The Viet Noodle Guy has been on my radar for about a month now. It is a new Vietnamese restaurant that opened up by Brentwood, in the same complex as Brown’s Social House and across from Madison Center.
The reason why I wanted to try it was because a) it was new, b) it looked clean and modern, and c) it had a high rating of 4.5 stars on Yelp already. Smores and the boyfriend were down to try it too, so we went one weekday evening.
There is free underground parking in the building, which was nice. Walking in, it was spacious in there due to the very high ceilings.
They had nice, matching decor going on and there was also a small balcony upstairs where they make their banh mi. We were wondering whether or not customers were able to walk upstairs and order banh mi, or was it for takeout customers?
Popcorn shrimp: It’s been awhile since I’ve seen popcorn shrimp in awhile! I don’t know why I was expecting American style popcorn shrimp, but it was different than I expected. It was more of the Chinese style and I would describe it more as a deep fried shrimp instead of popcorn shrimp.
They came fresh and crunchy, and bursting with garlic flavour. It tasted like Chinese deep fried shrimp, which I am definitely not complaining about because it’s one of my guilty pleasures, although it’s been awhile I ate it because #health. There was also a thick sweet chili dipping sauce too, which went well with the shrimp.
Viet noodle with rare beef and tripe P5: I wanted to see how their pho was. There was a generous portion of rare beef and tripe, and I was really full after this bowl.
Broth-wise, I found it to be pretty salty and flat, but still satisfying. It could have used more herbs because it mainly tasted like a beef broth without the standard herbs they add.
House special vermicelli bowl: Smores and the boyfriend ordered the house special vermicelli bowl, which was a lot better than mine! It came with so much stuff- lemongrass chicken, beef, pork patty AND spring rolls! To make things better, all the meat was seasoned perfectly and so deliciously juicy. As for the spring rolls, it was crispy and full of meat too.
The Viet Noodle Guy is a decent choice if you’re wanting Vietnamese food. In particular, it seems their vermicelli bowls are quite popular, and for good reason too! I can see us coming back to the Viet Noodle Guy if we’re feeling like not going to our usual Vietnamese place, Basil Garden.
Service was also attentive, quick and friendly here too! And easy, convenient, free parking is great as well 🙂
Yay!
Spring rolls: The boyfriend ordered his usual spring rolls to go with his pho. They were served differently than what we were used to, in that they use the smooth spring roll skin instead of the rough skin. Taste wise inside, they were delicious and had a decent amount of filling inside!
Rare beef and flank pho, large: The boyfriend was quite satisfied with his pho! He marveled at the quality of the beef flank and rare beef. It was a comforting bowl of noodles which filled him up.
Crispy prawn & fish patty soup: Continuing my adventurous streak that night, I ordered a bowl of noodles that I haven’t had before! For those who haven’t had this before, I would best describe it as large flat pieces of fish cake with some prawn. I found it delicious because I love my seafood!
The restaurant was spacious and comfortable. They have live performances on Friday and Saturday nights, which you can see from my photo above!
This is where all of their meats are prepared! After they are cooked, servers will walk around with one of those sticks and go to each table until all the meat is gone (which is pretty fast!)
They also have a self serve buffet bar. Your typical carb dishes, soup, rice, veggies, and some fruit.
Now the part we have all been waiting for: the MEAT! There are many servers walking around, and we didn’t have to wait any more than 5 minutes for someone to be walking around.
Another one of their delicious juicy steaks being served! Please note the boyfriend’s patient hands in the background, LOL.
Maminha: Although smaller than the rest, the tri tip was the favourite among the five of us. It was roasted, so the outside was a bit grilled and crispy.
Calabresa: Perhaps the only meat that we weren’t a fan of that night. We found the pork sausage to be very dry.
Ribs: I don’t normally have ribs, but I’m starting to slowly eat more. After one bite, Cocoa told me I HAD to try it, so I had a bite. The ribs melted right off the bone, and was so tender.
Deep fried platains and cheese balls: Halfway through the meal, our server dropped off some snacks! We didn’t really eat these as we wanted to have more of the meat.
Salad: After all that meat, I decided to go and get a plate of veggies to feel better. The veggies were really fresh and the lettuce was crunchy.
Grilled pineapple with cinnamon: My apologies for the terrible quality of this photo. I forgot to take a photo of it, so this is a screenshot from an Instagram boomerang.
Salmon and tuna sashimi: We ordered two of these to share. The sashimi was very fresh and tasty. Cheese really enjoyed the sashimi and said it was better than other places, which were more expensive than Ginger Sushi. He contemplated ordering another plate to himself but decided against it.
Yes roll: I didn’t want to leave without trying one of their speciality rolls! This is the yes roll, which came with yam tempura inside, topped with spicy tuna and mango soy sauce. The star of the roll was the mango soy sauce. It was unique, and turned the otherwise simple roll into a creative one. The burst of sweet mango went well with the savoury aspect of the roll.
Under The Sea Roll: Cocoa likes specialty rolls, which is another reason I picked this restaurant because they had a huge selection of unique rolls! Under The Sea roll came with scallop, salmon, crab, jellyfish, tobiko, seaweed, and mango soy sauce. She had no complaints about this roll, and it looked like it was a pretty good value considering how much seafood it came with.
BC Roll: The BC roll was made differently, in that it contained salmon meat instead of salmon skin. Salmon meat is worth more, but the boyfriend preferred salmon skin in his BC roll.
Bento box: Macaroni ordered a bento box for herself. It was pretty big and filling! She had no complaints about her box. The tempura looked really good and was massive!
Miso soup: Macaroni’s bento box came with a miso soup. She didn’t want it, so she kindly gave it to me. It was pretty salty, even for my liking. I did not end up finishing it because of how salty it was.
Chopped scallop roll: The chopped scallop roll lacked the fresh ‘snap’. It was average.
