Cafe Xu Hue on Kingsway, Vancouver

Ben picked me up from work on one of the Friday in March. He wanted to check out the new T&T on Kingsway.

So, we had dinner at a nearby restaurant, Cafe Xu Hue.

It was past 6:30pm and the place was quiet as it is close to their closing time.

Ben ordered their famous Bun Bo Hue Dac Biet whch is spicy Vietnamese Vermicelli with sliced pork and beef, pork congealed blood in soup.

Gia Minh Vietnamese Restaurant on Fraser St., Vancouver

Jo invited Ben and I for dinner on a weekday impromptu.

Jo ordered a couple of appetizers. The first one was the above BBQ squid. It was tender and it came with a dipping sauce.

Jo wanted the salad roll but ordered wrongly and got the spring roll instead. The spring roll was rather skinny. I prefer those wrap in rice paper.

Jo decided to order another salad roll which she originally intended. Salad roll is more healthy without the deep frying. This came with a peanut dipping sauce.

Gia Minh Vietnamese Restaurant on Fraser St., Vancouver

TGIF! My family went out for dinner as the home cook is taking a break.

We went for Vietnamese cuisine as it’s been a while we had that. We went to Gia Minh Vietnamese Restaurant on Fraser St.

Gia Minh was not busy at about 6:30PM.

Although the restaurant was not busy, the service was a bit slow.

Ben and I shared a Gia Minh’s special combo, Combo A. We can have the option of rice or vermicelli and we picked vermicelli. It came with 2 brochettes and we had one pork and one chicken.

Le Petit Saigon at East Hastings, Vancouver

Ben and I had dinner at the Le Petit Saigon on East Hastings on the day we went to the PNE.

Le Petit Saigon was quite busy on a Friday night. We also noticed quite a number of take out orders.

We ordered two items to share. The first item was Grilled Beef and BBQ Minced Pork over Vermicelli. We enjoy this Asian style salad.

Bahn Mi Saigon on Victoria Drive, Vancouver

Ben decided to have Bahn Mi for lunch after church service on a Sunday.

We went to Bahn Mi Saigon on Victoria Drive, Vancouver.

The place was very busy around 1PM. There is a few small tables in the restaurant but most people just take out and go. There is also fresh baguette for sale @ $2.75. Quite a few people bought the baguette while we were there.

There was an assembly line at the preparation counter. One person does the spreading of butter & pork liver pate, another fills the cold cut and other meat and the next person will fill with fresh cucumber slices, pickled carrots and white radish and cilantro and top with chili sauce. The last person will wrap the baguette.

Villa Vietnamese in Lansdowne Mall Foodcourt

Ben and I were doing groceries shopping in Lansdowne Mall at the Langley Farm Market. We stopped by the food court to grab a bite.

We decided to try the Bahn Mi from Villa Vietnamese.

It’s just $4.99 with a free Iced Lemon Tea.

Pho Lan on No. 3 Road, Richmond

It’s been a while that my family had been to Pho Lan, simply because the parking is difficult. We decided to give it a try a Saturday evening as we came out early for dinner, around 5PM. We were surprised to see the parking lot was quite empty at that time.

Arkensen ordered his usual #7; Pho Lan Special Beef Noodle Soup. It has rare steak, well done flank, beef balls, tendon and tripe. I love the huge bowl because I got to tax his soup.

The regular complements; bean sprouts, basil and lime for the pho noodles.

Ben and I shared a plate of 3 skewers of beef/pork or chicken on vermicelli. We had one of each, beef, pork and chicken. There were a lot of meat. The meat were lightly charred which added caramelization to the meat.

The vermicelli and salad were seasoned with some fish sauce.

Nanzaro got his favaourite Bun Bo Hue which I forgot to take a photo.

The meal came to CAD41 including tax and tips. Pho Lan accepts cash only.

Pho Xe Lua 24 on Cambie St., Vancouver

After having an episode of food poisoning on the middle of a work week, I was on BRAT diet for the following 2 days; i.e. just crackers, dry toasts and banana. I lost 1.5kg during that few days. I am sure I will regain my weight once I’m back to my normal diet.

For the first regular meal after the bad experience, I picked something light and easy to digest, pho noodle soup.

I had a small Beef and Chicken ball Pho. I felt that the broth is slightly on the bland side, not sure if it’s due to my poor appetite after the food poisoning.

The bean sprouts and basil were very fresh.

Lim Kee Restaurant on Victoria Drive, Vancouver

Nanzaro, Ben and I went for lunch after church service on Sunday. It was a cold day and Nanzaro wanted something with hot broth.

Ben drove along Victoria Dr. and spotted the above Lim Kee Restaurant with Beef Noodle House on it’s awning. We thought it serves Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup.

Ben ordered the House Special Noodle and it turned out to be Vietnamese style beef noodle. No wonder we smelled the aroma of Vietnamese beef noodle while waiting for our order. The house special noodle soup comes with sliced beef, tendon and tripe.

Lim Kee Restaurant only serves bean sprouts with the beef noodle soup. There is no basil like most other Vietnamese restaurants.

One Saigon Bistro on Hornby St., Vancouver

I was in downtown Vancouver attending a program. On the lunch break, I went out with two new friends to get a bite. One of them lives nearby and she volunteered to be our lunch guide.

She brought us to One Saigon Bistro on Hornby St. because she was having some tinkering in her throat and a bowl of hot noodle soup should be a good remedy.

We arrived during peak lunch hour. Luckily we were able to secure a table as a couple of customers were just about to leave. The restaurant was small with tight seating. Customers order their food and pay at the counter at the back of the seating area. Food will be deliver to your table.

Our guide had a bowl of wonton rice noodle soup. She commented that she had better pho than this.