Midnight Sun

Hey folks!

Brand new review coming at you, this time on ‘High Street’ on 11003 – 124 Street is Midnight Sun.  Not exactly on the hip and exciting section of 124 street but it’s there.  I’ve driven by Midnight Sun many many times and always questioned what they offered and the rumour was it’s a Vietnamese and Chinese restaurant, usually I get burned coming to these types of restaurants because they say they have Vietnamese food but it’s just spring rolls and the rest is Chinese food.  I called ahead and made sure that wasn’t the case.

I ordered the large ‘Satay Beef Rice Noodle‘ for $10.50, the meal is topped with lots of green onions and some sort of dried or fried flakes.  Within the thick brown gravy-like broth is cucumbers and bean sprouts and…and…I can’t do this!  This meal does not smell appetizing at all.  I gave the noodles a flip and noticed a lot of random chunks and unexplainable particulates throughout the soup and none of it looks or smells appetizing at all.  There is a lot of noodles given and a very generous amount of chewy pre-cooked beef, if you’re willing to eat it.  The broth tastes as bad as it smells, I can’t describe it, I have no idea what I’m eating.  This is the first meal that I can’t finish, I’m gagging just thinking about it.

Review

Broth: 1/5   Portion: 4/5   Overall Taste: 0/5   Value: 3/5

Overall Satisfaction: 1/5

Saigon Garden

Happy New Year everyone!

First post of 2013 and I’m a little over a week away from my one year anniversary with this blog, every Monday for a full year (minus one Monday) there was a brand new review.  I am very close to having done every Vietnamese restaurant that has Satay Beef Noodle Soup in Edmonton and surrounding area.  Coming up for the first review of the new year, Saigon Garden in Chinatown (9711 107 Ave).  I actually thought I hit every Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown (that has Satay Beef Noodle Soup) but Saigon Garden was closed for renovations and just opened about a month ago.

I ordered the ‘Satay Noodle with Beef‘ for $8.95, the meal is topped with tomatoes, cucumbers, green and white onions, there is a little bit of lettuce in the orangey creamy broth as well. There is a good amount of sliced beef that look roast beef like, a nice cut of beef is used in here. The meal looks really good but unfortunately there’s an overpowering scent to the broth, one that has eluded me for the past, well, year.  I could be off base here, but I believe it’s shrimp paste and Saigon Garden uses a lot of it.  For those that know me, I am not a fan of seafood and this really affects how I perceived this meal.  There is just way too much shrimp paste in this meal, it’s all I taste in this meal.  For some other person, this might be an awesome meal, but unfortunately for me, I’m having a hard time putting this down.  The only other complaint I had about this meal was the noodles were all small strands, made it a bit difficult to pick it up with chopsticks.  So I’m going to add a little disclaimer on this review.  I didn’t enjoy this meal because of the overly shrimp flavor but I’m sure if someone else who enjoys shrimp tried this, they would like this.

Review

Broth: 2.5/5   Portion: 3/5   Overall Taste: 1/5*   Value: 3/5

Overall Satisfaction: 2/5*

*I didn’t enjoy this meal because there’s a lot of shrimp in the broth*

Pho Xpress

Happy New Year’s Eve people!

All the way in Leduc is the next review and last review of 2012!  Pho Xpress (5411 Discovery Way), situated on the furthest north end of Leduc Common by the Swiss Chalet just in case you’re like me and don’t know your way around the area.

I ordered the ‘Satay Beef Noodle‘ for $10.95.  The food comes out in a shallow but somewhat wide bowl, first impressions was that this I’ve gotten a very small portion, especially for the price.  There’s a little more food than meets the eye, but overall it is still a small portion for the price.  The soup is a cloudy, pale orange colour and is joined with cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, onion slices and lots of green onions.  There’s a slight interesting scent to the soup, a kind of sour smell but not too strong.  The flavour is overly plain, there’s just a little smack of savouriness in the soup but overall it is horribly bland.  I have no idea what they use to make dish specifically Satay, but whatever they use it steals the flavour like adding water to soup; the only time there was any taste was when my scoop of soup had onion on it.  I had to add more Sriracha just to get a bit of flavour out of this meal, also, with all that Sriracha I added, the soup wasn’t spicy at all.  There was about an average amount of noodle but it’s a little skimpy on the beef.  Overall, this is quite the disappointment, from the price, the portion and the flavour, this is not a good Satay Beef Noodle Soup.

Review

Broth: 1.5/5   Portion: 1.5/5   Overall Taste: 1/5   Value: 1/5

Overall Satisfaction: 1.5/5

CoDo Hue

Hello everybody!

I finally hit up CoDo Hue out on 12819 140 Ave.  This restaurant was an early suggestion but I kept putting it on the backburner since it’s on the complete opposite side of town for me.  Unfortunately, they close on Tuesdays which is inconvenient because I’m usually on the northside for guitar lessons.

“This note here is an G chord, not ‘sound like shit’ chord.”

