Bong Lua Vietnamese Restaurant

Came here yesterday and got the following:
sweet and sour crab with vermicelli (#119) — pretty good broth and I liked that they added real crab in the soup noodle
large fresh spring roll with pork (#50) — yum this was actually better than the crab vermicelli and comes with a dip
I liked the fact they had servers that spoke English unlike other places. I didn’t like that the other patrons had loud screaming kids (which made the dining experience less enjoyable), and lack of table space.
Food is very tasty and surpassed my expectations. Will def be back to try other items from the menu specifically the fried rice and the dry vermicelli.

Food is very average. Nothing out of the ordinary. Portions to price is more than fair.
Horrible service. Expect ridiculous wait time. Only because of this reason, I’d never go back. Need to hire people that know how to run a restaurant.

We came here for lunch today and managed to get sat down after 15 minutes. There was a spare table but it wasn’t cleared, from the last patrons, and there was only one waitress. She was overwhelmed with serving everyone, clearing tables and sorting out the bills. When we finally got seated, she gave us menus, napkins and tea. Then she went to serve everybody else. She returned to take our order after 15 minutes. I felt really bad for her but my kids were less than impressed.
We ordered Special phở, tripe phở, crab vermicelli and the rolls with grilled chicken. The crab vermicelli is really good, I would recommend it. The rolls with grilled chicken were absolutely delicious and was lovely to eat on a hot day like today. The Phở however, left a lot to be desired. My kids didn’t finish their small bowls. The small size here is really small. The soup base tasted slightly sour and was really greasy/​oily. I wouldn’t order phở from here again, it’s not to our liking.
I would come back to get the crab vermicelli (#119) and grilled chicken rolls (#50) again. I would give them both a 4* rating and the phở is a 2*. The service is extremely lacking, even when the waitress called for help, the younger lady that came out was so miserable. She just dissapeared after doing one thing. Food was also really slow coming out of the kitchen, I thought my rolls were never going to turn up. They eventually came when my kids had finished their noodles. Need more staff in front and back.
We had actually been there the previous Saturday, but their was a long queue of people. That didn’t bother me but then people started shouting and kicking off, so we left.

This place is located in a tiny run down plaza in scarborough but they serve one of the most delicious phở ever. However i dont order the phở because that would be basic. Instead, I order this crab noodle (picture below, forgot the name) that most viet places dont serve. The noodles are thin, theres half a crab in there, and lots of egg mixed with crab roe. Dont get this if you have high cholesterol. The soup base is a tomato soup base and there are many chunks of tomato inside. The soup is full of seafood flavour and goes well with tomato. The place can get pretty crowded during lunch hours on any day so I would suggest going from 4 – 5. The item number is 119.

Pricing was excellent. It was a nice clean place. Quality compared to other phở places was slightly above average. Nothing too special but pricing was cheaper than other phở places. Waiters speak good English and will explain the menu to u before u order an item to make sure thats what u wanted. Overall it was good. I would come back.

This phở place was tucked away at a corner plaza beside a jerk chicken. I must say I love their fresh assortment of lettuce and vegetable pairings. The phở is nice and hot with a big portion of meat.
The appetizer was my least favourite part as we ordered the wrong one. I do wish to go back and try the crispy one in the fresh roll wrapping.
Overall a great price for the food we got! We would definitely come back! There was a line up when we left so they must be popular with the locals.

This place is really quite the hidden gem in Scarborough! Really good Viet food and service is great as well! I would get here earlier though cause there’s always a nice big dinner crowd :) the restaurant is a small place so it doesn’t hold that many people, but service is fast so it’s okay.
This time we ordered the sweet and sour crab noodle soup number 119 and the grilled pork and lettuce wrap number 50. It was really really good! :) I like that they don’t over salt their food and they use real crab in their crab noodle soups instead of fake canned crab.
I’d come back for sure :)

Enticed by the many positive reviews, we definitely had to try this place! Made it here on a weekday evening and were seated right away. We ordered the infamous crab vermicelli and were not disappointed. Lots crabby bits and yummy flavour! Also got the fresh spring roll, fried eggplant and also had com with viet sausage, pork meatballs and lemongrass porkchop. Great place to share food and very sweet and friendly staff. Definitely will revisit!

I had the sweet and sour crab with dry vermicelli. It was very tasty, the crab meat is mixed in with egg but the aroma of crab is very strong. There is maybe two pieces of full crab that I just gnawed at a bit since I really didn’t want to go at it like I would if I was purely eating crab. It was very flavourful.
The service was a bit slow and the food came at varying times regardless of what was ordered first. Otherwise the place served pretty good phở.

Friend brought me here the other day and man wish I knew about this place before! Great phở and side dishes! Located in a small plaza off Birchmount, finding parking was a challenge for us coming in for dinner on a Friday evening. There are quite a few restaurants in the plaza. The restaurant itself is fairly old and seating was a bit uncomfortable but the food was excellent! We ordered the the special phở and I found the soup flavourful and the meat particularly fresh. We also ordered a beef roll wrapped in some sort of leaf (forget the name) which was tasty. Apparently the item #50 is the crowd favorite so will visit again to try it. There was a bit of a wait because service isn’t the quickest and it’s a small restaurant (worth it though!)
I’d visit again!

I came here specifically to have the crab egg soup. Typically most Vietnamese restaurants don’t offer this dish so I was happy to see it here on Unilocal.My mother in law makes this dish often however it’s usually made in huge batches, so it was nice just to drop by and be able to have a small bowl. The broth was very flavourful and I like how they have the pieces of crab shell there too with the egg roe. Overall I would definitely come back for this dish and it is currently the only place I know that serves it in Toronto!

