Ever since my first meal at a Vietnamese restaurant in Toronto, I’ve expected nothing but the best!
 Viet House, situated out of the bubble. Pretty sure we were in a suburb area, there was only a restaurant every couple of blocks, and a Mary Brown (fried chicken franchise) across the road.
It was nearly 9PM and we were all exhausted. Even microsleeping throughout the one hour ride, I was still pretty done for the day. We went to the Premium Outlet which just opened three days ago in Halton Hills. A trek and waiting isn’t a problem to Canadians, is it? I was feeling restless, having been in the car for an hour and 45 minutes, then having it take an hour to find parking! I just wanted a nice, warm bowl of pho to end the day.
I love the colourful ceiling lights here. Apparently, a lot of Vietnamese restaurants have these here. I’ve only seen them at receptions in Sydney! Never restaurants.
Menu time!
 I absolutely loved how we were able to choose the items in our rice, pho or vermicelli – such a great idea! My biggest problem when ordering food is, that, I always want one item but not the other, and the other options they have are always of a combination I don’t 100% want. Viet House, you are getting close to becoming a winner.
Vietnamese restaurants in Toronto are overall a lot cheaper relative to Sydney prices!
They also had a lot of ‘Dinner combos’ – which I was most intrigued by! Of:
Fish ($29.95)- Caramelised fish, Canh chua and any entree
– Shrimp ($35.95~)- Canh chua tom, Caramelised shrimp and any entree
Dinner for two ($18.95)- Goi cuon, Mango salad and Pad Thai (or an entree)
Beef 7 courses for two ($29.95~)- Beef fondue, Beef salad, Beef wrapped betel leaf, beef satay, Steam beef pate, Shaking beef and beef congee
After being served hardly warm tea after requesting hot, and 25 minutes with only another table in the restaurant on a Saturday evening, we finally received our dishes. But aren’t the entrees meant to come first?
1. Vermicelli with Spring roll and Shrimp wrapped bean curd ($7.95)
Served with bean sprouts, mints and lettuce
When you think of vermicelli and fish sauce, you think of fresh! Heaps of herbs and lettuce to dig through, and a massive bowl of fish sauce to pour over. But this was opposite. The bowl was indeed massive, but another bowl of fish sauce needed to be ordered, and there were hardly any greens! Ridiculous.
 2.  Beef Noodle Soup with Brisket, Tendon and Beef Balls Regular ($6.95)
Served with condiments, the usual Asian basil, bean sprouts and lime
This was a pretty slack bowl of pho. Not the usual slightly soft, elastic-y noodles I would expect, and they cut up the meat into such tiny pieces! I literally had one 3 cm piece of skinny tendon, and another 2 cm piece. Three small meatballs lol… And the brisket… I could hardly taste anything – these are meant to be nice and thick! Oh, gosh. You could have easily improved this Viet House!
We received our Fresh Rice Paper Rolls mid-way through our meal. I was going to save the bites after my pho, but the goi cuon just wasn’t nice, so I ate it before finishing off my pho.
1. Skinny pieces of brisket, and that meatball.
2. Extremely diluted ‘peanut’ sauce. It didn’t even taste like peanut sauce! It tasted more like hoisin sauce with rice wine or some sort. Disappointing. The fish sauce wasn’t even nice for dipping the goi cuon either.
3. The tiny piece of limes we were given (two, for two bowls of pho). They were about 3cm long – you are humourous, Viet House.
Friendly but not very attentive service – we needed our tea refilled dammit! This made me sad. I didn’t feel very satisfied after the meal. Goi cuon is my fave too… And I haven’t had pho in well over six months, this was a sad experience. Oh well, at least it didn’t hurt the pocket.
(Two sad potatoes)

Viet House
3200 Dufferin Street
Toronto ON
M6A 2T2 Canada

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