New Pho Bo Ga L.A. (1/5)

Came here with my coworkers for Pho Phriday.  Luckily this place has tons of seating space, they easily fit about 15 of us.

Here they offer extra meat for $2, extra shrimp $0.75 each and extra noodles for $2.  It’s nice that they offer this, I haven’t seen many restaurants with these options (although I’m sure they would give you if you asked), but $0.75 PER SHRIMP?  “Yes, I’ll have my medium pho with one shrimp”.  Mmm hm.

Anyway, besides the regular pho and rice they also have “rice paper roll up” which I think is create-your-own rice paper spring rolls.  They have a few choices of filling such as Shrimp, BBQ Meatballs, BBQ beef and more.  Pretty pricey though, you can choose from 2 to 4 of the fillings which range from $10.50 to $13.50 respectively.

Got my regular medium pho with well done beef, slightly fat beef and beef brisket for $6.99.  There was quite alot of noodles and meat in the bowl – my friend who had a small could barely finish.  Unfortunately, at least half the meat was just fat.  Cubes of fat.  Big thumbs down.

Wasn’t very satisfied after I left, so I’m sorry, I’m going to have to give New Pho Bo Ga L.A. a 1 out of 5.

New Pho Bo Ga L.A.
763 Somerset Street West
Ottawa, ON
K1R 6R1
(613) 233-2222

Prices:
S – $6.50
M – $6.99
L – $7.99
XL – $8.99

Hours: (To be updated)

Rating: 1/5

Pho Bo Ga L.A. (3/5)

Yes, there are two Pho Bo Ga L.A’s within a 10 second walking distance, and they both have  blue sign.  If you read carefully though, one of them is the “New” Pho Bo Ga L.A.  This review is for the “original” PBGL, which is on the South side of Somerset.

They had both fried and rice paper Spring rolls, all priced at $3.99.  We had the rice paper spring roll as usual.  It was a little too minty and the rice paper was too thick (too many layers) for my taste.

A friend of ours got an iced coconut drink, it was FILLED completely with ice.  I’ve never had it before so maybe it’s supposed to like this, but it looks like a rip-off to me!  Fruit shakes are $4.50, featuring all the regular flavours you find at pho (Jackfruit, mango, coconut, etc).  For dessert they have deep fried banana coconut with peanut for $3.99.  Not quite sure what that is, have to check it out another time.

Besides the regular fruit shakes, Pho Bo Ga L.A. also features Vietnamese coffee, which is essentially coffee with condensed milk.  A cup with condensed milk is served with a filter containing coffee, with hot water on the side.  You pour hot water into the filter and let the coffee drip into the cup.

XL pho on left, medium on right

Pho sizes were average, the bowls were more wide than tall.  One thing to note was that each pho was topped with ALOT of green onions, so if you don’t like green onions make sure you let them know!

They are open really late on Friday and Saturday so if for some reason you need a bite at 3am then

Hours:
Sun – Thurs:  10am – 11pm
Fri – Sat:  10am – 4am

Pho Prices:
S – $6.50
M – $6.99
L – $7.50
XL – $8.75

Rating: 3/5

Thu Do (5/5)

Thu do is very clean, and has tons of seating space.  I noticed that every time I come there’s not alot of Vietnamese (or Asian) customers though, I wonder why?

Medium Pho

I got a medium pho as usual, and noticed that it was smaller than medium pho’s at other restaurants.  However I’d have to say that their soup (and meat) is one of the best!

XL Pho

Another note on their food – Thu Do only has fried spring rolls which is a minus for me, I need my rice paper spring rolls!  Rolls are $3.25 for two.

Soursop Shake

Also tried a soursop shake this time, it was refreshing and milky, definitely not a flavour I’m used to

Unfortunately Thu Do closes pretty early (9pm) so don’t go there for your 11pm pho craving!

Thu Do
765 Somerset Street West
Ottawa, ON K1R 6R1
(613) 235-7116

Prices:
S – $5.99
M – $6.70
L – $7.49

Hours:
Daily from 10:00am – 9:00pm

Rating: 5/5

Pho 99 (3/5)

Pho 99, “specializing in Beef Noodle Soup”, is tucked in the corner of Lebreton and Willow St, just south of Somerset. The restaurant was well decorated and seemed to have full out Kareoke equipment including a disco ball and black lights.  They even have a slushie machine with a variety of flavours, $1.10 for small, $1.32 for medium and $1.90 for large.  However I don’t think they are currently offering Kareoke nights – the word “Kareoke” is whited out on their sign out front.

Kendrew and I both had their specialty pho, “Pho Dac Biet 99 (#6)” which includes all the cuts of beef available.  The XL (below) was smaller than Pho Bo Ga King, but is priced cheaper so it’s still a decent deal.  There was plenty of beef in each bowl – enough for a 1:1 ratio of beef and noodle per bite.

The noodles were thinner than usual, which I wasn’t quite used to.  I’d prefer the thicker noodles.  We had a friend comment that the pho was not consistent – his bowl of pho had less noodles than mine (both mediums, pictured below).

Another friend of ours tried their spring rolls, which they thought held together much better than other Pho restaurants they’ve been to – as in they don’t fall apart once you take a bite.

We also had a “Rainbow Ice & Jelly” or “3 coloured ice” drink (#57) which was really good – definitely recommend getting it from here!

Prices:
Small – 5.99
Large – $6.99
XL – 7.99

Pho 99
120 Lebreton St. N
Ottawa, ON
K1R 7H6
(613) 232-7289

Hours:
Open daily: 10am – 9pm

Pho Bo Ga King (5/5)

Our first stop is to Pho Bo Ga King, which just opened a few weeks ago.   Our first impression of this restaurant was that it was clean, and well maintained.  The service was quite good – we came in for a party of 15 and they willingly moved a couple of tables around to accomodate us.

The menu features your regular appetizers, pho, vermicelli and rice dishes.   They do serve many different types of drinks which you will notice from the posters displayed outside of the restaurant.  [edit] They also serve deep fried banana and deep fried ice cream, so make sure you try those if you haven’t before!

Aside from the “regular” avocado, mango and strawberry shakes, you can also find durian, rambutan, kiwi shakes and more.

We ordered a shredded pork spring roll which was pretty good, nothing too special.

Kendrew had an XL pho (#6 – Flank and Brisket I think) and I had a medium pho. (#6 as well). The X-Large pho was HUGE, I’ve never seen a pho bowl that big, even in Toronto.  You can compare the size of the bowl with the tea cup behind it.

Forgot to record what the prices were.  I think the prices were approximately as follows:

Prices:
Small – $6
Medium – $7
Large – $8
XL – $9

All in all the quality and service of Pho Bo Ga King are above average.  You can even try one of their special noodles and rice posted on the walls in the restaurant.  They are currently offering 10% off your bill (and doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon) so make sure you take advantage of that!

Pho Bo Ga King
778 Somerset St. West
Ottawa, ON
K1R 6R6
(613) 237-3002

Hours:
Open daily 10am – 12am

Rating: 5/5