Gia Minh

My favourite Vietnamese restaurant hands down! Servers are all really nice, prices are relatively cheap, generous portions and incredible food.
The lemongrass chicken was so juicy and perfectly marinated. They serve it with soft, fluffy jasmine rice rather than broken rice. The spring rolls were crispy and the phở was just tasty. The phở didn’t make me thirsty afterwards like some places. Everything came out hot and fast.
The banh mi was just like your average banh mi. Nothing special. But definitely try the other dishes I mentioned above!

Ordered a phở as well as a rice combo, mixed feelings about this place. The soup that came with the combo was RIDICULOUSLY SALTY, it likely has a sodium content that puts instant noodles to shame. The combo I ordered came with all 3 types of brochettes (skewers): the chicken one was great, nicely seasoned and juicy. The beef was tough, chewy, and bland; just awful. The pork was OK not particularly good or bad. The spring rolls it came with were nicely cooked but bland, I don’t know if this was the result of the assault the soup took on me as it was the first thing served.
The house special phở (#9) was OK but to be honest I rarely come across a bowl of phở I don’t like. The beef quality seemed above average but the broth lacked the rich aroma of the better phở joints in town.
In terms of décor and cleanliness Gia Minh is above average for a Vietnamese restaurant. However the ambiance was awkwardly quiet as there were only 4 customers and no music. Eventually they put on a CD of Mickey Mouse Christmas carols which only made things worse, but to top it all off they allowed donation collectors to go around bugging us for money. An unprofessional and off-​putting experience.

My friend WL gave me a call on Friday morning to see if I had time for lunch. Well it’s a Friday so of course I have time! Haha! He suggested we meet at the proverbial Deer Garden on Fraser Street… I’m sure you can hear me whine once I heard the words Deer Garden… oh… Not that place again… I’m sick of it… I made him pick something else. He said he has gone to a Vietnamese place that was on Fraser that was pretty good… Gia Minh…
Hmmm… Gia Minh isn’t too bad… Once you walk in the most striking feature is the cleanliness of this place. Gia Minh is one of the cleanest Vietnamese restaurants that I’ve been to in Vancouver. At the end of the meal I ventured to the men’s room and again… Pretty Darn clean!
Ok so it’s clean what about the food… hmmmm… Well I would say it’s about average. Nothing exceptional, but I would venture to say that the price is a bit on the high side. Not exceptionally high but just a touch on the high side. I had their special meat soup… It was ok… I’ll have to come back and try some of their other offerings to really get a good gauge on this place. For now I’ll go with 4 stars… 1 star for being super clean and 3 stars for the food!

Solid phở, banh mi for days (bigger than average) and quick service. Might have been a wee bit on the salty side for my palate, but not enough to not head back and confirm this fact. Well clarified with a smooth mouthfeel (read, good amount of fat, but not too heavy for the broth).
Next time: Order my rare beef on the side. By the time I got it it was well done (insert super sadface emoticon here).
Could be a four star, but want to hit it a few more times to confirm (wasn’t totally blown away when compared to other phở experiences)

So it looks like Moon Café has died and reincarnated into this establishment. The giveaway was the giant clock on the back wall.
Parking is plentiful behind the row of buildings. One of the great things about this Fraser area.
The inside is just classy as in the previous life. Looks like the owners didn’t renovate much, which is not a bad thing in this case. Staff were friendly, but weren’t too attentive. One of them was playing on her phone the whole time we were here and barely looked up.
The food here is not the typical run of the mill (ie Phở Hoa) type. They put extra care into the cooking and ingredients, and the taste speaks for itself. I had the Bun Bo Hue, and it came with plenty of toppings such as green onions and cabbage. Nice light soup, that had some heat but wasn’t overwhelming. Special mention. My buddy had the seafood noodle soup and it was also quite delicious.
I will definitely be back. Recommended.

Got both the banh mi for lunch today, $ 8 cash (I think it’s more if you don’t pay cash). The grilled chicken one is my favourite, and next time I’ll tell them to put a jalapeño in it.
Loving this place

This new restaurant in South Van has been my close-​to-​home go-​to restaurant that satisfies my Vietnamese food cravings. It’s clean, food is good for the price, and the service has been great.
No complaints. I usually order the phở dac biet and love it. Noodles are not too soft. Rare beef is perfect. Soup broth is tasty. Love! Especially on a cold day.

Delicious food, clean, friendly attentive staff, fast service, good portions. Nothing not to like!
The grilled chicken sub #5 was so tasty! The view chicken rice plate #45 came with two huge chicken thigh filets that looked like steaks. Meat is sooo tender and juicy and nicely fragrant with lemongrass with crispy-​ish broiled chicken skin, and lots of rice and pickled veg. Haven’t come across a place that makes chicken that tender and juicy for a long long time. The phở was tasty, very rich, clear broth ands seasoned well.
New favorite Vietnamese restaurant!

Clean, nice décor and great value. Service was fast too. My sister and I got #13 and #14 with Spring rolls it was amazing. However server didn’t ask the size and thought she’ll ask us like most places do. Didn’t like how server blamed us for not mentioning the size and we got large instead of small. She didn’t ask what size we wanted. Spring rolls were crispy and yummy.
I really enjoyed the food here. #13(rare beef, tendon and tripe) was good just that I like tendon more tender in texture. Portion was huge. Soup was light and not salty. It came with some cilantro and green onions in soup which I didn’t mind. I’ll come back PHO more.

Fairly new restaurant and so I was sceptical about it. But decided to try it anyways coz all the other haunt of ours were packed and in waiting. Though I’m glad I decided to stop here. And it was surprisingly good. We ordered our usual noodle soup and their speciality the BBQ squid… it was a hit! And to top the good service they offered us complementary bean desert. Definitely recommend this place… worth trying it!

More so for value & cleanliness, this one has nicer décor than those holes in the wall by Kingsway.
Ordered lemongrass pork, special phở & vermicelli, all deleesh. What stands out is the volume of noodles & meatballs, no cheaping out here.
Friendly service, server had no problems getting extra sharing bowls & napkins. No attitude lol

The soup broth is definitely up there, and I’ve been to about 57 different Vietnamese restaurants in my lie. I hate it when a soup broth is too salty or is infected with adulterants. The restaurant has a modern ambiance in comparison to other Vietnamese restaurants. Would be a weekly place for me if I lived in the neighborhood. No complaints about this place.

Gia Minh is located at what used to be Moon Café on Fraser so it inherited the décor which is great b/​c that was renovated not too long ago. The resto is clean, the staff is very friendly and service was prompt. Overall, the food didn’t disappoint and I prefer Gia Minh over Phở Hong which is a few blocks down. The special beef noodle (#9) had a great variety of toppings. The BBQ chicken vermicelli (specialty dry noodle, #32) packed in some flavour. The shrimp salad roll (#2) probably would be better off with less vermicelli filling. But most important: it passed the MSG test so I wasn’t dying of thirst after the meal. Great food, service and easy parking will have me coming back.

Very good vietnamese coming from a vietnamese with high expectations. I had the dry noodles and hubby had the lemongrass chicken on rice. The kids shared with us and ate everything. Spring rolls were a big hit. Service a little slow but perhaps due to just opening and working out the kinks?
I would come again and possibly do take out.

This place just opened, decent food, family business. They have 15% off for the month of August!