Pho Huong, on the corner of Pacific Ave and Dundas St W, is a local hot spot in the Junction. While somewhat hidden away this 'authentic' Vietnamese restaurant is always bustling at mealtimes with families, groups of friends, and people stopping in for a quick meal. In my case, I'm making the trip on a rainy evening for some comforting broth to lighten up a long, hard day.
My best friend and I walk in to Pho Huong and are motioned by a busy server to take a table at the back. The restaurant is brightly lit and well kept, only having opened just over a year ago. The decoration is tastefully simple but the tables themselves are of the gets-the-job-done genre typical of pho restaurants. Each has a little station with tableware, utensils, and a wide array of condiments.
My friend's a regular and I've been there a fair share of times myself so we both quickly get to work jotting down our orders. Skipping over the Rice, Vermicelli, and other dishes, we go straight for the pho. While the others are good, especially the Vermicelli, we know that the Pho is the real star here and we're too tired to mess around.
Despite our practiced efficiency, the tea arrives to our table before we've finished writing out our orders. We add on some drinks and spring rolls before our slip is picked up by one of the servers, who checks it over with a brisk nod and walks off.
The spring rolls ($3.75) come quickly. I pick a piece up, using a napkin to protect my fingers from the piping hot oil, and gingerly bite in. The shell is crispy and the filling tasty. My friend is famished, so I let her take the lion's share as I finish my piece and wait for the pho.
I don't have to wait long - the two bowls, huge though they're technically the "small," are deftly placed before us, accompanied by a plate of fresh bean sprouts, herbs, lime, and chilis. I generously season my bowl of rare beef and chicken with noodles ($5.95) with the herbs while my friend opts to leave her bowl of chicken with noodles ($6.50) as is.
I work on my lemon and sugar with soda ($3.00) while I wait for the meat to fully cook in the broth. While Pho Huong offers a wide variety of freshly made fruit smoothies, I enjoy the clean simplicity of the very fresh and very sour fizz.
Finally we dig into our pho bowls gracelessly, the long noodles dangling out of our mouths as we awkwardly attempt to bite them short. I'm rather convinced that someone better trained could do this with more dignity, but don't bother myself too much over it. The noodles are good and the meat is fresh, but it's the broth that's the reason I'll wander all the way to the junction for my pho. Made fresh daily using the owner Hanna's home recipe, it's complex and flavourful; it always reminds me of a comforting hug, putting the world back into perspective as each sip helps wash away my cares.
While the service is no-nonsense, there is no sense of rush to finish our meals. We take our time, sometimes chatting, sometimes just watching Hanna's three little girls run around the tables. Finally we flag down the bill and head back out into the pouring rain, our souls a little warmer than before.
Pho Houng is open from 10am to 10pm Sunday through Thursday, and 10am to 11pm Friday and Saturday. Dishes range from $6-$8 typically, pho coming in small (pictured above), medium, or large. They offer takeout and delivery.
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Dammit... there goes my Pho spot.
My thoughts exactly, AV. :(
I just blasted my gullet with some of that fine ass Lemon Grass Chicken, and my lady partner loved her some sweet Chicken Curry. It revolutionized the smartphone industry with super awesome taste!
I just blasted my gullet with some of that sweet ass lemon chicken on rice, while my partner with lady bits slapped her belly with some fine ass chicken curry. This place is effin' sweet as all hell and revolutionized the smartphone industry with it awesome friggin' taste.
I'll concur with the first 2 comments!!
one of the best spots in the city!
But don't you miss the surly kids who were more interested in watching the monster-sized TV than taking your order in the spot's previous Pho incarnation? Yeah, me neither...
noodles look good, but check their dine safe record:
http://app.toronto.ca/food2/DineSafeMain?userRequest=view_history&ESTABLISHMENT_ID=10326363
Nooooo, the secrets out! Between this and Bhaan Thai down the street, I will be one sorry person when I move out of the Junction.
seriously? You think that's a bad dine safe record? You definitely have no clue what goes on in most restaurants...do yourself a favour and don't look up any other restaurants or stores, you'll never leave your house again.
Love the food, it was delicious. The atmosphere is cozy. However, we waited abit long for our food to come...but overall we really enjoyed the food here and the price was also reasonable.
Hi Yvonne; can I ask how big the party was, and how busy the restaurant was? Just to help give an idea of what to expect: I know when I go, even when its rather busy, the wait isn't long at all--so I'm curious what conditions will make for a long wait.
Thanks
Amanda
PHO HUONG ROOCKS! This gem is wayyy better than the 'original pho' on Spadina, cold veggie spring rolls and the advocado shake are a must-try!
Hi Amanda,
Sorry didn't reply right away, but to answer your question, we waited about 1/2 for our food to come. It was rather busy that day, and not enough staff. But once the food came, it was all worth the wait. The food was delicious!!!!
I love this place. Go every other week. Great food, cheap prices, decent service. Occasionally when it's really busy there's a 20+ minute wait for food but 90% of the time it comes in under 10 minutes. YUMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!
Terrible service. We went for pho here the other day, and have been here before. Each time we go, ordering is very difficult if we need to ask any clarifying questions about the menu. It seems that none of the servers can speak more than 5 words of English. This time in particular, we ordered an appetizer (or "appertizer" as spelled on the menu) of shrimp cakes. These extremely greasy, flavourless, very dense "cakes" were served with a single shrimp on top, left whole with legs, shell and all, deep-fried - for $7! I decided to give it a try anyway, minus the unappetizing-looking shrimp, but it tasted worse than it looked. When the server noticed we had not touched the appetizer, he offered for us to take it to go. After clearly letting him know that we were unhappy with this item and even stating that it tasted bad, he proceeded to mutter under his breath and asked us several more times if we wanted to take it to go. He refused to take it off our bill stating "it's done now" and when asked to speak to a manager, he replied that there is no manager today (on a Saturday!) So basically we were shit out of luck. We will never go back to this place.