Fresh Ginger Vietnamese Cuisine

Ever suffered from a cold and had a craving for chicken noodle soup? Take-​out Phở from Fresh Ginger is the perfect solution.
This restaurant is just steps from the Yonge and Eglinton Subway Station and perfect for picking up on the way home from work.
We ALWAYS order the hot and sour soup noodle soup with chicken ($ 6.55), it’s enough for two meals and really hits the spot! They pack your take-​out soup in two separate containers; broth in one, solids in the other so nothing gets soggy before you get it home.
There are a plethora of newspapers, magazines, etc. to read while you wait in one of their booths and always a few other people sitting alone in the restaurant eat, or waiting for take-​out too.
This place is not worth a trek to get to, but if you’re feeling a little run down and in the area, give their phở a try. You won’t be sorry you did.

Was in the area and looking for a quick mean on October 14, and made the mistake of trying this place. Food is pedestrian and much better Vietnamese is available all over town.
Might have given it two stars, but the dirty spoons and hundreds of fruit flies in the place took the second one away.

I work in the area and am always looking for new things to add variety to lunch time, and Fresh Ginger fits the bill. Looking for healthy options I got take out of a Chicken Salad Roll and a small Lotus Salad w/​shrimp (made from the root of the lotus plant apparently).
The roll was plenty thick in size, fresh in ingredients and came with its own sauce — so a nice light start.
My first time trying a lotus salad, but with a refreshing, light flavour with a tiny tang (the root), I found it enjoyable enough though not particularly savoury. Unfortunately they’re one of those places that’ll cut the shrimp in half down the middle to give the illusion of more, which is… less than impressive. For the price though (came to $ 7 and change) I won’t complain too much.
The service was good and friendly though, which goes a ways towards a positive impression and the wait time was only around 5 minutes while they made it fresh.

Cheap, solid option for a quick Vietnamese meal near my apt. I had the crab avocado roll ($ 1.50) and Grilled beef vermicelli with imperial roll (much better than a normal spring roll even tho they call it a spring roll) ($ 6.95?). Walked away Stuffed… paid less than $ 10.

The phở was not good. The beef was hard and not marinated. The soup was just not salty enough and not hot enough. The food came really fast. It’s a self service place so you have to get your own drinks and cutlery. I don’t understand why anyone will even like this place. It’s cheap but is NOT good. There are much better place in Toronto for phở. Their beef taste like cardboard. Their soup was just like water. Please do yourself a favour and save your money.

This is the first time I am writing such a bad review for a restaurant. I am usually quite easy-​going about food and like most things, so it takes terrible food for me to write such a review. This place is really close to my workplace and I was intending to go there for the longest time, hoping that the food would be like my favourite restaurant (Thuan Kieu) in London Ontario, where I used to stay earlier. I was bitterly disappointed. The price was low, but the food quality was even lower. I ordered the rice noodles with the lemongrass chicken. The rice noodles were raw, and the chicken was bland and smelly. I also had the mango drink and it was really sour. NOT HAPPY. The money would be better spent in a million better places around Yonge-​Eglinton.

Fresh Ginger is truly a cheap and cheery joint. It’s hard to find a good phở joint as most of the broths taste like soap. And this place is no exception, where you’re serving phở for $ 5, it’s hard to use the best ingredients.
Overall, Fresh Ginger provides a easy atmosphere to grab a quick and healthy meal for nights where you just don’t have the energy to cook. The go to dishes for me is usually rice with pork-​chop, vermicelli with grilled pork and phở with beef broth.

There are not many places in the Yonge and Eglinton area to get a decent lunch for $ 6.50, tax included. If you have not been here before — you might be confused by the process. The menu is on big signs on the wall — you choose what you want from about 60 selections, and order by number. You then help yourself to water, chopsticks, sriracha, lemon wedges, etc, and take a seat. Your food will be delivered to you at your table a few minutes later. Today I had #33 — Grilled pork and spring roll with vermicelli. This comes in a nice big bowl — lots of noodles, a salad (plenty of cucumber), topped with the pork and very tasty spring roll. I like to throw in some sriracha and mix it all together somewhat. I left feeling very satisfied, and was back to work only about a half hour after I left.
By the way, while I was eating I noticed that they have a surprisingly large selection of bottled beers and coolers (Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Bacardi Breezers, etc) in a cooler at the front. This is obviously very casual dining, but you can’t beat the speed and prices.

Had a shrimp chicken beef combo which includes rice and fried spring roll (which was a bit too greasy). Combo only had 2 shrimp but for the price ($ 7) makes a decent quick lunch. Certainly not fine dining but good for lunch

Despite what other reviewers say, I don’t think Fresh Ginger looked tacky at all. But then again, I care a lot more about the food than the atmosphere. That being said, Fresh Ginger looks way nicer than most Vietmanese restaurants I’ve been in. It has a very cute and clean interior with a fairly relaxed environment. It’s not some 5-​star super posh restaurant or anything, but it’s great for the type of self-​serve place that it is.
We ordered our food from the counter at the front and then picked our own drinks, utensils and condiments from the little condiment bar at the side. They had everything I’m used to seeing from a Vietnamese restaurant; various different hot sauces, limes, soy sauce, etc. I also really liked that they had a bunch of glasses next to a water cooler.
The food came out ridiculously fast; my friends both ordered phở and I had ordered the pad thai with lemongrass chicken (number 29, I think). It was absolutely delicious, exactly the type of pad thai that I was used to eating when my friends and I went out years ago. It came with a lot of garnish too. The phở looked amazing, I’m looking forward to going back and trying it next time. We also had Vietnamese spring rolls… just as delicious and crunchy as I could have hoped. The best part was that we could easily eat for well under $ 10 each, as the phở and the pad thai were each around $ 5-​$ 6. Win!
My only complaint about the place is that if you’ve never been in this type of restaurant before, you wouldn’t know to just pick a seat and go right up to the counter to order your food. I also don’t think you’d realize you pick your drink up yourself either. Also, my friends say that it usually takes a long time to get food brought out if you happen to be there on a non-​peak time.

The décor is minimal and it’s half self-​service (order at the cash register, pick a seat and they will bring the food to you). Back-​lit neon menu is tacky as hell. It’s the kinda place to grab a quick bite. You would not sit around just to hang out.
I find the beef phở lacking in ingredients… I mean it is cheap but still. I would much rather go to Green Papaya 2 blocks north.

Seems that I’m giving out a lot of 5 out of 5 star reviews lately, but so far, I’ve been having some really good luck with eateries around the city. One of which is this most excellent Viet place: Fresh Ginger.
In the busy Yonge and Eglinton area, in the midst of business people on power lunches, students lurking on the stairs and general people milling about, is this great lunch spot smack dab in the middle of it all; Fresh Ginger.
It opened recently and I’ve heard that new restaurants don’t usually last at this corner but I’d say with all my faith that Fresh Ginger ain’t going out of business any time soon. The food is to die for, the prices are great and just like it’s name the food is fresh, not to mention plentiful and healthy!
Some of my favourites are the Lemongrass Hot & Sour Seafood Soup and number 37. Sorry, I only know it by number, but go in, order, and be wonderfully surprised!