Nam 2 Vietnamese Restaurant

 

Bun Rieu Cua with soft shell crab $15

All together in one bowl now

The noodle soup dish had a good tomato flavoured based and the soft shell crab was fried well. It was pretty interesting, but I might stick with the normal pho.

Pho Con Bo

August 2, 2020

August Menu 2020

42M Pho Dac Biet (special with rare beef, well done flank, brisket, soft tendon, beef tripe and beef balls) $10.75 and 75 Bun Thapcam Special (vermicelli with grilled beef, grilled pork, grilled shrimp on sugar cake, grilled meat balls and spring roll) $13.25

Their Nuong is pretty good and I really liked the shrimp on sugar cane and meatballs (the red pieces). The spring roll wasn't as good as Nguyen Huong's, but it worked well with the tossed vermicelli, meat, salad and fish sauce since it was crispy and tasty.

Pho Dac Biet

Excellent noodles and soup with a very flavourful broth. The rare beef wasn't as good in take-out form since we needed to reheat soup to cook it properly. The soup was really hot, but it was safer just to reheat it all. The rest of the beef was thinly sliced and delicious and melted in your mouth.

August 22, 2015

Downsview has a large population of Vietnamese people, so it's no surprise that some of the best Vietnamese food in Toronto can be found here.  My favourite pho place is Pho Con Bo on Wilson south of Jane Street. The area is a little sketchy, but the cheap and delicious pho is well worth it.  

 

The Menu!

Pho dac biet with rare beef, well done flank, brisket, soft tendon, beef tripe and beef balls in rice noodle soup

This was the large bowl and it came with so much meat and noodles! It may seem like a simple noodle soup, but something about it just makes it taste so good!  When you've tried a bowl here, it's really difficult going back to other pho places. 

con tam svon nuong - grilled pork chop with steamed rice

The grilled pork chop was juicy and tasty with a hint of lemongrass and some fish sauce that you could pour over it on the side.  However, I kind of wish it had something else to balance it out like more cucumbers or something to give it more of a freshness. 

Bún thịt nướng nem nvong cha gio - vermicelli  with grilled pork and grilled meatballs and spring rolls

Another one of my favourite dishes here! It's a cold vermicelli dish with meat and spring rolls mixed in and a fish sauce that you can pour on top to tie the dish all together.  By the way - the spring rolls are fantastic here as is the grilled meat and when combined with everything in the nvong - AMAZING! 

Overall: One of my favourite Vietnamense places in Toronto! It's consistently delicious and cheap with huge portions, great flavours and quick service.

April 22, 2012

Hidden in a tiny corner mall is Pho Con Bo, a popular Vietnamese restaurant in the Downsview area. 

In my opinion, it's the best pho place in Toronto - it's cheap, delicious and quick.

#25: Rare beef, well done flank and beef balls rice noodle soup (Large size) for $6.50

What makes the pho so good here is the soup base. They make the best soup broth of any Vietnamese place I've ever had! Delicious! Sadly there wasn't a lot of noodles, but there was more than enough rare and well done beef to make up for it.

#112: Grilled Chicken and Grilled Pork with steamed rice $6.75

What really makes a simple dish like grilled chicken and pork with rice different in Vietnamese cuisine is the fish sauce. It adds a sweet and tangy flavour that goes great with any simple dish. The meat was perfectly grilled and when mixed with the fish sauce and rice: amazing!

#57: Vermicelli with grilled pork and spring rolls $6.75

The perfect fish sauce is critical when you order Vietnamese Nuong. The meat, vegetables and spring roll are placed on a bed of cold vermicelli and you mix the fish sauce with all the ingredients to make nuong. When you do it right, it's a great blend of flavours, textures and yumminess in your mouth. Pho Con Bo makes a great nuong with really fresh ingredients and it usually comes with a crispy spring roll (the Vietnamese make the best spring rolls ever!). One of my favourite items on the menu.

Overall: Super affordable, great portions, quick service and really delicious food - you definitely get your value for money here.

Nguyen Huong

Cheap banh mi sandwiches at Nguyen Huong near Wilson and Jane. 

Banh Mi sandwich bag

Regular assorted meat sandwich (8 inch banh mi) $4

Really bright colours from the carrots, cilantro and assorted meat in a crispy baguette bun - the sandwich hit all the right notes: tasty, fresh ingredients and super cheap!

