Ginger

If you are looking for a cheap vietnamese restaurant, that serves below average food — then dine at Ginger. Its a sit down restaurant, but you have to get up and get your own utensils, sauces and etc. I ordered vermicelli to go, the kitchen added the sauce to my portion. When i addressed it with the waitress, she said it comes with dress sauce already poured on the noodles and if i wanted dry noodles, id have to pay for extra. A real vietnamese restaurant allows the customer to pour their own fish sauce. Poor customer service, combined with old dingy furniture and dirty tables.

So this is sometimes my go-​to place when I want something fresh, cheap and fast — but not fast food.
This is one of 4 or 5 locations. Each has its own distinct and separate décor, but the same menu, ordering and delivery process. This location has a clean green and white interior, you go to the front, look up over the cash at the photos and the signboard, decide what you want, place your order and pay. Then they give you a plastic card with a number on it. You go and help yourself to the ever present water pitcher, slices of lime, paper napkins on the side, and chooose your table. When your food is ready, someone will bring it over to you, fresh and hot. I like this. No worrying about servers etc. It’s quick and cheap and tasty, and I ve had worse Vietnamese in the city (that cost more), so good for a quick, inexpensive bite.

The one thing I get at Ginger is their simple and cheap salad rolls (1.99 each). My favorite cold rolls in the neighborhood are at Real Thailand down the road, but Ginger is in a different category, that of the fast counter variety. For prices this cheap it isn’t worth it to buy the ingredients and take the effort to make it yourself at home. A quick, no-​frills summer meal = 3 of these rolls with accompanying sauce. Each long roll is cut into 4 pieces and so you end up with 12 big bites of three varieties. I like the jicama, tofu & avocado (or yam & avocado) and shrimp. There could be more herbs in these rolls but for this price, I can’t really complain.

Cheap phở and open late = perfect! However the restaurant is really small and I often end up having to order my food to go as there’s no room to sit and eat.

I love the Ginger location on queen.
Both are fast and flavourful but portion size here is much smaller and honestly it just does not taste as good.
This doesn’t mean you’ll get bad food. Not at all. If you’ve tried the one on queen you’ll keep going to that one. It’s soooo good and the taste is on point.
The location itself is neat and clean which I absolutely love.

maybe the WORST of the GINGER restaurants (Parliament an equal/​close 2^nd)…
awful setting/​interior, unfriendly staff.

Don’t get me wrong… I love the fast tasty noodles and seem to be stuck on number 26 but the staff is hit and miss. Some are friendly and helpful, some make you feel like you interrupted something. Maybe they prefer only to serve during a rush when the place is packed with high school kids? But even so… I keep going back… the food is great, fast and cheap!

Open late, cheap, delicious, and fast.
Great option for thai around this area. It’s cheaper than comparable thai nearby. You get smaller portions (less meat) but you can’t beat the price and the taste is delicious. They are friendly, amenable to changing/​substituting orders, and incredibly fast. I’m relieved to have this in the area.
I’ve tried their curry chicken, curry beef, pad thai, salad rolls and mango salad. Wonderful stuff!

Yum! This place is cheap and delicious. I’ve only come here for take out and usually get the beef vermicelli with spring rolls. Service is quick. Choice of place to go when it’s late for sure.

First time at this Ginger location. I ordered the usual Green Curry Beef with Pad Thai. Let me tell you there was no green curry. There was something green placed on top of the beef but it wasn’t green curry. The Pad Thai?! I don’t thing the cook ever tasted one. It was just noodles mixed with hot sauce. They put the chain to shame.

Just had the phở. Quite nice taste to it and the broth was amazing too so overall, great dish.

$ 6 phở? Open really late? This place has my name all over it.
The large phở is a dollar more, and comes with a little more noodles and a lot more broth. I’m someone who likes to drink most of the broth (gotta get my daily 1 000 000% dose of sodium!) so that’s fine by me. The broth was very very salty. I got the rare beef phở, and it was pretty good — there was a good amount of meat in it. It wasn’t very well cut, and it definitely wasn’t quality cow. Could have used a little more noodles.
Still, sooo cheap and soo convenient. The staff is very nice — I like this location so much better than the other ones close by.
Stay away from the pad thai though.

gave this place another chance.
they updated their menu — more options and also better look of the menu folder itself.
haven’t had any issues with the food anymore. the service was way quicker and I liked it better this time.

