, had depth to it, and was delicious!

I was surprised at how HUGE the portion was. Seriously, they gave me so much noodles that I had a hard time finishing it, but no complaints. I was very impressed.

Large house pho: My mom ordered a large pho but regretted it because of how big the portion was. Even I had trouble finishing the small and I was already hungry that afternoon!

My mom noted that the tendon here was better quality than usual. She also enjoyed the beef broth and added some chili sauce to it, which we found out was made in the restaurant.

Vermicelli bowl: The fiance ordered the vermicelli bowl with beef and a spring roll. He found the bowl to be delicious! There was a generous portion of beef which was very flavourful. The spring roll was crispy and fresh too.

Chicken sub: I didn’t think our main dishes would be so filling, so I suggested that we also split a chicken sub. It was a mistake cause we were all too full, but we happily took it home for later.

The chicken sub was great and had a generous amount of flavourful chicken inside. I found it a tad bit on the salty side though, but I’d still order it again.

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Overall, Pho Mr Do was better than I thought it’d be, and wished that I tried it sooner! The portions were huge, food was delicious, and the server was really nice.

Given all the failed past Vietnamese restaurants in this location, I hope Pho Mr Do survives longer because I am adding this place to my list of go-to Vietnamese eats.