Vietnamese Food!

As part of our many experiences here, food, will play an important
part. I love my food and especially my meat. Though, I am not very
adventurous, Melissa loves to try out different and new cuisines.
Dinner on Monday was Vietnamese.

I must mention here that I was
very apprehensive, as a lot of South East Asian food is something that
I am not very fond off. My experiences with Chinese food in three trips
to Singapore haven't been the best. With any food that gives out strong
flavours or smell, I get green in the gills and that is why I am not a
big sea food fan.

The Vietnamese Restaurant was in the heart of Chinatown in Downtown Toronto on Spadina
Avenue. The place was very busy and you often have to wait to get a
seat. Vietnamese food consists a lot of broth and each dish is a
wholesome meal with all the meat and vegetables put together with
either rice or vermicelli.

At the table you get a menu with a
little notepad to write down your selections and the portion sizes.
Even the small portion size is a lot of food for the average Indian
eater. We started with the 'Pho', a broth with meatballs, rare beef and
vermicelli. You need to add lime, mint leaves, bean sprouts and fish
sauce (which I stayed clear
off). It was awesome! I loved it, the broth had lovely
flavour and the meat balls were cooked with the right amount of spice
(bland - if Indian)
to get the subtle taste of the beef.

This was followed by
several dishes of pork, chicken and beef. All of them were really good
and none of them had the smell that I normally associate with food of
this kind. Also, we didn't order any seafood so that was another plus.
Although, the chicken that I ordered was really bland and we didn't
each much off it.

Now all this was the good stuff. The food was
excellent, however, I cannot really say the same about the service. It
was terrible! Absolutely terrible, the waiters and waitresses work
really hard over there, however, the rank zero when it comes to service
or common courtesy. We were paying customers and were willing to leave
a good tip, however, the way we were treated, we aren't going back
there. Basic requests like a glass of water, a doggy bag or bowls were
treated with utter disregard.

The service was the only thing
that soured an otherwise perfect evening. Great food and I totally
recommend trying such cuisine though I don't recommend the restaurant
we visited. I will not mention the name in the blog, however, will be
happy to let you know when you get in touch with me.