Soy House Vietnamese Cooking

Don’t get fried rice here!
We ordered one fried rice with chicken $ 10.99.
It tasted terrible. It was burnt flavored rice with frozen mixed vegetables.
Nobody came back to our table to ask how everything was, so we couldn’t even complain to return our fried rice. Wonton soup and bubble tea were ok as usual.

My meal here was delicious. I had a Vietnamese soup (not phở) with mixed noodles, ground pork, bbq pork, shrimp and bits of crunchy fried garlic on top. It was very, very tasty. I also had the taro bubble tea, which was probably the best bubble tea I’ve ever had. My server was excellent as well. Overall a very good experience and I would definitely return.

Overpriced bland dishwater with veggies. I could not finish it. The phở is something I never have to try again thank God. And the service wasn’t much better

Mediocre. This is a little too upscale for my taste. Usually in cases like this, the best food is served out of the scummiest hole in the wall shacks, not some hip, modern decorated restaurant with a really fancy looking menu. I’m not Vietnamese, so I have no authority to determine the authenticity of the food, but I definitely question it here. The food wasn’t any better than the Phở places around town. Maybe dressed up better and definitely a few bucks more.

Not real Vietnamese food. The phở was not good at all and the honey walnut prawns don’t even look or taste like the ones I’ve tasted from other restaurants. They charged me $ 18 for like 4 or 5 prawns. There was more vegetables than there was prawns. Really really disppointing. Only going to Phở 99 for phở from now on.

Pretty good Vietnamese place. It’s nice they have their own parking lot. The wait took a while, maybe they were just really busy. But the service was nice and the food was tasty. They have an assortment of different dishes.

My husband and I went to Soy House for a lunch date today. Looking at the options, I commented that I’d need to come back 17 times to try all of the delicious sounding dishes on their menu. I ordered the green salad with chicken & peanut dressing. My husband went with a server recommended chicken curry dish. Both dishes, unfortunately, featured tough, overcooked chicken. I ate the vegetables out of my salad. My husband ate very little of his lunch. We mentioned our disappointment to our server, who reported back that the kitchen hadn’t done anything different than usual, so apparently molar-​aching dishes are the norm. I thought our server was pleasant, so there’s that. I told my husband I’d have been better off if I’d stayed home, eaten a bowl of cereal, and cleaned our room. Except for the veggies, I guess.

I’m surprised by so many negative reviews for Soy House. I’ve frequented the Bakerview location many times but just visited the Holly street location for the first time. This place has the best tofu ever. It’s crispy and flavorful, and they use organic which is a big plus. Everything I’ve ordered has been really good and mostly inexpensive. They have an excellent variety of choices on their menu, even Vietnamese «pizza» which I haven’t tried but seems interesting. I don’t really come here to eat pizza though. Their phở is my favorite in town. My only complaint is the spice level. I asked for two stars in the stir fry dish I ordered and it tasted like zero. There wasn’t even a hint of spice. Also the service has been inconsistent; they are very friendly but can be slow.

Quite possibly the worst service I have ever experienced. The waitresses clearly do not care for their job. The only person who asked us if we needed anything or bussed our plates was the hostess, who ALSO ended up running our card that was sitting for over 20 minutes very visibly ready to be picked up.
There were MAYBE five tables, at least three servers on, a host up front, and I have NO idea where our waitress was the entire time.
The food was nothing special at all, and the menu, although it looks extensive, is not. Not worth take — out either. Save your money.

I can’t speak for the food, but this place makes a mean avocado bubble tea.
The bubble tea flavors are abundant and they allow you to «create your own» so you can get it in a milk tea or fruit smoothie. You also get to choose whether you have tapioca balls or lychee or whatever else.
Service was definitely friendly and the cashier gave us a punch card so we can come back and get a free tea eventually.
They had a piano inside and the décor was bright and cheery. Seems like this place has gotten some bad reviews, but unless the food absolutely sucks, I don’t know why.

I believe it’s priced properly
Good portion and good taste
Service is okay not great but damn good phở

Ordered take out and they didn’t even give sauce or utensils, also the papaya salad was just papaya with hoisin on top. I have only heard bad things about this place so my expectations were low and they still disappointed me

3.5 stars. An event I went to was catered by Soy House. They served lemongrass tofu, chicken and pork along with vermicelli noodles and spring rolls. I enjoyed the catered tofu and chicken a lot and wanted to try out their restaurant. I recently was able to give it a go! I got the seafood delight with a tofu spring roll. The table also ordered curry seafood, pineapple tofu, sweet potato fries and a tofu spring roll. We all enjoyed our meals.
My seafood delight had shrimp, scallops and squid with mixed veggies in a delicious sauce. I was disappointed in the lack of seafood on my plate, it was mostly veggies and rice. Also I wish the spice scale applied to my dish. I had to add spicy sauce to amp it up.
My dad, who got the seafood curry, also found it light on the protein. For the price you pay I would have expected more seafood. He also felt that he should have gotten a 3-​star instead of a 2 in terms of spice.
My friend on the other hand got a lot of tofu, so maybe that just means you have to get tofu in order to get the money’s worth. Her dish was the best out of the 3. The sweet and savory went well together.
I will give them another chance because I did enjoy the flavor of the dishes as well as the yummy sweet potato fries.

