Pho Saigon

We were headed back to Vancouver from Victoria on a very wet cold rainy day over the holidays. Being from Seattle, we weren’t familiar with the area. I said in the car, «Wouldn’t it be nice to have a bowl of phở right now to warm us up?» I checked Unilocal and literally there was this restaurant about a mile away. The phở was warm and my boyfriend got to eat «banh bot loc» for the first time. He loved it. There are lots of other good Vietnamese restaurants out there but I’m giving it 5 stars because this restaurant made our day. We came in tired, cold, and hungry. We left feeling warm and satisfied! Bonus is that you get to write on the wall! Phở-​reals!

After reading the negative reviews, I decided to give this place the benefit of the doubt and give it a try. I only ordered the prawn salad rolls. Not only did they look pretty sad, but they lacked flavour and didn’t taste very fresh. Wouldn’t go back here to order these again.

This was my second experience with a subpar bun dish. Sadness. First of all parking here is atrocious during the lunch hour. There are only 5 spots in front of this little strip mall and then the sign on their door says «parking in back.»
When I drove back there it was labeled a loading area for the party supply store next to the restaurant. There was also a huge sign painted across the fence stating «NO PARKING.» I finally parked way down the street and walked over. When I asked the girl working there what the deal with the parking in back was, she went to ask the guy cooking in back. She seemed pretty clueless. Anyway I sat down and she came back to tell me I could park in one area just next to the black car back there, but only one spot is available. Some guys at a table nearby overheard and I could hear them saying «yeah, that’s not a good idea. There isn’t even room to turn around back there. Someone is likely going to wreck back there.»
Anyway, I was hungry so I ordered my usual grilled shrimp bun — added bonus were the spring rolls on top. I wasn’t a huge fan of the garlic ginger satay on the shrimp skewers but it was edible. The disappointing factor was the vermicelli noodles all clumped together. The fish sauce did nothing to alleviate the problem and the noodles seemed to soak the sauce right up — a good indicator that your noodles are way too dry!
On top of the food just being meh, the décor in the restaurant looked like somebody’s Grammy got sick and their grandkids took over running the biz. Writing all over the walls in marker really brought the class down in this place. The only girl working there in front was also wearing a see-​thru button up shirt tied at the waist with a black bra, belly ring, and tight Lulu yoga leggings. Not something I want to see at lunch. The odd pairing of apparel went right along with the décor of the place. Needless to say, avoid this place. There are too many other good options in BC to waste your time here.

We found our experience Phở Saigon was mediocre. We ordered take out and brought it home, we ordered pork vermicelli, and chicken vermicelli. The flavors were bland and the pork (not recommended) was basically a frozen sausage patty that was warmed up. The chicken was also bland which was disappointing, but while I was eating it I felt something sharp in my throat and I start freaking out chugged some water and looked down to see a couple more pieces of metal shavings!!! Must have been from a tin label from a bottle or something. Gross. Will not me going back, ever.

Tasty spring rolls and we enjoyed the phở with beef brisket and phở with no meat. What really stands out are all the «phở» puns — written by guests on the white board on many of the walls: «phở sho» — «phở a good time call…» — «so phở king good»…
Nice staff and good to find a place open at 3 pm when the sushi restaurants were closed for afternoon break. Nice, clean bathroom too.