Pho Viet Noodle is doing everything right when it comes to Vietnamese food

You may have noticed that sometimes changes to storefronts are so frequent that you don’t see that one business has been replaced by another. The address of today’s restaurant housed the ill-fated Quebec business Maniac Chicken and before that, Carben. 

This Vietnamese restaurant opened about a year ago, and from my visit, it appeared that this is the food the neighbourhood was craving. During my Saturday lunch, with people coming and going, the restaurant was never less than half full.

It was a little brisk when we stopped in, so I was very much in the mood for a warming bowl of comfort food. As I’m always up for testing an untasted spring roll, I began with the deep-fried shrimp roll.

Sadly there was no revelatory taste sensation. I can only say that it was perfectly fine but had spent too much time in the fryer. The wrapper was dense and a little tough, with the overall experience being generic.

A much better experience came with the shrimp wontons. The shrimp was sweet and texturally light with just the right amount of seasoning to make them a craveable bar snack. 

Finally, what I appreciated most about these fried items was that the oil used was clean and had no bitterness. This family-run business has some kitchen standards.

I’ve not done any sort of comparison of the most popular dishes in world cuisine but I imagine that the Vietnamese vermicelli bowl must be amongst the healthiest dishes out there.

It’s a customizable dish with warm rice vermicelli noodles topped with some sort of grilled meat or veg, cold and colourful vegetables where freshness is paramount and a couple of hot spring rolls (pork, shrimp or veg). The entire dish comes to your table fragrant and inviting with a series of flavour and texture contrasts. For those concerned about their health, it’s almost completely fat free. 

Pho Viet got it right with perfectly cooked noodles, fabulous grilled chicken with a lemongrass accent and two memorable pork spring rolls. They were so good, it put to bed the memory of the lacking spring rolls just moments before. Easily a highlight of the lunch and a recommendation.

Pho tai bo vien is a version of the classic soup that comes with both rare, lean sliced beef and very springy beef meatballs.

For me, both the broth and noodle quality are of paramount importance. Low-quality noodles will release their starch into the broth very quickly, becoming sponges and turning your soup into porridge. This was not an issue here.

Then there was the broth. I was pleased to learn that they cook it sufficiently for maximum beefy goodness without needing to rely heavily on too much MSG. 

MSG is a fairly standard ingredient in almost all Pho (with rare exceptions) and is viewed as part of the overall flavour profile. Yet it’s almost always overdone, causing you to drink more water than the amount of broth you’ve just consumed.

With their version, Pho Viet Noodle has placed itself in the upper rankings of my favourite Pho in Ottawa. Enjoying this cuisine as I do, I’m too often met with a standard averageness that is the gustatory equivalent of shrugging, “oh well.”

This was some robustly seasoned Pho with star anise, cinnamon, cardamom and coriander jumping out to greet you. It was balanced and fortifying, not overly salted and delivered harmony in every slurp. It also helped that all the toppings were supremely fresh.

Looking at the interactions around the room, it became obvious that this family had won the favour of locals as many were clearly regulars. 

While I always wish to stumble upon a Vietnamese eatery with a more adventuresome menu, Pho Viet Noodle does the classics well. This was certainly a happy discovery.