Here they serve ‘Sate Beef Rice Noodle Soup‘ for $9.95.  When the food comes out, I remember something that someone mentioned on Urbanspoon saying that the cook at CoDo Hue used to be from Trang Tien as well.  For those who are just joining us now, I’m not the biggest fan of the Satay Beef Noodle Soup they make.  The same milky curd-like pieces show up in the meal but this time around they are a lot more dissipated than when I first got it in Trang Tien as Ngu Binh as well.  The soup tastes like standard pho broth with a slight liquorice taste to the soup, could possibly be from using star anise to spice the soup.  After having this similar meal three times, I still can’t put my finger on what the milky curds really are.  There’s a decent amount of el dente rice noodles with the meal and the difference from the other two similar places is that this meal is a notch spicier.  Still not impressed with this version of Satay Beef Noodle Soup.

Review

Broth: 2/5   Portion: 2.5/5   Overall Taste: 2.5/5   Value: 2.5/5

Overall Satisfaction: 2/5

I’m lazy this week so I’ll use Tard the Grumpy cat to express how I feel about this weeks meal.

Saigon Cuisine

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Another Monday, another review.  This time I finally finish off the Vietnamese restaurants in Sherwood Park, I went to Saigon Cuisine (221 Chippewa Road).  Now this is going to warrant a comparison to Taste of Vietnam, so let’s see how Saigon Cuisine fares.

I made a mistake of doing my ring of Sriracha in my meal before taking a picture, also, there they don’t give bean sprouts and lime/lemon on the side with the food.  Actually, bean sprouts are already added into the soup as well with cucumbers, some green onions and a couple of slices of tomatoes.  The brownish soup is incredibly thick, it’s like one molecular bond from being gelatin, I haven’t seen a soup be so thick before.  The soup has a slightly savoury beefy flavour with a hint of ginger but nothing to get excited about, it’s not that good.  The meal comes with lots of chewy beef pieces and a very generous amount of noodles.  The liquid to solids ratio weighs heavily on the solids side, very filling meal.

 Review

Broth: 1.5/5   Portion: 3/5   Overall Taste: 2/5   Value: 3/5

Overall Satisfaction: 2/5

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Ngu Binh

Hello everybody!

Recommend by someone that I could consider a fan of the blog is Ngu Binh (15620 95 Ave) in the Meadowlark area.  Another hidden, middle of nowhere restaurant, so I’m grateful for this recommendation as I am with all the others.  Keep them coming folks!

Here they serve ‘Sate Beef Rice Noodle Soup‘ for $9.95.  The broth looks like a cloudy frothy version of standard pho broth with a tinge of orange from chili oil.  It’s topped with white and green onion slices and also some of that weird white chunky stuff that I got from Trang Tien, only this time it’s not as much, I’m guessing most of it was already dissipated before it was served to me.  Anyways, after I put the bean sprouts, sriracha and squeeze of lemon in, I let the soup cook the sprouts and the remaining ‘cheese’ eventually dissipates into the soup giving it more of the cloudiness.

The soup tastes like standard pho broth with a slight liquorice taste to the soup, could possibly be from using star anise to spice the soup.  There’s a minimal amount of noodles and fair amount of rare beef slices accompanying the meal.  Overall, there is nothing extraordinary about the meal, it’s an average sized meal and the flavour is nothing to get excited about.

Review

Broth: 2/5   Portion: 2.5/5   Overall Taste: 2.5/5   Value: 2.5/5

Overall Satisfaction: 2/5

Quan’s Cafe

Happy Labour Day readers!

Coming up next is Quan’s Cafe (11148-142 Street), this place was suggested by Twitter follower @beedeemyers many months ago.  I’ve been trying to get to place ever since then but since they are only open during lunch hours on weekdays only and close by the time I get off of work, the only chance I had was when I had an afternoon dentist appointment and took half a day off.  One thought I did have about this place was how successful it is if they only open for a few hours on weekdays only.  Time to finally find out!

On the menu is ‘Satay Beef Noodle Soup‘ for $9.95.  The broth is a brownish yellow and is topped with green onions, lettuce, cucumbers, bean sprouts and whole peanuts which I find to be a pretty minute detail that I like for some reason.  There isn’t much flavour in the soup, very watery tasting with a bit a peanuty taste.  The chewy pre-cooked beef was the only thing that had much flavour.  Overall, the meal is pretty small for the price and the taste was quite underwhelming, I’m a little sad that after all the build up of trying to work things around to get here that this isn’t all that great.

Review

Broth: 1.5/5   Portion: 1.5/5   Overall Taste: 1.5/5   Value: 1.5/5

Overall Satisfaction: 1.5/5

Phonatics

Howdy folks, coming up next on the north side is Phonatics (13138 137 Ave), a punny restaurant which at first I confused for ‘phonetics’ rather than ‘fanatics’.  Hopefully the food is as good as it’s name.

Offered here is ‘Beef Satay Soup‘ for $11.50…wow, $11.50, that’s pretty steep for no size option, hopefully they compensate the price for a bigger meal.  For those faithful followers, at Pho Hoan Pasteur, you get a meal fit for a family of four for $12.00 and it’s very tasty.  So let’s see how Phonatics compares for that price.

