beef ball – Elsie Hui

January 25, 2016

Le La Vietnamese Restaurant – Calgary, Alberta

We often drive by Le La Vietnamese Restaurant and always wanted to hop in! We finally did, and we set our exceptions low as we didn’t do any prior research to this restaurant! There’s tons of parking and there a lot of tables inside, but it wasn’t busy when we went as it was right before closing! The staff was really nice to us and didn’t hurry us out just because they were closing!

We ordered some Condensed milk Vietnamese Iced Coffee which I don’t normally order, however, I wanted a treat this time so I went for it! It was a delicious and refreshing drink with the perfect amount of condensed milk!

I ordered my standard go-to pho, the Rare Beef and Beef Ball Noodle Soup and it’s not available at all locations, but I love it when I get them. This place doesn’t give too much beef balls either, but more than some other locations. I find a lot of places cut up a beef ball into 1/8’s and gives you like 5 pieces – so you don’t even get 1 beef ball!! At least here, you get more than 1 ball, so it’s a great treat!

My hsuband ordered their Satay Beef Noodle Soup and he really enjoyed the flavours of the soup. The beef was tender and quite delicious! This was suppose to be an extra large bowl, but the amount of noodles seems similar with more soup.

Overall, this was a great place to get some Vietnamese noodle soup! It’s not the best in town, but it as really good pho!! Very decent, prices are good and food tastes great!

Le La Vietnamese Restaurant

6624 Centre St SE
Calgary, AB
(403) 255-5665

December 21, 2014

Viet Hai Restaurant – Calgary, Alberta

We’ve went for many meals looking for delicious pho and we found ourselves at Viet Hai on Macleod Trail in Calgary. It was a nicely decorated location and the food was decent as well.

We started off with some Spring Rolls and the plate does come with 4 of them. I decided I was going to eat one before I took the picture, but it was good! It was pretty standard, so that’s no complaints!

I ordered my usual, the Rare Beef Slices and Beef Ball Noodles Soup and the bowls of noodles were quite large.

Then, my husband ordered his usual, the Rare Beef Slice Noodle Soup and this was also a really large bowl with tons of beef slices in it.

Overall, it was decent. There’s no really complaints or compliments so it was a good place to go for something quick and hot! The prices was really good though, at under $8 a bowl of soup!

Viet Hai Restaurant

4640-Macleod Trail SW.
Calgary, AB
(403) 287-2622

October 27, 2013October 27, 2013

Bow River Vietnamese Restaurant – Calgary, Alberta

We’ve heard really good things about a Vietnamese Restaurant named Bow River Vietnamese Restaurant which is located at the intersection of Elbow Drive and Heritage Drive. At first, we thought it as the larger strip mall complex at this intersection, but it is actually located on the main floor of the building across the street. Parking is quite limited, but we were lucky enough to have grabbed a parking spot.

The interior of the restaurant looks more like a Chinese restaurant, but it was fine. It looks like an authentic restaurant, as it feels like you’re eating at home with their dining room chair selection.

We started with their Shrimp Salad Rolls which was surprisingly better than it looks! We’ve been to so many places where they premake their salad rolls, and I’m quite confident these are made to order.

I normally order my usual – no matter where I go for a first time Vietnamese restaurant. If it’s good, then I will go back and try something different! So, back to my Rare Beef with Beef Ball Pho and this was really good. Although not a lot of beef balls, it had a ton of beef. The broth had tons of flavour and it was even better enhanced with other sauces.

My other half had ordered his usual as well, the Rare Beef Pho and he really enjoyed it. They were basically the same thing, but we like to think it’s different! The size of the orders were quite large and we were quite stuffed after this wonderful lunch!

Overall, we were pleased with this restaurant. The service was a little slow, as they weren’t busy in the house. They did have a lot of take out orders, so they must’ve been running behind from it.

Bow River Vietnamese Restaurant

8408 Elbow Drive
Calgary, AB
(403) 259-6099

December 19, 2011April 20, 2019

Pho Taurus – Calgary, Alberta

We really like Vietnamese cuisine, not only are they filling, but they usually are very reasonable in prices – especially when you can find a location that is really delicious! We’ve been going to Pho Taurus for a few years now, and we stopped with a 2 year period in between… and in which they’ve renovated the place and the food it seems.

I love their appetizers especially their Roasted Quail dish! It comes in a plate with 2 quails, and they are always perfectly cooked and tastes delicious! The skin is always crispy and the meat remains juicy. They are something I always get from Pho Taurus and I still love it! And, of course when you visit a Vietnamese restaurant, you always have to order their Vietnamese Spring Roll and these come in a plate of 4 crispy fried spring rolls filled with ground pork, chicken & vegetable

For the actual meal, I like to get the Rare Beef with Beef Balls Noodle Soup which seems to be my trend, while my husband just gets the Rare Beef Noodle Soup which is the same thing without the beef balls. Usually, this place makes these bowls of pho packed with flavour, but this time, it seemed quite watered down. We don’t normally stock up on tons of Hoisin Sauce and Srichacha Sauce but this time we weren’t left with any choice but to do so…

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As Pho Taurus was once my favourite locations back in 2008/09 and suddenly upon returning, it was quite disappointing that the soup was watered down so badly we didn’t know what to do with our noodle soups. Hopefully it’s a phase they’ll soon recover from.

Pho Taurus

#311-500 Country Hills Blvd NE
Calgary, AB T3K5G9
(403) 567-1228