With parents away, the best way for my sister and I to catch up with one another is through a meal. Most of the time, its outside of home – and this specific time it was Pho. Nat has a love of pho and since the weather has been getting cooler and wetter, pho sounded like the perfect remedy.

Is it strange that I’ve never been to Pho Tan up until now? There are so many Pho places, its tough to keep up with them. And most of the time, I feel that Pho is pretty much the same no matter where you go. I’ve never really had much of an interest in Vietnamese food, maybe because half of it is similar to the Filipino food, but recently, I’ve been digging the pho.

Back to the real topic at hand – Pho Tan. One of many locations, the one we went to was the Main Street location. When we arrived, it was packed but luckily we were able to be seated right away. Pho Tam, as most places is a cash only kind of place.

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To start we ordered the Stuffed Boneless Chicken Wings ($6.50). They were filled with minced meat and mushroom. Pretty good, but fairly filling.

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We also ordered Spring Rolls ($5.50). They were nice and crispy and were fairly sized for the price.

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Nat ordered the Fruit Shake – Avocado ($4). I didn’t get to try it, as she had a cold but she seemed to enjoy it.

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Finally – our main dishes. I ordered #52 – Grilled chicken, shredded pork, egg on rice ($8). Fairly standard dish, the chicken was nice and tender and had that great lemongrass taste you’ve come to love and expect at most Vietnamese restaurants. The shredded pork was nice, it wasn’t gritty like most places do it, so I enjoyed the slight crunch and texture to this one.

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Nathalie ordered chicken pho, which is nice and healthy. She must’ve enjoyed it, as it seemed like it was gone in 60 seconds!

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Brian ordered their speciality item Pho Bo Satay ($8.80) – this is basically pho served with a peanut sauce and coconut milk broth instead, along with satay beef. He really enjoyed this bowl of pho and said it was one of the best places we’ve had pho. I got to try a bit of the broth and it was a nice salty sweet combination. For the most part, I always find Pho broth doesn’t have much flavour to it, but this really packed a nice punch.

Food: mini4forks

Service: mini3andahalfforks

Value: mini3andahalfforks

Ambiance: mini3forks

OVERALL: 3andahalfforks

Pho Tan Vietnamese Restaurant 新記越南餐廳 on Urbanspoon