Spring Roll $1.25

The spring roll was huge and it was exactly what I wanted from a Vietnamese spring roll (which are my favourite type of spring rolls): super crispy and so tasty with meat, vegetables and vermicelli.

Taro, sweet potato and jelly in coconut milk $2.50

I've had an obsession with taro milk lately, so I was pleasantly surprised by how cheap this dessert was here! Taro and coconut milk make a fantastic combination and this was really well done! It was sweet from the coconut milk, grainy and mildly sweet from the taro and sweet potato and the jelly added a nice slippery texture to each spoonful of this dessert. Yum!

Pho Quinn

Open during COVID-19 for Vietnamese food and they offer 10% off your order!

D10 - Lemongrass beef vermicelli

Really great lemongrass flavour with the beef and a whole bunch of fresh tasty veggies to toss with the vermicelli and fish sauce.

B01 - Chef's Special Beef Rice Noodle Soup with rare beef, brisket, beef tendon, tripe and beef balls

Yummy pho with lots of beef

Spring Rolls

Crispy deep fried spring rolls - I've definitely been craving a lot of fried food staying at home during this pandemic and this helped hit the spot. 

D11 - Chicken Vermicelli, pho and spring rolls

Website: http://www.phoquinn.com/

Savoury Vietnam - Denver

Seafood Salad with shrimp chips $17.95

Savoury Vietnam đặc biệt $49.95

I haven't seen this on a menu at a Vietnamese restaurant in Toronto. It was a lot of fun making our own rice rolls with egg rolls, soft-shell crab, shrimp, grilled pork and more. I would highly recommend this here! 

Fire pot hot and sour soup with tomatoes and rice $24.95

Super delicious! The soup was so savoury and it went really well with white rice. 

Website: https://www.savoryvietnam.com/order-online

Pho Street - Cairns

Barron Falls

There's always a lot of people waiting for their food or eating at Pho Street, so we came at an off-peak time. 

Pho with beef

Grilled Marinated Chicken nuong

It's so hot in Cairns that I can't even imagine eating something as hot as a bowl of noodle soup. I got the much cooler nuong dish (vermicelli with grilled chicken). 

Grilled Marinated Pork Nuong

Then after, we went to grab ice cream/gelato around the Cairns Esplanade area:

 

Coconut Raspberry and lychee

So refreshing in this hot weather!

Forget Me Not Cafe

Fish sauce and bean sprouts

Special Beef Noodle Soup $9

Nuong with chicken and spring roll $9

The food was okay, I think I prefer Pho Con Bo's beef noodle soup and nuong. The flavours weren't very strong. 

Pho Hung

My friend and I were going to a Raptors game and went to Pho Hung to grab a quick dinner.

Beef nướng and Pork nướng

I really wanted a Vietnamese spring roll since I haven't had one in so long! Plus Vietnamese spring rolls are the best! Crispy crust, yummy filling and it works so well with the cold noodles, grilled pork, pickled carrots and radishes, cool cucumbers and delicious fish sauce! Yummy! I liked the pork more than the beef (especially in Vietnamese cooking). 

Website: http://phohung.ca/index.html

Pho Vietnamese Delight

Grabbing dinner with friends can go two ways: either everyone gets their own thing or the group decides to go in for the set dinner since there's strength (and lots of stomach space) in numbers!

We got Combo D for 3 people

Stir Fry Choy with garlic

Lemongrass pork chop and Assorted appetizer platter with skewers and spring rolls

The lemongrass pork chop was quite a big portion for three people to share (which is great!). The pork was good, but it didn't really have a strong lemongrass flavour.  The skewers were really yummy as was the fried spring roll (Viet spring rolls are the best). I wasn't a fan of the rice roll (mostly because I don't really like rice paper).

Ketchup with Brisket Noodle in Soup

The ketchup part threw us off, but it was basically like a sweet tomato broth with beef brisket and tendon. It was a little odd tasting at first, but still okay.

Malaysia Curry Chicken

The chicken was okay - the curry sauce wasn't spicy or anything and it was kind of flavourful. I'm not sure I'd order this again though. 

Overall: Service was decent and we got a lot of food from Combo D - I thought it was pretty decent value for money (but nothing was exceptionally good or anything).