I used to frequent this phở restaurant at least weekly until I recently had the most god awful experience. Ordered the medium rare beef phở with extra tendon & tripe with added seasonal vegetables only to find a short black, wiry hair midway through my meal. I’m a server myself and have never seen hair that so resembled pubic hair in food. I know freeloaders all around try and push that one on servers in order to score a free meal, but I never though I’d experience it first hand from the customers point of view. After asking a server (not our tables) if I could have the phở taken back she told me that I wouldn’t be charged and if I’d like a new one. Well duh! I told her to just make the new one to go since I had an appointment after. Out comes a new one all packed up 10 minutes later. My friend opens up our checkbook only to find that I’ve been charged for my phở with her duck soup… WHAT? Like, are you serious? I ask our server what’s up (not her fault, I understand being a server means having to listen to restaurant owners that don’t know a thing about running a restaurant) and she lets me know that they’re giving me 20% off of my phở rather than comp’ing it. I’m so confused that she gets her «manager/​restaurant owner» (I’m assuming) and the lady begins to tell me that because they made me a new one and I had been halfway through my last phở before I found the hair in it, I had to pay for one. Literally absurd. I could have been completely done with my meal and at the bottom of the bowl found something written in shit and I feel like I’d still be charged for my phở with her logic.
Will NOT eat here again.

Great location — really enjoy how bright this spot is for lunch on a nice day. I’ve visited the Soy House a few times since they’ve opened, with the most recent meal being Coconut Curry. Only complaint I have was the level of spice (asked for 4, tasted like 0) and quantity of rice (see pic). Food is good but not extraordinary.

Great place to grab a bowl of Phở. My son lives in Bellingham and we frequently grab lunch here when we visit. Staff is attentive and food is always fresh. Vegetarian phở with tofu is a must! Egg rolls are delicious. Good location. Outside seating for those hot summer days! Vietnamese coffee is yummy!

A 2 might be kind of harsh, but I’ve had my share of boba milk tea experiences in many places.
First, I am surprised by the number of Asian restaurants in the Bellingham area. A decent amount of options considering the size of the city.
We drove by this one and stopped by because we were craving boba milk tea and saw their Bubble Tea! sign.
Their menu was pretty straight forward. Step 1 — Pick a flavor to add to your milk tea and Step 2 — Add any toppings. Well, apparently they don’t get too many requests for just milk tea with boba. I was surprised they had to go back to the cook and ask if they even make that.
I thought the milk tea itself was chalky tasting. The boba didn’t taste like any other I’ve had. Overall the drink grew on me. Maybe because it was getting hot that day and we were out and about? Thirst does that to you.
I didn’t get a chance to try their food, but I did look at the menu. There were some typical Vietnamese dishes and others I thought really? Another observation was that the prices were pretty high.

I’ve been to both the soy house on Bakerview and Holly street. My complaint with holly street is that it’s very noisy and a little too open, there isn’t any feeling of privacy for the tables, especially with the large glass windows. Noise echoes quite a bit as well.
The food is pretty good. The fresh rolls are easy, however I prefer a different type of vermicelli compared to what they use. Theirs is thicker, slightly oily. Their Phở is pretty good, however I prefer another bellingham establishment for that. Their spring rolls are always greasy, I don’t know what it is but their just too greasy all the time. The curry soups they have as specials are always delicious. They have a very light delicate curry flavor, great with rice added. I enjoy their sandwiches, the bread looks big but it’s very light and airy. The lemon grass beef has good flavor however I find the texture to be just a little off, as if it’s marinated too long and the texture of the beef has broken down too much. I also enjoy the fried noodles with meat and bean sprouts, reminds me of Chinese chow fun.
Overall a nice place to eat and enjoy Vietnamese. The restaurant is always clean and the staff/​owners are always very friendly and accommodating.

Phở Surprise — Soy House!
Yes, I know today is not phoriday, however I had a chance to try out a phở place in Bellingham so who am I to complain? Today’s special edition of an early phoriday is brought to you by the Soy House in Bellingham. I had a meeting there today and one of our sales people recommended we give it a shot.
First off, in a place with metered parking let me recommend you park your car in the huge lot Soy House has out front. I parked in metered parking and managed to secure a ticket for parking sixty-​eight minutes when I’d only paid for sixty minutes of parking. Had I just taken advantage of the parking available I’d not be thirty dollars poorer today.
As for the phở, it was solid though not as good as it could be. The stock was beefy and rich, the noodles cooked enough and the toppings for the most part, pretty good.
The two things I found a bit lacking was that as with many phở places the basil was wilted with black spots. Also lacking was that the broth was not piping hot. I prefer to have my soup come to the table as hot as possible. Unfortunately, many phở shops put hot soup into cold bowls which results in a less than piping hot soup. Soup was made to be hot! Pity this was not.
Beyond that, the restaurant was one of the nicest phở places I’ve been to. Wide windows line the front walls and plenty of tables nestle inside. The wait staff paid attention to our needs and the food was delivered to our table quickly and with a minimum of fuss.
Ratings
Location: B–
Condiments: C
Heat Index: C
Broth: C
Meat: A
Overall: C+ (One out of three phở bowls)

I always fear someone will think I have too many 4 star reviews but it occurred to me while sitting in Soy House that it is because I now follow Unilocal,I’m less likely to go to a crap place,.
Soy House has superior Vietnamese food. Fresh and a little bit edgier of than most Vietnamese,. somehow more gourmet (though not fusion except the pizza).
The servers were verging on hipster, but the rest of it looked like a slightly upscale version of your usual good asian restaurant. The location (apparently new), is mostly windows and is right on Holly St. near my favourite strip of businesses, so has a nice view of the water and industrial background in Bellingham.
The real standout here though is price. Especially for visiting Vancouverites, it seems like someone got the bill wrong, Huge portion, better quality Vietnamese would cost double in Vancouver.
Presentation looks like a high quality place,. other customers «ahhed» when our «Bun» came out, but their combo Bun was even more impressive. We also had the pizza,… sound weird? It turns out it was quite good and kind of their thing, especially all the Vietnamese sauce flavours like green curry — I think worth a try but there is a ton to choose from, and it all looked good.