The broth is a light-brown colour with some cloudiness to it.  There’s a nice peanuty scent from the soup that whets the appetite.  Unfortunately, first glance at the size of the bowl, I quickly determined that $11.50 is very steep for amount of food given here, oh well, there’s still the matter of flavour.  The meal is topped with cucumbers, onions lettuce and peanuts, lots and lots of peanuts.  In fact, I think the only thing they did to make this soup ‘satay’ is boil a whole thing of crushed peanuts in standard broth.  The soup has a very light taste to it, like salted water with a smack of onion and garlic, it’s not until the end of the meal that you get barraged by peanuts.  There’s an average amount of noodles and a very minimal amount of sliced beef in the soup.  Overall, a very lackluster meal with a very high price point, not worth the price of admission.

 Review

Broth: 1/5   Portion: 1/5   Overall Taste: 1/5   Value: 0.5/5

Overall Satisfaction: 1/5

Pho Anh Vietnamese Cuisine

Happy Civic Holiday (aka Heritage Days), I like to think that we take this day to honour the Honda Civic.

Overcompensating…for cheap!

On this episode post, Pho Anh Vietnamese Cuisine (150, 4211 – 10 Street).  This location is very interesting, Pho Anh is sandwiched between a Chinese and a Thai restaurant, now everyone can get whatever they want for dinner…as long as everyone wants something Asian.  The only problem with having 3 restaurants crammed together into this area is that Pho Anh, in the least, is an incredibly small restaurant.  Also it was sweltering hot inside the restaurant too, with me eating spicy soup and being in the hot restaurant, I was quite sweaty by the end of the meal that the waitress embarrassingly brought it up.

That and I sweat more than the average overweight person while eating anyways.

Offered here is ‘Satay Beef Noodle Soup‘ for $8.95.  The meal comes out very quickly and piping hot.  The presentation is very basic, it’s standard pho broth with chili oil (with a little bit of something else) and it’s topped with green and white onions.  The ‘something else’ I mentioned gives the soup a bit of a sour smell to it.  The soup has an overall sour and salty flavour to it, very much like ‘Hot and Sour’ soup, and there is a quite a bit of spiciness to this soup.  The noodles are really soft but they give a decent amount and deceivingly there’s more meat than what you first perceive.  Overall, this is not that great of an effort for Satay Beef Noodle Soup.

 Review

Broth: 1.5/5   Portion: 2/5   Overall Taste: 1.5/5   Value: 2/5

Overall Satisfaction: 1.5/5

Trang Tien

G’day folks!

Coming up next is Trang Tien (9449 Jasper Ave) just south of Chinatown.  To tell you the truth, this is the restaurant that originally made me want to start this blog, for years prior to starting this blog, I ate at Hoa An all the time for their awesome Satay Beef Noodle Soup.  Then one day my roommate at the time was telling me that his Vietnamese co-worker was raving about Trang Tien.  Have to trust a full-blooded Vietnamese guy to know good Vietnamese food right?  So we went to try it out one day.  How did we like it? Why did I start my blog because of it?  Find out at the end!

At Trang Tien, they serve ‘Sate Beef Rice Noodle Soup‘ for $10.25.  The broth looks like a darker version of the standard pho broth with a tinge of orange from chili oil.  It’s topped with white and green onion slices and some…weird…white stuff?  At first glace it looks like egg white dropped into the soup but it has the consistency of cottage cheese?  I tried a piece of the ‘cheese’ on it’s own and it has a very sharp flavour like feta…maybe I should get the visual of cheese out of my mind.  I really can’t tell what this is but I’m thinking that it should be coconut milk, but the sharp taste is definitely not what I expected.  Anyways, after I put the bean sprouts, sriracha and squeeze of lime in, I let the soup cook the sprouts and the ‘cheese’ eventually dissipates into the soup giving it some cloudiness.

The soup tastes like standard pho broth with a bit of kick of spiciness, there’s also a slight liquorice taste to the soup.  Peanuts can be found at the bottom of the soup giving a bit nuttiness near the end of the meal.  There’s a decent amount of noodles and rare beef slices accompanying the meal.  Overall, the meal is bit underwhelming, especially for the price, it’s an average sized meal for an above average price and the flavour is nothing special.

Review

Broth: 2/5   Portion: 2.5/5   Overall Taste: 2.5/5   Value: 2/5

Overall Satisfaction: 2/5

So there you have it, the meal that I got the first time I went to Trang Tien was even less impressive, per se.  It was essentially standard pho broth with just chili oil mixed in, what’s worse is that the Satay version cost more than the standard pho…for someone to add chili oil to your soup when that stuff can be found on your table!  After the first time at Trang Tien, I was thinking I should go around to different Vietnamese restaurants and find out which restaurants cheap out on their Satay Noodle Soup.  A couple years later, that idea finally became WonderPho.  Oh and by the way, the reason my former roommate’s co-worker was raving about the restaurant, his wife was a waitress there…