The restaurant gods have not been kind to me lately…
Went here the other night with some friends and encountered a few mishaps along the course of the night…
First they forget about my friends order and it comes out a full ¹⁵⁄₂₀ minutes after the first dish. Then when it finally arrives a random and very large piece of chicken has made its way into my friends veg dish. (big no no). The server is very accommodating and offers to bring another dish. Fine.
My dish, the green veg curry was missing the tofu. The server was going to take it back and bring me a new dish but I was starving so she just brought me some tofu. Fine.
Seems like the kitchen was sleeping that night however the server was polite and apologetic about it. Most importantly though the food was just meh. for the price. The soups are very reasonably priced but my dish was $ 9. That is a standard price for a veg thai dish in most mid range places. I expected better.
From reading the other reviews it seems like your best bet is to stick to the soups. I might give them another chance with a soup.

I continuously look for good thai food and a good deal. I used to live nearby, so naturally I’ve been here a couple of times.
I am a big fan of their daily specials and cold salad roles. Great for take out or to stay in and have a beer with your meal.
Great soups, noodle dishes like spicy pad thai and COLD SALAD ROLES… Yeah, I’m a big fan of those.
Overall, fast, cheap and good quality. Check it out!

Good, cheap food. Worth a visit, especially if you’re a soup fan.
At this location (and I know the one on Church is the same) you order at the counter and your food is brought to you. They seemed somewhat impatient one time when I was ordering there, most of the time they are fine. The food is brought quickly. The food is also RIDICULOUSLY inexpensive– the soup bowls, notably the Mushroom Coconut one, are enough for a whole meal, and under 5 dollars. The restaurant itself is not particularly well decorated and is average, but seemed very clean to me. This is a staple in the Annex for fast, cheap, delicious meals. (I am a huge soup fan, and both the wonton and the mushroom coconut are A +.) I would recommend this place for lunch, or if you want to eat quickly while you’re in the neighbourhood.

Ginger you’re giving gingers the world over a bad name!
There’s some appearance of cleanliness at this place, everything else goes downhill from there. The food was pretty meh, my pork chop was pretty bland and the plate they had served it on was so chipped that it was embarrassing.
I didn’t go in expecting butler service but Ginger, you can definitely do better than chipped plates, rude staff and very mediocre food.

I made a video on this restaurant. Feel free to Like It on My City Lives (Pink Button – I won’t force you but it would be nice). Thanks! And it’s a great tip. Plus, see me in all of my dorkiness.
VIBE
The Bloor St. location is quite bright and clean. I love it! Very modern. They also have seating for solo diners near the window.
WE ATE
Chicken Banhi Mi (or baguette) for $ 3.50. Honestly, this is one of my cheap eats secrets. Such great value. You could have this for lunch or dinner and feel satisfied. Chicken spring rolls are $ 2 and salad rolls are the same. It’s all really delish! Great for a quick snack if you’re not craving noodles or a big sandwich.
OBLIGATORY CATCHY REMARK
You don’t have to have ginger with your meal but honestly, for the value RUN don’t walk kids! Plus, I like that the locations they have are pretty convenient to major intersections downtown.

I came to Ginger with a friend. We were walking along Bloor St. looking for a restaurant that has a good range of vegetarian dishes (my friend is a vegetarian). Ginger seemed to offer it.
When you enter this restaurant, you would have to order at the cash, but after ordering, you take a seat and the waitress will bring you your food. The waitress seemed annoyed when we were standing and deciding what to get, so when we finally went to order, she was rude and kept rolling her eyes on us. The restaurant cleanness (e.g., tables, utensils, etc.) was okay, not the best, but tolerable. The food tasted a little off for the pad thai.
Overall, the experience here wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t good to bring me back for another time. The attitude from the waitress takes away a star from my review.

WOW, poor little Ginger has only 1 review? I’m surprised!
Ginger is a great little vietnamese «fast food» style place on the Bloor Annex strip.
As the previous reviewer mentioned, the portions are BIG and they don’t skimp on the meat, which is unusual for your typical Annex asian food joint. The food has a nice «fresh» feel — nothing is served greasy or overly fatty.
The menu is big, consisting of mostly Vietnamese and some Thai dishes. 4 – 5 different varieties of spring rolls, 4 – 5 «salad» rolls (the fresh rice paper rolls), phở, bun dishes (vermicelli), various pad thai, udon and stir fries and a slew of vegetarian options.
They also do some really awesome thai style salads — papaya salad with beef, and a mango salad with chicken & shrimp. Both are delicious.
Prices here are really cheap — $ 5.00-$ 7.50 for most entrees, salad/​spring rolls are all $ 1.50-$ 2.00
They also serve really cheap beer here, domestic bottles are $ 2.95
Décor is modern but plain, place is clean. You order from the cashier and you get a number. Food comes out über quickly (3 – 5 mins) so it’s a great place if you’re in a hurry.
Overall, a really great place for cheap eats. I typically pop in here when the Sushi on Bloor line up is long and I’m too hungry to wait (it’s only a couple doors over). In the summer they open up the front so you can sit, eat and people watch in a few seats that overlook the street.