mi mi vietnamese restaurant

Back in the day when I was an east-side dweller, Joe and I used to head to Mi Mi Vietnamese Restaurant whenever we needed our pho fix. I recently found myself back on the east side, so I stopped by for a quick lunch. 

The cha Gio (Vietnamese springrolls) weren't as good as I remembered them to be. These tasted pretty generic.

Instead of my usual pho, I decided to change it up and get a bowl of bun (rice noodles with shrimp on sugarcane, pork sausages and grilled beef). Can't go wrong with a huge bowl of meat and noodles—especially for under ten bucks! 

Mi Mi Vietnamese

688 Gerrard St. E.

banh mi boys

Banh Mi Boys has quickly become one of my favourite places for lunch, dinner or a mid-afternoon snack. Not gonna lie, I was a bit skeptical at first about the mixing of Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese and Mexican cuisine, but after my first bite I was hooked. 

Let's start with the kimchi fries. Kimchi and fries may not sound like a good combo, but somehow it works. The crispy fries topped with pulled pork, mayo, chopped green onions and a good helping of kimchi were amazing. Every bite had so many textures and complementing flavours—very addictive. 

The banh mi here are a higher end version of the classic mystery meat banh mi sold on Spadina (which are also tasty in their own way). The lemongrass pork banh mi comes stuffed with juicy grilled pork, pickled carrot and daikon, cucumber and cilantro. It's topped with their Asian bbq sauce and the bun is slightly toasted so it has a nice, crisp exterior.

The kalbi beef taco layers Korean grilled short ribs with Asian slaw, kimchi, pickled carrot and daikon, and cilantro all in an Indian paratha-like shell. This bad boy is pretty messy, but equally satisfying. I like the chewiness of the bread and the meat is perfectly sweet and savoury.

When I first pictured the steamed bao, I thought they would be small two-bite buns, but they're not. The braised beef cheek bao is filled with a good helping of tender beef cheek topped with a sweet and tangy onion chutney and more of the obligatory pickled carrot, daikon, cucumber and cilantro. The bao itself is pillowy soft and hefty enough to hold all that filling.

The restaurant space is pretty small and there's no table service here: you need to order and wait for your food. I suggest going with a friend who can snag a table while you grab the eats. Line-ups are common, but the service is fast and efficient. So glad that Banh Mi Boys is a short walk from my house.

Banh Mi Boys

392 Queen St. W.

pho linh

Recently, Pho Linh has moved into first place on my list of go-to pho restaurants. It's not as convenient to me location-wise, but I can't seem to get enough of their pho these days. One day last week, I actually went twice in a 24-hour period. I always order the cha gio (Vietnamese-style spring rolls) to start.

They offer a special spicy soup Friday through Sunday. It's chock full of rice noodles and random meats, and has a flavourful, aromatic and mouth-numbing broth.

My usual order is the rare beef and tendon pho. The quality of meat/offal here seems way better than at most downtown pho restaurants. 

Pho Linh

1156 College St.

kim vietnamese restaurant

What? The Vietnamese have another soup other than pho? That's what I found out during lunch at Kim Restaurant. There they call it Fu Kien noodle soup, but after much online research, I learned that it's also called Hu Tieu. On a Saturday afternoon, almost every table at Kim was filled with patrons chowing down on this tasty pho alternative. 

The Fu Kien special noodle soup came with two types of noodles, beef, seafood and an awesome crispy crepe-like cracker topped with a single dried shrimp. 

The spring roll and grilled pork on vermicelli was totally satisfying with springy thick noodles and lots of roasted peanuts.

Kim Restaurant

546 Dundas St.W 

pho and more pho

We go out for pho a lot over here. It’s cheap, convenient to find in the neighbourhood and mighty tasty. 

Of all the variations on pho, I usually go for some combination of tendon, rare beef, shoulder and brisket. Sometimes it's just noodles and beef balls. Oh, and no tripe for me please (blasphemy, I know). 

My top three pho joints in the city: Pho Pasteur, Pho Linh and Pho Tien Thanh.

Pho Pasteur

525 Dundas St. W

Pho Linh

1156 College St.

Pho Tien Thanh

57 Ossington Ave.