Almost a couple of years ago, I wrote a review on Got Pho Thein Kim. Since then, I’ve ordered take out but haven’t been back to the restaurant.

I was craving pho one day and instead of going to the usual Basil Garden, Got Pho popped in my head. Got Pho and Basil Garden are within 3 blocks of each other, but the fiance likes Basil Garden more so we don’t go to Got Pho as much.

Since I was eating alone (I love eating alone! I don’t care if you think that’s weird) I thought I’d switch it up and come back to Got Pho.

Got Pho is a low-key, no frills, hole in the wall type restaurant. Despite that, they are pretty popular and it’s no surprise why.

House special pho: There aren’t many places in Vancouver left where you can get a bowl of pho for $10 in 2020. Most places are around $12-$14 these days!

The pho was as delicious as I remembered it to be. The broth was comforting and flavourful. There was a very generous portion of noodles too. The house special came with all the different types of beef (rare beef, flank, tendon, tripe, beef ball). There was a good amount of each and I was really full at the end of the meal.

Lemongrass beef and spring roll vermicelli: I also ordered takeout for the fiance. There was a very generous portion of flavour, fragrant lemongrass beef that made the living room smell delicious! The spring roll was fresh and crunchy as well. The portion of this dish was huge too, and he was really full afterwards.

All in all, Got Pho is a great choice for some delicious, authentic Vietnamese food in the area. The prices are also really reasonable. With so many Vietnamese restaurants in Vancouver, Got Pho ranks high on my list for pricing, portion, and taste.  

While running some errands in Richmond, the fiance and I decided to try Pho Japolo for lunch. There are 3 Pho Japolo locations around the Lower Mainland, and I remember hearing good things about the one on West Broadway.

The Richmond location is located in a small strip mall beside Cafe Loyal, which I’ve also heard good things about but have yet to try. There is some parking but I would imagine that it’s hard to find during peak lunch time hours.

We came right when they opened, so it was not that busy yet. The tables were distanced and it felt clean and safe in there.

Pho: I noticed that the prices here were slightly higher than I was used to. They also offer DIY pho so you can choose which meat toppings you’d like, but I just went with the house special to get a bit of everything. Funny thing, I used to never like tendon in my pho but I have started not to mind it lately!

My pho was alright. It was satisfying and had a decent portion of meat inside.

Lemongrass chicken and spring roll vermicelli: The fiance really enjoyed the vermicelli bowl. In particular, the spring rolls were really good. They were piping hot, crunchy, and fresh. It was one of the best spring rolls he’s had!

The lemongrass chicken was also enjoyable too. The chicken was marinated well and fragrant from the lemongrass.

Overall, we enjoyed Pho Japolo and would come back if we were in the area.

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!