One of my go-​to phở places! My favourite dishes include the Lime Beef Salad, spring rolls (nice and crispy), and grilled meat rice rolls.
Pros:
— Cheaper than average phở prices
— Huge selection of Vietnamese cuisine, ranging from curry, rice, appetizers, phở, and vermicelli
— Friendly service (I believe they’re a family business)
Cons:
— Small space; difficult to seat larger groups
— Rush hour: longer wait times
— Sometimes, their cutlery appear a little grimy

I visited this place the other day, and WOW! Do I ever love this place…
It’s a small little restaurant, hidden gem! I got the feeling that it’s a family business when I went in, kind of felt like home. Don’t expect a fancy place when you come.
The food here is absolutely phenomenal! My favourite Vietnamese place by far. My friend ordered her favourite crab noodle in soup, she’s a regular. And I got the typical rare beef noodle in soup. I tried her crab noodle and definitely could not stop thinking about going back again and again and again. They use real crab even with the shell inside the soup, and the soup base is not watery at all. Well made!
The coconut shake the server recommended was soooo good! She asked if I wanted the ice version or the coconut juice version, but she said the ice is her favourite so I gave it a shot. She was damn right!
I couldn’t stop drinking it even though I got a brain freeze, it was that good!
I rarely ever feel THIS hyped up, but they’ve definitely won my heart. And I’m dying to go back on a weekend try their rice noodle #53 that’s only served on weekends! Can’t wait to try more stuff here!
HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

Recently went again and I don’t think they’ve ever had hot chilli oil on the side before! They’ve also switched the menu up! More of an updated and nice version. Service is still great as usual and went during a downtime period — was really intimate and laid back there.

Came here based on recommendations from my coworkers as they said this place has really good Phở and I agree!
Visited here around 1:30pm on a Sunday and they were packed. Mind you, this restaurant is very small to start with, but there were at least 10 people waiting for tables when I got here. People were seated quickly and service was moving at a decent pace. This is a small family run business and you can see each person working their hardest to serve everyone.
I tried their House Special Beef Noodle Phở and Deep Fried Spring Rolls.
The soup for the phở was flavorful and not overly salty. Beef was served slightly raw so you could have it cook in the soup. Overall a pretty good bowl of Phở.
The spring rolls was the highlight for me. They were extremely crispy but also really easy to bite into. Probably one of the best crispy spring rolls I’ve had at a Phở restaurant.
Glad I gave this place a try and would come back again!

A hidden gem in the Scarborough area and also one of the better Vietnamese restaurants around.
Be sure to order the Crab Vermicelli. It is so delicious! And did I mention the portion is huge?
Another dish that was really well done was the vermicelli with 3 items. Their meat ball is bomb!
Spring roll is a little small, but tasted great.
No complaints here!
Friendly staff, delicious food, big portions, what more can you ask for?!

Food is still amazing and prices are still reasonable. 4.5÷5
The one thing I noticed this time though is that they’re severely understaffed. There were 3 runners last time and today, there was only 1. The lady was already overworking herself and service got sloppy. 3.5÷5

Unfortunately, I have to drop my rating for this restaurant. I still go quite often (twice in the last 24 hours…), but especially at peak hours, they really don’t have enough manpower to keep everything running efficiently. It affects cleanliness, and lack of communication between servers means that we had to ask repeatedly for things like the bill (which took quite a while to come) and for ice water.
The quality of the food has decreased slightly as well. The lamb in the curry lamb phở is now quite tough, and you have to specify lamb rack if you want that part. The number 50 (giant cold roll) now has a thicker wrapper and less shrimp cracker inside. The milkshakes lack consistency of ingredients, as they vary drastically in taste and texture depending on who makes them.
I’ll be back because the food is still decent, but it’s no longer as good as it used to be.

This is one of my favourite Vietnamese restaurants. It’s located in a small strip plaza at birchmount and huntingwood. It’s a family owned restaurant, where the owners speak both Vietnamese and Cantonese.
Their broth is rich in flavour, and a small comes with lots of toppings.
They have a lot of unique dishes. Number 50 on the menu is one my favs. It’s rice paper wrapped in a choice of lemongrass chicken/​pork/​beef/​vietnamese balls. It comes with shrimp crackers, peanuts, basil, lettuce topped with fried garlic and onions. It’s a huge roll, and the crunch of the shrimp cracker really gives it a great texture. Each order comes with 8 pieces and each piece is the size of a small fist.
They have other great noodle dishes besides beef noodle soup like duck noodle, or tomato paste crab noodles. All are very good and flavourful.
The service is very friendly and welcoming. Majority of their clientele are returning customers as you always hear the owners saying «great to see you again. «or «wow you’re coming in so late. Worked overtime?»

A small restaurant with limited seating especially when a reservation took up 15 seats. Waited 20 minutes for a table of 3.
Ordered the following:
* Large Phở with Rare Beef (7.50 $) — Fresh and delicious, beef was not fatty and had good flavour. Never received the usual bean sprouts on the side though.
* Bun Vermicelli with Grilled Lemongrass Chicken and Pork Balls (7.50 $) — Fresh vegetables, meat had excellent flavours but I was disappointed in the sauce. It lacked flavour and tasted watered down unfortunately.
* Spring Rolls (4.95 $) — Average but nothing outstanding.
Overall food and service was 3 stars at most. Service was OK when taking out order but they looked overwhelmed from the party of 15. It looked a bit unorganized to be honest. I might come back and give it another try when it’s not as busy.